Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police apologises to First Peoples
On behalf of Victoria Police, Chief Commissioner Shane Patton APM apologised “unreservedly” to First Peoples for police actions since colonisation and continuing to the present day.
In a hearing at the Yoorrook Justice Commission, the Chief Commissioner said that “as a result of systemic racism, racist attitudes and discriminatory policies of police,’ injustices had “gone undetected, unchecked and unpunished.”
He stated that this injustice had caused “significant harm across generations of Aboriginal families.” Chair of the Yoorrook Justice Commission, Professor Eleanor Bourke AM, responded: “Your apology must bring real change.”
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