On 2 June 2020, our principal, Nick Hanna, was interviewed by the Huffington Post for an article which discussed an incident involving apparent excessive force used by NSW police force against an Indigenous juvenile in Sydney. 

The following extract appeared in the article: 

Leading Australian criminal lawyer Nick Hanna said this footage is especially worrying because the officer seemed to know he was being filmed and he still showed minimal hesitation to use violence against a young Aboriginal person …

“While we do not know all of the circumstances leading up to the arrest, it does appear clear from the footage that it was unlawful,” Hanna told HuffPost Australia.

“Under NSW law, the power to arrest must be a measure of last resort. That is because in a democratic society the removal of someone’s liberty should never be done lightly. In cases where police are entitled to arrest, they must comply with certain safeguards and can only do so using as much force as is necessary.”

Hanna said that, in this case, if the young person was not resisting or seeking to flee, the officer may have had other options available to him, such as the issuing of a court attendance notice.

“Where police use unnecessary force, they are committing an assault,” he added.

Hanna recommends all Australians that witness police confrontation or who may become involved in an incident with police, film it.

“This is in the hope that it deters the police from using excessive force,” Hanna said. “And helps the victims of such excessive force get justice.”

For the full article, see: Footage Of NSW Police Officer Slamming Aboriginal Teenager To The Ground Goes Viral, HuffPost, 2 June 2020.