Hundreds of people have marched on New South Wales Police headquarters calling for an independent inquiry into allegations of police brutality at Sydney Mardi Gras. The action was sparked by a video shot just after the parade, which shows handcuffed teenager Jamie Jackson being thrown to the ground by a police officer, who is then seen standing on his back. New video has emerged showing Jackson kicking at police as he was being arrested. He has acknowledged to A Current Affair that he was caught up in the festival atmosphere and was acting "silly" on the night. But Jackson said the response from the police officer, who was filmed throwing him to the ground, was over the top. "The way he threw me to the ground, like, if I hit my head in the wrong position... it was just crazy. I was in handcuffs, what could I have done? Why did I have to get thrown down like that? Why couldn't he just handle it, like, maturely?" In a second incident, gay rights campaigner Bryn Hutchinson has also complained that up to five police held him down and kicked him, after he ignored their instructions to not cross a road. "I was kicked several times," the former convenor of Community Action Against Homophobia, said. "I was handcuffed and had my face pushed into the ground. "I had a police officer leaning on me. I told him I couldn't breathe. He said, 'If you can talk you can breathe". NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Murdoch says a full internal investigation will be launched into the two separate incidents. “We’ll undertake a full assessment of the evidence. I’d warn against jumping to conclusions as we’ve just seen one small part of an incident.” Senior police will join Sydney MP Alex Greenwich and other LGBT community representatives at a community forum on 14 March to discuss policing practices at this year’s Sydney Mardi Gras and initiate a plan to improve policing at future Sydney Mardi Gras festivals and events.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Saturday, 9th March 2013 - 10:58am