Done By Law

Police Violence and African Young People

On Thursday 18 March , a coalition of Community Legal Services  released a damning report into the police mistreatment of African young people.

The report details the experiences of African young people from three regions of Melbourne: Dandenong, Braybrook and Flemington.

The research found that across Melbourne, African young people are over-policed, including the disproportionate use of stop  and search powers and in some cases extra-legal violence.

Furthermore, the work has found that some of the ‘community policing’ oriented attempts at intervening-  such as community-police soccer games and camps- have not only failed to address the issues, but may in some cases actually be making matters worse.

Tonight we will talk to Daniel Haile Michael, one of the participants in the research and Shane Reside, one of the reports authors.

The research, funded by the Legal Services Board, was jointly managed by Springvale Monash Legal Service, Fitzroy Legal Service and the Western Suburbs Legal Service.

DBL: Campaign Respect: 1 September 2009

This week on Done by Law, we talk to Campaign Respect member, David Bourbon. Campaign Respect is a youth driven project which seeks to address a perceived prejudice against young people by Victorian Public Transport Authorised Officers (AO’s).

The campaign aims to gather stories from young people detailing their interactions with AO’s and experiences of being overtly targeted.  Young people will be encouraged to record their encounters and complaints through a variety of media in order to campaign for better treatment of young people on Public Transport.

For more information go to Youthlaw’s website: http://www.youthlaw.asn.au/.