Amnesty International for an investigation over a police officer repeatedly pushing the mother of a teenage male during an arrest over the weekend in Brisbane as the Queensland Police Union claims the officer exercised "restraint".
"We're concerned that the police conduct as seen in the video may not meet international standards," Roxy Moore, Indigenous rights campaigner and Noongar woman from Amnesty International, told NITV.
"That's why we’re calling for a full public independent investigation into the police conduct as shown in the video,” she says.
The teenager's arrest was captured on video and shows the distressed mother questioning why her son was met with force. It then shows a male police officer pushing her four times while yelling at her to "sit down and shut up”.
Queensland Police Union president Ian Leavers says the police conduct was indeed acceptable.
"I believe the police showed a lot of restraint and the only thing I would of done differently. I would have arrested her well before they did. But it's a judgment call and they had to do what they did at the time," he told ABC Radio on Tuesday.
"How many times does somebody have to be told to move back and let police deal with the arrest?"
Meanwhile, the Queensland Government has been amping its domestic-violence prevention efforts. In September 2015, it pledged to legislate harsher penalties and trial a specialised family violence court. lt also has a dedicated minister for women, a post occupied by Shannon Fentiman.
We were just sitting here minding our own business in my own home where I thought we would be safe.
In September 2015, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull made a solemn call to the men of Australia to stop abusing women.
"Violence against women is one of the great shames of Australia," he said. "It is a national disgrace."
Amnesty International expressed disappointment towards the police service amid the government's push to protect women from violence.
"In light of that really strong position we find that this police conduct as you can see in the video, and the response to a potential domestic violence incident with violence to be really concerning," Ms Moore said.
‘I was shocked and because it kept getting harder and I actually sort of fell into the table a couple of times and stumbled back, and I just couldn’t believe that he was basically hitting me, when they are against domestic violence with women,” the mother told NITV.
“I don’t allow violence on women, I have four sons and they know I'm against violence," she continued. "I have raised them that way myself, and my family, we're not violent people."
The incident occurred in the north of Brisbane over the weekend, after police were called out to a residence for an alleged domestic violence incident. The video, taken by another resident and posted by NITV journalist Danny Teece-Johnson on Facebook, has since amassed 650,000 views and more than 11,600 shares.
Police media released a statement confirming that they had responded to complaints of a domestic altercation and claim to have entered the home after hearing a woman scream.
The mother says she later heard the police saying they had come to the wrong house.
“When we was out handcuffed in the cars, one of the police officers opened the door as he kept slamming it on us, I heard him say that they had the wrong address for domestic violence and I said well isn’t that telling you something,” she said.
Screen grabs from the video posted on Facebook. Source: Facebook
"We were just sitting here minding our own business in my own home where I thought we would be safe, but obviously I was wrong."
She told NITV her motherly instincts prompted her to approach her son as police began arresting him.
"I just wanted to get closer to him so I could see exactly why he was screaming because it looked like, to me, what I could see of him that they had his arms too high and I was afraid that they might break his arm or something," she said.
In the video, her son is heard screaming in pain as he is handcuffed and led out of the residence.
Mother and son and two other residents were detained in the back of a police van for around 20 minutes before being released.
Police media says two residents were served with a Notice to Appear while two others face action under Youth Justices Act provisions.
with Jodan Perry
This article has been updated to reflect the focus of Amnesty International's investigation on the police officer's behaviour, not the Queensland Police Union's.
