I will begin by saying that the recent police shootings in Queensland are a terrible tragedy. The loss of life in such violent circumstances is always a very bad thing. However, I am struck by the aggressive stance of the police in public relations terms here in Queensland. The spokesperson for the police union is always front and centre at media briefings about shootings and deaths involving the police. Even before the public gets any news about the crimes at the heart of these gun deaths we are presented with a narrative about the police officers involved in the shooting.
Police Are Not Innocent Bystanders
This early narrative presents the police as a cross between victims and innocent parties involved in these awful violent events. In this most recent mass killing of human beings they may well be terribly treated by the three people at the centre of this shooting. However, the police are never really innocent parties in encounters between breakers of the law and upholders of those laws. In my view, it is wrong for the police to come out so hard and early with their side of the story because it distorts an objective view of any event.
There will be time enough to respectfully mourn the loss of life and to celebrate the lives of good and brave individuals after a fuller account of the event has come to light.
The Police Shooting Story
Moving away from this specific instance of police shootings in Queensland to other cases where the police have shot dead members of the public I have seen this premature presentation of their story repeatedly. In these instances, the police officer has usually shot dead a member of the public without suffering any life threatening injury themselves. The very real possibility of such an injury may well have been present in such cases.
Establishing the narrative is a well known public relations strategy and this is obviously being carried out by the Queensland police and their union.
Shootings are Failures Of Policing
Members of the police force in Queensland carry a firearm and therefore are never innocent victims of an arranged encounter with a prospective transgressor of the law.
In my view, anytime someone is killed in a police shooting it is a failure of policing. It is a failure of training procedures and policing practices.
The terrible tragedy of the senseless loss of the lives of two young police officers in the recent police shootings in Queensland is a failure of policing. If there was a complete lack of intel around the three individuals at the centre of these shootings that is a police failure. Sending out young and relatively inexperienced police officers to any situation that erupts into a gun fight is a failure of policing. This does not reduce the tragedy of the loss of young lives but it provides a way forward to improve policing and to reduce the number of police shootings.
I understand that the police want the general public to realise that police officers are human beings with families.
I get that and the importance of that but it needs to be emphasised at the right time within the process of disclosure of information pertaining to a crime. This article is not about individual police officers but the policies of the organisation. The police force is made up of many brave individuals who perform a sometimes dangerous and deadly job.
UPDATE
The FBI in concert with the Queensland police has arrested and charged an American man in relation to the mass shooting in Wieambilla. This horrendous example of Christian terrorism on Australian soil, cost the lives of 2 young police officers and the neighbour Alan Dare. The Arizona native, Donald Day Jnr, will face court in the US on charges of inciting violence.
“Police said Gareth Train began following Mr Day’s YouTube account in May 2020.
A year later, the men began commenting on one another’s videos.
“We have evidence to show the Trains subsequently accessed an older YouTube account created by the same man in 2014, and viewed that content,” Queensland Police Service (QPS) Assistant Commissioner Cheryl Scanlon said at a joint press conference with the FBI on Wednesday.”
- (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-12-07/donald-day-jr-wieambilla-terror-attack-what-we-know/103197118)
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