NSW Police says an officer filmed appearing to make a symbol linked to white power "did not intentionally make a gesture that could be deemed offensive".
Key points:
- The video was taken after Friday night's Black Lives Matter march in Sydney
- NSW Police said the officer did not know the symbol had any other meaning
- About 300 people attended the march, which was unauthorised
Filmmaker Jen Atherton, who uses neutral pronouns, was leaving last night's Black Lives Matter march in Sydney when they recorded the video.
In it, a group of 14 police officers wearing surgical face masks are seen crossing the road on Pitt Street.
One officer looks at the camera, raises his arm and with his thumb and index finger makes an OK sign — a gesture that has been co-opted by the far right, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
In a statement, NSW Police said the officer had been spoken to and he "did not intentionally make a gesture that could be deemed offensive".
"Further, the officer indicated he was responding to a group of women about the night being 'OK' and used a hand symbol as he was wearing a face mask."
NSW Police said the officer "did not know the gesture had any other meaning".
"The NSW Police Force works closely to foster a strong and cohesive partnership with Aboriginal communities and other groups and does not appreciate irresponsible inflammatory commentary in this space."
Atherton said they filmed the video, which was timestamped 7:22pm, "just after we had been dispersed quite aggressively from Hyde Park".
Friday night's march was attended by about 300 people but unlike a similar rally held last Saturday, the required paperwork to hold the protest had not been lodged with police.
That meant the protest was unauthorised, and about 600 police officers moved into position in large numbers around Sydney's CBD.
At the last minute, organisers moved the location of the protest due to "overwhelming numbers of police" at Town Hall, but then told protesters to leave after expressing concern about the number of police present.
Atherton said a group of people had been waiting for the traffic light to go green on Pitt Street "so they could get the hell out of there" when they recorded the video.
"And he threw the sign up at me and laughed, so I kind of followed them into Town Hall."
Atherton said they did not know the officer in the video and did not believe they had interacted during the night.
"We're here to get the message out … and of all the marches I've gone to, it's always a message of solidarity with injustice, which I think most people side with and believe should be fixed," they said.
In response to the video, Australia's former race discrimination commissioner Tim Soutphommasane tweeted: "Given previous controversies involving police in Australia about this, no police officer can pretend they don't know this is a sign appropriated by white supremacists."
Victoria Police officer's OK symbol
In October 2019, a photograph emerged of a Victorian police officer making the OK symbol at the camera at a climate rally in Melbourne.
Victoria Police denied the symbol was linked to the far right, saying the officer was asking if protesters were OK.
"We have spoken extensively to the officer in question and he has advised the hand gesture was simply the 'are you OK' sign directed at two protesters who looked distressed," a Victoria police statement read.
But screenshots then emerged from a Facebook page appearing to belong to the officer, which displayed a number of memes circulated by the alt-right movement.
"In regards to his social media page, we are aware of a small number of posts which include inappropriate memes," Victoria Police said.
"Under no circumstances are these posts reflective of the values of Victoria Police."
The statement said the officer had been spoken to about the posts, "Although they were made more than 12 months ago, he is aware of our extreme disappointment".
Why is the OK symbol associated with white power?
The OK sign has been co-opted by the far-right, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an international organisation that aims to "fight anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry".
Touching the thumb and index finger is meant to symbolise the letter P, meaning power, while the three remaining fingers make a W, meaning white.
The symbol grew in notoriety after a 2017 hoax on an online forum called 4chan, where users "falsely promoted the gesture as a hate symbol, claiming the gesture represented the letters 'WP' for 'white power'," according to the ADL.
But the prank was so successful that it solidified the gesture as "a popular trolling tactic on the part of right-leaning individuals".
The ADL said by 2019 the symbol's surge in popularity led to "at least some white supremacists [abandoning] the ironic or satiric intent behind the original trolling campaign and used the symbol as a sincere expression of white supremacy".
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2020-06-13 07:57:32Z
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