More WA police terrorism

Wednesday, October 2, 1991 - 10:00

More WA police terrorism

By Leon Harrison

PERTH — A new incident of police terrorism against blacks occurred on the night of September 18, when a CIB officer pointed a handgun at 29-year-old Aboriginal student Sydney Eades.

Eades, a student at Edith Cowan University, said that after visiting his sister's house in Queens Park, he was verbally abused by police. Eades alleged that an officer then pointed a handgun at his head while telling him to leave the vehicle.

Police claim they believed his brother Wayne, also in the car, had a gun. No gun was found.

Rob Riley, executive officer for the Aboriginal Legal Service condemned the police action. He said a female relative of Eades also in the car "was searched by a male officer when there was a female officer at the scene at the time".

Less than two weeks earlier, on the night of September 6, Aboriginal actors Rhonda Collard and Frank Nannup were detained by armed police. They allege they were menaced with a shotgun.

"What really worries me", said Riley, "is that [police] are either that blasé about the incidents or that careless or they are that stupid".

From GLW issue 30