NSW police commissioner says officer who slammed Indigenous teen to ground ‘had a bad day’

The New South Wales police commissioner has defended the officer who was filmed slamming an Indigenous boy face-first on to a pavement in Sydney, saying the officer “had a bad day”.

Mick Fuller, who received an $87,000 pay increase early last month, bringing his salary to $649,500, told Sydney radio 2GB he was “concerned” by the footage of the officer sweeping the boy to the ground during an arrest.

“The fact that this officer doesn’t have a chequered history and he has been in for three-and-a-half years … if there certainly is a complaint sustained against him, you would have to say he has had a bad day,” he said.

“I am sure most of the community wouldn’t want to see someone who has made a mistake sacked after making such a commitment to the community.”

The comments came on the same day the state’s premier, Gladys Berejiklian, said she was glad police had launched an investigation into the officer. She said the incident showed “we still have a long way to go in our country”.

But her own police minister, David Elliott, defended the officer on Wednesday, saying he was “horrified” by the language used by the teenager during the incident and “the response from the police was not unprovoked”.

The officer was placed on restricted duties on Tuesday after footage surfaced of him tripping the Indigenous teenager while arresting him, slamming the boy face-first on to bricks.

The footage showed the boy, standing several feet away from the officer as someone said: “I don’t need to open my ears, I’ll crack you across the jaw, bro.” The officer then approached the boy, using his leg to sweep the teenager’s feet from under him while his arms were held behind his back, causing the teenager to slam face-first into the ground.

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The incident has prompted calls for an investigation to be conducted from outside the police force, and drew angry comparisons with the protests over police brutality against black people in the United States.

Berejiklian acknowledged that on Wednesday, saying she appreciated “the [action] police have taken in relation to that, in terms of restricting the duties of the officer involved”.

“I thought what most Australians thought, and that is we still have a long way to go in our country,” she said.

“I think what’s happened in the US is a good wake-up call for all of us and I think all of our hearts are breaking as to what’s happening in the United States, and we certainly have to ensure that we do what we can in our own country to protect all of our citizens.”

But Elliott, who has consistently defended accusations of misuse of police power, said he was more concerned about the language the boy had used, saying the officer had been provoked.

“I was just as disturbed about the threat from a young person to physically assault a police officer as I was with the response from the police officer,” Elliott said.

“I don’t want to see any young person physically apprehended for doing anything and I certainly don’t want to see any police officer physically threatened with violence.”

He said young people needed to be reminded “that there are levels of authority there that really command respect”.

Fuller said he “absolutely” apologised to the boy over the incident. But he also asked: “Is it reasonable for someone to swear at and threaten a police officer?

“Regardless of whether he should or shouldn’t have been arrested, regardless of whether he has committed a crime or not, we certainly could have handled that situation better.

“It is concerning, there is no doubt about that. We do train to use leg sweeps as a training tactic so that is something we can use, but of course this is a case of two things. One, is it reasonable for someone to swear at and threaten a police officer and, of course, is the force the officer used reasonable.”

Fuller said the officer had a “clean history”. He said an investigation launched by the force’s professional standards command would consider whether “the force was excessive against the threats against him at that time”.

“I don’t know what happened before in terms of the lead-up but certainly there was probably other ways that the officer could have dealt with that matter, no doubt,” Fuller said.

The boy’s family was expected to speak in Sydney on Wednesday, but on Tuesday the teenager’s sister told triple j’s Hack the footage made her angry and upset.

“When he came back home later that night, he was shaken up,” she said. “He was very sore this morning and he was distraught. Teenagers, they’re lippy, but you don’t just abuse children because they’re lippy.”