2015/10/13
Kenneth Wong is a law graduate and an education student, who was completing his placement at Cairns high school in Queensland, Australia until two months ago.
His world turned upside down on August 29 when a cop said to him – “Don’t start, mate”.
The 24-year-old was on his way to visit his sick mother when he failed to stop at an intersection.
He says the constable who pulled him over mercilessly beat him up for his traffic violation.
An emergency department report obtained by the Australian Associated Press shows that he came in with two black eyes, a cut under his left eye, bruises to both his wrists and a bruise on his right shoulder.
According to the victim, the abuse started when the police officer realized that Wong was recording the encounter.
As soon as he spotted the device, the cop removed the unsuspecting driver’s glasses and punched him several times, he also tried to pull him out from the car while he still had his belt fastened.
As soon as Wong asked the constable why he was expected to produce is driver’s license, the policemen called for backup.
Wong says the nature of his infringement did not warrant kind of abuse he was meted out.
His nightmare continued when he reached the police station. The officers pressurized him into revealing his phone’s passcode. Following this, and officer disabled the iCloud function so he could not download the video from another device.
This one was not returned to him until months later and he says the video captured has spent edited to remove damning evidence against the police.
He has had to discontinue his assignment at the school because of his facial injuries.
Now, Wong has lodged a complaint with the Crime and Corruption Commission.
He says his complaint has been forwarded to the Queensland Police Service’s Ethical Standard Committee.
This comes at a time when the state’s police department’s is under a lot of pressure following a member of police brutality incidents on the Gold Coast.
According to a story published on Yahoo’s Australia on October 7 the Queensland Council of Civil Liberties’ Acting President Julie Jansen says the police’s brash attitude is becoming a real concern.
“We’re receiving at least one complaint or allegation about police violence or brutality a week,” she told the AAP.