City police bungle `stereotype arrest'
31.10.2000
THE son of a senior State Government Aboriginal adviser was held at gunpoint, handcuffed and strip searched after police in Brisbane mistook his Walkman for a gun.
Kargun Fogarty, 19, was ordered to lie on his stomach, handcuffed and marched to the mall's new police-beat office where he was strip searched before being released without charge.
Police said they acted on a complaint Mr Fogarty was carrying a gun in the belt of his trousers. When it was found to be a stereo and headset, he was accused of stealing it.
Mr Fogarty is the son of Cheryl Buchanan, deputy chairwoman of Premier Peter Beattie's indigenous affairs advisory board.
He is a member of the Jagera Jarjum dance team which performed each day last week at the Out of the Box children's festival and welcomed torch-bearer and swimmer Kieren Perkins when he lit the Olympic cauldron in the Botanic Gardens. He also busks in the City mall and is a nephew of dancer Daniel Yock who died in police custody in 1993.
Mr Fogarty's friend Shay-Ross Miller was also ordered to lie on his stomach, handcuffed, marched through the mall and strip searched.
Mrs Buchanan said it was a disgrace police still treated young people like this ``just because they are black''.
``My son's uncle, Daniel Yock, died in police custody and this continued harassment of young black kids has to cease,'' she said.
``This is not the first time he has been pulled up for no reason. It is because he is big and black and has his hair in dreadlocks.
``What is appalling is that my children can go to any country in the world and perform, and they are welcomed and never questioned -- certainly never harassed by cops because of their skin colour.
``No, that happens only in Queensland.''
In February, Aboriginal health expert Gracelyn Smallwood was charged with insulting police after she intervened in an arrest. The charges were later dropped.
Mr Fogarty recently returned from a dance tour of Italy, Ireland and England. Last year he performed with Jagera Jarjum in Japan and Canada. The dance group won the 1998 Lord Mayor's Performing Arts Fellowship and the Queensland Youth Award for Reconciliation.
Mr Fogarty said he and his friend were walking through King George Square when they were suddenly blocked off by three police cars.
``These police jumped out and one had a gun on me and they said to hit the ground, which we did,'' he said.
``They put the handcuffs on real tight and told us to shut up and not say anything. We were taken to the new police beat and made to strip off our clothes. It was pretty disgraceful what went on. Real intimidation stuff.
``I was with a friend in a new Commodore a fortnight ago, and in three days the cops pulled us over four times and accused us of stealing the car. That's stereotyping, isn't it -- an Aboriginal youth has something respectable, so naturally it must be stolen.''
Police spokesman Brian Swift said a person had complained to police that he saw an Aboriginal man with a gun and had accompanied police and identified the people.
``It was an appropriate response for the police to handcuff the men and conduct the search. They were handcuffed behind their backs and there were three police cars in attendance,'' Mr Swift said.
Queensland Civil Liberties Council president Ian Dearden said if the police had legitimate cause for concern initially . . . ``as soon as it was clear this young man was not carrying a gun, they should have apologised and released him''.
