General rant, just been detained by police in Queensland, australia

Hey guys.

I'm not happy today.

I've lost some friends in toowoomba, and my car got trapped in floods in Brisbane.

With the flood warnings and all today, I headed to a local bar where I frequent with clients in the CBD, to wait for the masses to flee to city before heading home.

There were some drunk guys at this bar that were abusing the owner and threatening him from across the street.

Being the good citizen I am, I went across the road and tried talking to the guys to get them to move on quietly.

I escorted them down the road where all of a sudden we were set upon by a group of around 5 police. Apparently somebody had called them as they had seen the disturbance.

Long story short, I got caught up as part of this, cuffed, strip searched for weapons and drugs in front of on lookers and felt totally humiliated.

I have never been in trouble with the police in my life, have a family and own a successful business employing around 30 people.

My question is, where did my rights disappear to? I was well dressed, clearly not part of the group, polite to the police.

They were nothing but rude, abusive and threatening to me.

Not sure where the law lies here, but I'm really just having a rant!

You Feel Violated, and pertaining to the story You have every right to be. The Bar Owner could not Back you up? as to what the actual Disturbance was?

the only thing i could say is there is no way they would have been in the mood to deal with that today. they have enough on their plate with trying to save lives and they are absolutely stretched to the limit without dealing with a bar fight.

not blaming or judging you in anyway. i think everyones nerves are stretched to the end right now in qld. i have been listening to the brisbane police scanner and they are honestly dealing all day with saving lives. i think lots of people will be getting short shrift of them over the next few days.

A similar thing happened to me a few years ago, I was an 18 year old girl at the time, had never had any run-ins with the law and I was a (reasonably) quiet, polite and very friendly young lady. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and I got very violently wrestled to the ground and handcuffed, then shoved into the back of a riot van and banged up in a cell for 13 hours. I was scared out of my mind and they KNEW I hadn't done anything wrong but they relished every second of it.

When they finally let me out, they told me "this will be the quickest interview we've ever done, because we know you haven't done anything wrong" - well why keep me in there for 13 hours?! Their reasoning was because I was under the influence of alcohol and they can't conduct an interview when you have drugs or alcohol in your system. They now also have my dna and fingerprints, boo. I look back on it as an adventure It's certainly put me off ever deciding to become a naughty criminal!

Wouldn't have minded an apology at least.

reply to post by mmartist


Mate, I can understand your frustration but do you really think they knew or cared if you were part of the group or not?

They're not gonna go "oh he's well dress, we'll leave him be and we'll turn out backs on him while we deal with these other guys"

Clearly once the issue was sorted you were free to go, right?

You're here after all...

As has been said, they're stretched to the max right now, cut em a bit of slack.

reply to post by mmartist


Sounds like your average encounter with Victoria police

It will all get sorted out as it goes through the system, might just take some time with a state emergency going on.

This suprises you ? you have lived a shelted life friend .Get use to it .Many decent people experience this everyday .The nicest experience I have had with them was , I asked one for directions and was told to F off .That was the nicest experience and I'll treasure it always foundly .Remember your experience friend and use it wisely .