By Maureen Baker
PERTH — "Kids swept from streets" was the headline on a recent edition of a community newspaper. Operation Sweep was launched by police on January 2 and has operated from 8pm to 4am on Friday and Saturday nights for seven of the past eight weekends.
Police patrol the streets in inner-city Northbridge and Fremantle and arrest young people they deem to be in "physical or moral danger" under Section 138 of the Child Welfare Act.
The young people are then taken to a police station where they are questioned and often searched. Parents or relatives are then notified and asked to come in and pick them up. Staff from Killara Youth Support Services are also present.
If no relatives can be contacted, the young people are placed in foster care overnight. Others have been released in Fremantle after 11.30 pm, when the last train has departed, to find their own way home or wait until next morning's first train.
Police say they're protecting young people, but a description of a scene witnessed by a reporter of the Guardian Express of March 8 puts this into question:
"... many of them are filing into the back of a police van in car park No. 8 — it's a discomforting and almost surreal vision. The lights of the vehicle are flashing, kids are being searched, some thoroughly, cars are trying to squeeze past ... Passers-by will probably leave the scene thinking there's been a minor riot — in fact many are terrified behind the wheel of their cars and reverse out of the area as quickly as they can. But these kids have done nothing except be in Northbridge without their parents."
The word is that police take all young people except those who seem to be well-dressed and have money, but particularly Aboriginal youth, "street kids" and poorer youth.
Green Left Weekly spoke to a 13-year-old who explained that he and a friend were stopped by police while walking past Timezone in Fremantle on their way to catch a bus home between 8.30 and 9pm.
The three policemen told them they were worried about their welfare and walked them to Fremantle Police Station. At that stage there were 8 to 10 young people in a room with four or five police officers. They were told that if their parents couldn't be contacted, they would have to stay in a "welfare place". A few were upset.
Every 10 or 15 minutes more young people were brought in. Others were being picked up by their parents. Most of the young people were searched. He said, "I thought it was pretty stupid. Mum knew where I was. I felt safe. I don't think they should be able to do that." It was midnight before he got home. His mother, a single parent, said she was concerned that she was being judged as a bad parent by police and others.
Another concerned parent was told by a staff member of Killara Youth Support Services that mothers should stay at home to look after their children instead of going out to work, and lots of mothers didn't know where their children were. Instead of being on the streets, he said, "Boys could play basketball or go abseiling and girls might like to do needlework or learn hobbytex and there is always Police and Citizens Youth Clubs."
When asked what criteria are used to detain young people, one sergeant replied: "If they are unable to prove to the officer concerned that they are not in physical or moral danger the officer can decide to take them in, and [dry chuckle] as you might appreciate, it is usually quite hard for a young person to prove that."
Pressed for a more detailed explanation of "moral danger", the sergeant answered, "Well ... you know ... being exposed to illegal drugs, or ... alternative sexual preferences ... that sort of thing".
Resistance here is building a youth speak-out and rally on Saturday, March 26, to take these issues up.