Police Shoot Themselves In Foot --- TARGET PRACTICE ROW
SkyNews ^ | 07/07/03 | Staff Writer

A row has broken out in Australia's Queensland state following reports that
police there used photographs of real-life people, including Aborigines,
during target practice.

The police minister in the northeastern state, Tony McGrady, has ordered an
inquiry after the Channel Seven television report.

The broadcaster said Queensland's counter-terrorism squad used 28 pictures
or mug shots, including those of two Aborigines, in training exercises.

Civil rights activists reacted with outrage but police maintained they had
done nothing wrong.

"It's absolutely disgraceful in that it reinforces prejudices," said Cameron
Murphy, secretary of the Australian Council for Civil Liberties.

"We've got a serious problem with police being trained to shoot to kill and
we've also got a problem with police unfairly targetting certain groups.
What we now have is the two issues linked together," Murphy said.

Police commissioner Bob Atkinson defended the practice, saying the force's
elite unit needed to hone its skills in the most realistic setting possible
and photographs of real people helped them to do that.

Leaders from the Aboriginal community, which after more than 200 years of
white settlement remains the island continent's most disadvantaged social
group, also condemned the Queensland police.

"It is a despicable act," said "Sugar" Ray Robinson, a commissioner with the
national indigenous body, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Commission.

"I think it is outrageous in a country where we are trying to achieve
reconciliation between black and white Australians," Robinson told
Australian Broadcasting Corp radio.

Australia's 400,000 Aborigines, who make up 2% of the population, have long
complained about what they see as racism in the police force, especially in
Queensland.

Aborigines are 20 times more likely to end up in jail than other
Australians. They also die on average 20 years younger and suffer staggering
rates of alcohol and drug abuse.

Last Updated: 07:18 UK, Monday July 07, 2003