Tweed-Byron police have been forced to deny assaulting a woman they arrested at a Byron Bay beach yesterday (Monday, February 12) after mobile phone footage of the altercation was posted to social media and screened on TV.
The video appears to show a woman shouting and resisting arrest and a man shouting ‘Zoe, just settle’ as police make several, increasingly forceful, attempts to arrest her under a casuarina tree on the beach near the Wreck.
As the police lead the woman away, she collapses on the beach steps after trying to break free from the two officers who are escorting her.
The man runs up behind the two officers and shouts, ‘get the fuck off her; you just knocked her out’.
Another man, possibly an off duty doctor or paramedic, kneels over the woman checking her vital signs.
The woman comes to and starts calling for ‘Jesse’ before being led away.
Jaicey Revelle, who posted the video to the Byron Bay Community Board, said the woman, ‘was hit with a closed fist by the female officer and was knocked unconscious for 30 seconds or more’.
She added that the man who ran to defend her ‘was hit by female police officer then pepper sprayed by male officer’.
The video can be viewed in its entirety on our Facebook page.
TV coverage disappointing: police
Tweed-Byron detective superintendent Wayne Starling told media he was, ‘disappointed in a story run on one of the local television networks with mobile phone footage indicating that police assaulted a woman at Byron Bay’.
‘In reality the policewoman has advised me that the woman was trying to bite her and she pushed her away.
‘This story has given the police haters in the community the opportunity to latch onto this story and could put our local community and police at risk,’ he said.
Police report
According to the official police version of events, at 3.20pm on Monday (February 12), police were called to the rear of a caravan park on Byron Bay beach in relation to intoxicated people being disruptive.
Police spoke to a number of people to identify those involved. When speaking with an intoxicated woman it’s alleged she behaved aggressively towards police.
Police will allege they located the remains of a bottle of vodka in the woman’s bag which they disposed of in accordance with the pre-existing alcohol-free zone.
As the 18-year-old woman was being arrested for offensive behaviour, a man allegedly tried to intervene.
It’s alleged the woman tried to bite a female officer who had to use her self-defence training to avoid injury.
The woman was taken to Byron Bay Hospital for observation and was later released. She was then taken to Byron Bay Police Station where she was charged with affray, assaulting police, assaulting an ambulance officer and offensive conduct.
She was given conditional bail and is due to appear in Byron Bay Local Court on Thursday, March 8.
The 21-year-old man was located walking in a nearby street and was arrested. He was taken to Byron Bay Police Station where he was charged with affray, assaulting police and hindering police.
He was given conditional bail and is also due to appear in Byron Bay Local Court on Thursday, March 8.
It puts you off going to Byron beaches with that vicious feral scum crawling all over them.
Why weren’t her hands restrained seeing she showed signs of aggression towards being detained by Police ?
because the police dosn’t get any proper training here in australia !!!!
How hard is it be a police officer ? I have seen police kicked, spat out and expected to come to the aid of all regardless of the danger they are in.
What a nothing story. The cops doing their job; arresting a drunken woman, allegedly with drugs and alcohol in an alcohol-free zone, resisting arrest, attempting to bite a police officer, then her friend/partner interferes, assaults a police office and is pepper sprayed. Nothing to see here. Good on the cops for doing their job and cleaning up the beaches and streets of Byron so law-abiding locals and tourists can enjoy the place.
Not really sure which ‘vicious feral scum…’ you are referring to, Joe. Or if you frequent Byron’s beaches which are 99% safe and good places to go.
However with more and more tourists and visitors coming to Byron, screens like this are likely to be on the increase. That’s a shame
Job well done Byron Bay police. I have lived in the center of Byron CBD for the last five years and have really noticed an increase in feral bad behavior. Night after night as i lay in bed listening to the disgusting behavior of the ferals on the street and it is increasing. Those two at the beach yesterday are not innocent little angels that got picked on. Police were called to the beach by members of the public because of there disturbing behavior. The girl did not fall she did not trip she ducked her head hard in a effort to resist arrest. The police officer acted accordingly. The male who was acting like a fool charged and attacked the female cop. I dont understand all tge people defending them. The police were doing there job. I am sick of going to my local beach or the park and being faced with disgusting drunjs and druggies fighting, swearing and njust being shitty people. Why should my hard earned tax money be waisted on those people. They choose that lifestyle police brutality is part of that life style suck it up ferals.
In general I feel for police facing ‘damned if they do, damned if they don’t’ situations when having to deal with or subdue offenders before things get out of hand and to the stage where damage is done to others – particularly where it can not be immediately ascertained what substances or conditions are affecting the person they’re faced with at the time. Currently with the number of offences occurring (and not only in Byron, which shouldn’t be singled out), while under the influence of ice and other substances, officers would need to be considering right on the spot what measures they need to take to stop matters escalating and prevent greater harm and damage being done when they are met with resistance and unpredicatable behaviour.
Not a job I’d like to be doing.
All in all, it seems to be part of a bigger story – why are people turning more and more to substances that are known to be highly addictive, responsible for violent and irrational behaviour and detrimental to their health? (Should we add alcohol in there too?) And is there now a higher level of mental health and behavioural issues in our society broadly than before – and if so, again, why?
Prevention and early, positive intervention is surely better for all than the measures that are required to deal with the consquences.
Joe, if there were vicious feral scum all over the Byron beaches, no one would come. Last time I looked there were plenty of fun loving people there of all ages, enjoying the safe and world class beaches. Sometimes shit happens.
Sorry police I don’t believe you
Watched the Video
Excessive gorse was used
The person looked unconscious
Police are here to protect
Their was no sign of struggle other than when you forced the lady into it
Please show the video.
Hats off to police who are constantly in danger from drunks, druggies and armed thugs. Every day that they go to work, they run the risk of a multitude of injures. Would you like to be spat on, punched, kIcked, stabbed or shot as part of your daily job? Stop and think before you criticise the police, and see if you would like to make a career of it. They rarely get thanked for the great job they do.
Police are the true scum of our society. They are defenders of corporate corruption defenders are are the most brutal crime gang in this country. ALL of them know how legal fiction works, ALL go along with it and so ALL of them are criminals… police denying violence is like water denying wetness. Police THRIVE on violence against defenseless people. They are cowards and they enjoy it.
I´d like to see more tolerance.
Young people getting drunk and causing problems…haven´t we all been there? Haven´t we all learned the lesson? I say this is normal behavior.
If you send the police to a situation like this, where young people are being free and wild, I can see a conflict arising. They are not in a school or a restaurant or a hospital or a kiddies park. They´re in the beach. They could even be a didactic exposure to your own kids. When drunk, you are impaired somehow to discern normal behavior. We are not in a martial law democracy. To do the right thing requires to have learned from the wrongs. And, without seeing the video, I can predict the Police using excessive force because the situation will require it. We need a body of social workers that can step in to solve problems without the need of guns, pepper spray, handcuffs, violence, courts, fines and imposition of the law that does not fit us all, all the time. An institution of trusty, respected and approachable conflict solvers.
Normal behaviour – are you serious? It was the middle of the day on a beach jam packed with people. It was those very people who complained to the police because the woman was intoxicated and being disruptive. So we just let drunken or drug-affected people do whatever they want so they can ‘learn a lesson’?! Bugger the people they’re hurting or offending, or the damage they do to another person’s property eh?
And if you think a body of social workers is going to solve the problems of a drunk, an ice addict, an armed felon, a murderer or a rapist, and stop them re-offending, then you’re seriously deluded. A nice theory, but it’s certainly not the reality.