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Call to sack racist Qld serving Senior Constable by Joyce Capewell 13 January 2014
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fter receiving an unbelievably racist rant on my Facebook site to welcome in the New Year I decided to do more than just delete the vitriolic commentary that was a degrading affront to Aboriginal people broadly and an attacked on me specifically, that I also banned and proceeded to investigate the author. I kind of half expected to find through my investigation some narrow minded redneck from rural Australia at best or an avid right wing loony with political
affiliations at worst. What I didn’t expect to find was a representative of one of the world’s noblest professions who hid behind the Facebook alias Anne T Sharia. Indeed the true identity – outlined in my article in First
Nations Telegraph of 4 January http://goo.gl/6HaJuv - was a serving member of the Queensland Police Force. It didn’t require any genius investigative work from me to track down the true identity as a couple of calls to people around the nation confirmed her real name and occupation and of course her penchant for exhibiting strong racist views on Aboriginal people. Besides her posting on my Facebook site that Aboriginal people are oxygen thieves who have welfare careers, she also has on her Facebook alias site an antiMuslim video. So upset and infuriated was I on discovering the true identity of the
Aboriginal leaders, Adrian Burrigubba, Lionel Fogarty, Sam Watson and Wayne ‘Coco’ Wharton confront Queensland police in one of many confrontations over the years. Joyce Capewell insists on a racist Qld serving police officer being sacked following an internal investigation of racist abuse against her via a Facebook alias.
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Facebook alias Anne T Sharia that I felt I had to refer the matter to the Queensland Police Commissioner, Ian Stewart. As I didn’t have an email address for Commissioner Stewart I decided to ring his number that I found on the Internet. Unfortunately an overprotective policeman who took my call wouldn’t provide me with an email address for his Commissioner and instead insisted that I tell him of my complaint. Having been there and done that with complaining to underlings in the government before, I decided to send an email to the Queensland Police Minister, Hon Jack Dempsey on 6 January. The following morning an officer of the Queensland Professional Standards Police Unit rang me and asked for the evidence to be forward through to them. On 8 January I received an email message from Leonie Steyger, Senior Sergeant, Professional Practices Manager, Townsville District, Ethical Standards Command, Townsville informing me the matter of Senior Constable … will be investigated as part of
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our QPS’s Discipline System. The short email message from Senior Sergeant Steyger confirmed in the first instant that my research on the Facebook alias Anne T Sharia being a serving Queensland police officer was on the money and secondly that she now has a case to answer for her racist rant on my Facebook site. What troubles me however is that this complaint has now resulted in the often problematic public perception quandary of the police investigating the police. I am hopeful that offending Senior Constable … will be found guilty of the complaint I’ve formally lodged and will be sacked from her job. My son worked for the West Australian Police Service and I would be horrified if he came home and sat at my table for a coffee in his police uniform and made racist comments about white people he came in contact with in the performance of his duties or of making blatantly racist comments of white people generally. If he was silly enough to then take his racist views and express them through an alias name on Facebook, I’d hope
he’d be caught out and sacked. Racism in any form is something I won’t condone, whether it came from my policeman son or my brother who is a serving senior officer in the West Australian Police Force today. I’m glad to report that neither my son, who has retired from the police force, or my brother have racist outlooks in life. This case, I believe, is far more serious than just a fight to have a racist copper kicked out of the police service; it has, in my estimation, far greater universal interest in the area of Facebook abuse worldwide. So here’s hoping Senior Sergeant Steyger, her Commission Ian Stewart and Minister Jack Demsey ensures the full weight of the law is brought down on the offending Senior Constable ... resulting in her employment with the Queensland Police Service being terminated. If my complaint is validated and no action taken against the offending Senior Constable … by her Commissioner or Minister, then I will have no option but to commence legal action against her and the Queensland Police Force.