Australia: NSW police goons again

The gutless wonders claim they were "afraid" of an elderly Muslim lady. At least they didn't shoot any innocent people this time I suppose. But victimizing elderly ladies does seem to be their form. A safe way to get their rocks off, I guess. A foolish person might think that the police would treat an elderly person with respect and restraint -- but that would be very foolish indeed. That politeness works wonders is an old British policing idea but the NSW police have obviously never heard of it



A GRANDMOTHER who stabbed a child's football and threatened to do the same to two children is suing police after they entered her house, crash-tackled her and shoved her wheelchair-bound son. Bankstown magistrate Jacqueline Milledge said officers behaved "like paratroopers" when they kicked in Najla Salman's door and assaulted her and her teenage disabled son. The court threw out police claims Ms Salman, 55, had assaulted them and the family is now pursuing the maximum compensation of $750,000.

The ball had hit the woman's Regents Park house while a neighbour's 12-year-old daughter and friends were playing in late 2007. Ms Salman seized the ball, stabbed it with a kitchen knife and threw it down in front of them. She allegedly said to the girl and her cousin words to the effect: "Next time you hit my house I'll stab you in the stomach."

The frightened children called triple-0 and police rushed to the home, where they knocked on the door and entered the house. Senior Constable Simon Moore then asked her where the knife was. "And this is where it all goes pear-shaped," Ms Milledge observed.

Constable Moore said he told Ms Salman she was under arrest and to wait where she was but then claims she "shoulder-charged" him, forcing him to "check-drill" her, grabbing her shoulders and pushing her back. Ms Salman protested that she needed to care for her paraplegic son and attempted to get past Constable Moore, whereupon he tackled her again. The officer claimed she shoulder-charged him and he feared she was trying to attack him.

Ms Milledge rejected this as "nonsense". "Is she really shoulder-charging the constable because she wants to get to the knife to use it as a weapon? I don't think so," she said.

When Ms Salman's wheelchair-bound son Qutaiba Alsaad entered the room he saw his mother on the floor with police wrestling with her and trying to handcuff her. He too was pushed by a different police officer to get him out of the way - which Ms Milledge said she could understand.

However she said police had behaved appallingly. "This was a terrible, terrible incident handled badly," she said. "To suggest she was shoulder-charging him to get him out of the way to get to the knife first is just a nonsense and then for Mr Alsaad to come out and see his beloved mother on the ground with police officers on top of her, trying to handcuff her. Over what? A ball. A ball. It honestly defies commonsense and belief ..."

She found Ms Salman guilty of common assault in damaging the ball but dismissed all other charges.

Original report here. (Via Australian Politics)



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