Anyone see police and disabled couple at Jolimont station?

annewilo · Joined: 22 Mar 2003 Location: Victoria Park

I try and avoid public transport at the best of times. So when I and the tribe rocked up to Jolimont station to take the train to Clifton Hill after the game, there was a disturbance going on between the police and a disabled couple with down syndrome. It looked awful.

The police had the man in an arm lock with his arms pressed behind his back and his wife started screaming at them to let him go. Then a woman officer restrained her and she went berserk. All the woman wanted to do was go to her husband and didn't understand what the police were doing. And these stupid station officers were acting like something out of the presidents FBI team, putting their arms up to try and hide what was going on. We stayed and watched till they let them go to each other and this calmed them down. We watched because we wanted to ensure the couple were okay. But I felt the police over reacted totally in their use of force on two, who were 4 foot tall and obviously disabled people.

Did anyone else witness this?

MOTR · Joined: 25 Apr 2003

There are some smart officers out there who are good with people. There are also your highly strung incompetents and your small brained neanderthals. Unfortunately, I've witnessed a number of incidents where the police officers have clearly belonged to the later group. In two of these incidents they created a situation of real danger, where none existed before their intervention.

Superficially, annewilo, it seems your officers lacked either training, competence or common sense. Good on you for hanging around and making sure the police felt accountable for their actions.

To any police officer who belongs to the first group, I'm sure most of us understand you have a bugger of a job and we do appreciate what you do for us.

annewilo · Joined: 22 Mar 2003 Location: Victoria Park

I don't know what has caused the incident but the use of force was terrible. The poor mans body looked contorted and he was very distressed. And his wife was crying, screaming and I tried to get to her to comfort her but these bruts were more concerned about restraining her rather than trying to communicate with her.

I know the police have a difficult job in crown control, but this looked on the face value as extremely and badly handled. There was approximately 8 police and transport people to these two little folk.

Black_White · Joined: 19 Mar 2001

Did you get video of the incident?
Most people have a phone that can do this. At the least video of the incident can be used by the police themselves to improve their understanding and performance in such situations.

annewilo · Joined: 22 Mar 2003 Location: Victoria Park

stui magpie · Posted: Sat May 14, 2011 10:29 am

Was that at the city end of the station? I went to the other end and didn't see anything.

annewilo · Joined: 22 Mar 2003 Location: Victoria Park

David · I dare you to try Joined: 27 Jul 2003 Location: Andromeda

You can make some sort of complaint to the department, and perhaps someone would check out the CCTV footage. Probably unlikely, but might be worth a try. Police have to be able to be held accountable.

HAL · Posted: Sat May 14, 2011 11:46 am

No I don't think I can do make some complaint to the department and someone would check out the CCTV footage.

Kingswood · // Joined: 05 May 2007

^lol you know nothing about usa cops

think positive · Side By Side Joined: 30 Jun 2005 Location: somewhere

anne was taslking about station officers, they are not police officers

big difference

ive seen a lot of drongos get "carried away" before the police step in

my 5 foot 5 60kg sister is a cop, she has had full grown drunk men thow her to the floor,

its not always the cops fault you know...

just saying

tcnthat · Joined: 25 Jun 2007

I heard there is some type of blitz on 'anti-social' behaviour. Maybe this overreaction was part of that?

As for 'station officers'....clowns who aren't smart enough to be coppers.

5150 · Joined: 31 Aug 2005

If you dont validate your ticket, you deserve what you get...

Black_White · Joined: 19 Mar 2001

annewilo · Joined: 22 Mar 2003 Location: Victoria Park

Yes it was the police officers who had hold of the couple. The station officers or train officers were putting their hands up in the air trying to hide what was going on and stop anyone else going in to try and help. I tried several times to get to the man and the woman but these thugs stopped me.

I am going to make some phone calls tomorrow, first of all to our member of parliament and ask them to look into it.