Deeply disturbing question a cop asked an Indigenous teen detained at an ACT watch house sparks furious backlash
Concerning footage has emerged of a watch house officer grilling an Indigenous teen and his disturbing comments that have sparked outrage and prompted an investigation.
The early morning exchange took place at an ACT watch house after the Indigenous boy was arrested in June 2024.
Footage played during an ACT Supreme Court hearing earlier this year, the officer, who was off-camera, was heard asking the boy a series of questions, including whether he was thinking of taking his own life.
'Are you thinking of necking yourself?' he asked the teen.
When the boy replied no, the officer was heard muttering: 'You wouldn't have the guts to do it anyway.'
The watch house CCTV also showed several officers standing behind the teen – none of whom made the offensive comments – who appeared to smirk during the exchange.
The same sergeant later asked the teen, who was living in foster care, if he had any parents.
'Nah,' the teen replied.
'No parents? You just magically appeared on the face of the Earth?' the sergeant mocked.
The court was also played a series of other clips from the vision, including the moment the teen was later tasered and violently pinned down in a watch house cell.
The judge referred the vision to the territory's Chief Police Officer Scott Lee, the Canberra Times reported.
Indigenous leader Jordan Hindmarsh-Keevil recently took to social media to express outrage about the incident.
'I hate making videos about negative things, but this is f***ing very important because I bet you didn't hear about it,' he said in a video reshared by news.com.au.
'Although this video might make you angry, I do not mean to divide anyone. All I want from this is for people who believe that Australia is not a racist country – those people say so because it doesn't say it legally anywhere.
Mr Hindmarsh-Keevil claimed the 'treatment is not a one-off', saying 'this happens all the time'.
'This officer looked at a 17-year-old boy and he said 'are you thinking about necking yourself?' Two of the other coppers who were standing next to this man started smirking and smiling. And this officer had already mocked this kid for not having parents because he was in foster care,' he claimed.
'I am angry at the police that did this, but I'm angry that this type of hatred towards other people exists.'
The ACT's Chief Police Officer, Scott Lee described the officer's actions in the footage as said the officer's actions as 'are unacceptable and will not be tolerated'.
'I hold everyone in ACT Policing to high standards of professionalism and integrity, as do our officers, and this is in line with community expectations,' Mr Lee said.
'The comments of the officer during a Watch House intake in 2024 are unacceptable and will not be tolerated.
'It falls well below the standards expected of our officers and was dealt with swiftly after the incident occurred with the matter currently being investigated by AFP Professional Standards.'
He added that the investigation into the incident is ongoing.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted ACT Policing for further comment.
Venessa Turnbull-Roberts, Commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children said the incident was 'abhorrent misconduct'.
'In the context of the horrifying and ongoing epidemic of Aboriginal deaths in custody in this jurisdiction and across Australia, this comment can be seen as a deliberate incitement to an Aboriginal child to end his life,' she claimed.
'What is even more horrific is the young person is a survivor of forcible removal … the police interrogation used against this young person by police is shameful.'
Suicide rates have been on the incline over the past decade to 2023, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics' (ABS) mortality report.
Between 2019 and 2023, suicide was the leading cause of death for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, according to that same report.
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