ACT Policing was called when Tuck was noticed by a neighbour near his complex’s pool. He was arrested and then unarrested. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
Canberra – the capital city of Australia full of enlightened academics, progressive public servants and woke warriors, right?
After all, we collectively voted yes in the Voice referendum and were the only jurisdiction to do so.
But let’s not congratulate ourselves too much, too fast.
What happened to a 38-year-old black man in Narrabundah last Thursday (27 June) should be cause to make us collectively hang our heads in shame.
As reported by Region yesterday (1 July), an Australian citizen, who happened to be born in Zimbabwe, was arrested at his own home because police and a nosy neighbour couldn’t countenance the possibility that a man like him could live in a place like that.
It’s a nice townhouse complex with a pool and barbeque area on a quiet, leafy street in a peaceful neighbourhood.
That’s apparently not somewhere a black man should be ‘loitering’ in the middle of a weekday.
Tuck and his family only moved into the complex two months ago, from just down the road in Red Hill.
He is highly educated, with two master’s and two bachelor’s degrees, and is employed at a well-respected health advocacy group.
Tuck is a researcher and policy adviser.
Tuck is his nickname and all he wants to be known by right now for fear of retribution because some self-appointed king of the complex, middle-aged white guy confronted him about being near the pool where he didn’t “belong”.
Tuck stood his ground and refused to give in to this stranger’s demands to hand over his address details or leave.
Then the police arrived.
Five male officers in three vehicles, no less. What kind of crime attracts that kind of police attention?
When Tuck stood his ground with the police, protesting his innocence while showing them the keys to his home and to the pool, he was arrested – hands cuffed behind his back while being ushered into a police van while officers searched his home.
I’ve been in Tuck’s townhouse and saw what the police would have seen – a beautiful and tidy home with all the signs of a young family enjoying books, music and good food together.
Police “unarrested” Tuck and left without apology.
We can dress this up any way we want, but this all indicates that racism is alive and well in the capital; mostly on display from the know-it-all neighbour, but the police are by no means blameless.
None of this would have happened if Tuck was a white man.
Just ask the residents of Watson and Downer, who have been contemplating vigilante justice because they can’t get police to act on the spate of break-ins, robberies and anti-social drug-related behaviour perpetrated by a ring of low-life white men.
Public services across most jurisdictions have ramped up talk and action on cultural awareness and sensitivities.
The Australian Public Service is making great and positive advances (check out its social cohesion programs).
So, too, most ACT Government directorates and agencies.
However, police are apparently in need of much more training in this area. Training to understand that a black African man who raises his voice a little in frustration at being wrongly accused of a crime is not displaying aggression towards them.
It’s not belligerence. It’s how an innocent man knows how to declare his innocence.
Training, too, to understand that when a white man calls them to say a black man is loitering around the pool, the white man making the call might well be racially motivated.
And training in the basic common sense that walking from one’s living room, through one’s own carport to an adjoining grassy area for some relaxation doesn’t usually involve carrying photo ID with you.
At least not in Australia.
Tuck was (and still is) actually recovering from an emergency hospital stay over heart issues.
Witnesses living in the complex have talked to Region and expressed their disgust at what went down last Thursday and what an innocent man was dealt by the hands of a neighbour and the police.
This kind of thing happens in Australia’s “other” territory – it doesn’t happen in the ACT. Not in 2024
The Canberra bubble just burst.
Original Article published by Chris Johnson on Riotact.
