M A I N   N E W S

Oz cops joke about Indian’s electrocution
Dinesh Kumar in Melbourne

In a shocking revelation, several senior Victorian police officers have been circulating racist e-mails containing the video footage of an Indian train passenger electrocuted accidentally. Moreover, they tagged the comment “this might be a way to fix the Indian student problem in Melbourne” to the video.

The officers of this 12,000 strong Anglo-Saxon-dominated state police force, in which ethnic representation is more symbolic than substantive in multi-cultural Victoria that boasts of playing host to over 200 nationalities, had posted an e-mail joking about the footage of the passenger who was electrocuted while travelling on the roof of a crowded train in India after he accidentally touched an overhead power cable when the train stopped at a station.

The electrocution, captured on camera, had been posted on the Internet, which had been picked up by some Victorian police officers who then began circulating it with racist comments and black humour.

In fact, the racist e-mail comprising the video footage forms the part of a scandal that first came to light a few months ago, following which investigations were initiated in June. The scandal comprises a series of e-mails with racist, pornographic, homophobic and violent content being circulated among some Victorian police officers on the official e-mail network.