I rarely swear on social media. It is not my style. Today I saw red and I hope a lot of other people see red with me. You can look at the video directly from the link below. Wait for the second CCTV angle towards the end of the video. Then have a guess who gets charged with what!

Alternatively, you can read the full report in The Age. (Edit December 11 to include latest report on issue: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/girl-spear-tackled-by-metro-officer-is-under-anglicares-guardianship-20131210-2z42u.html)

I had the following conversation on Twitter!

https://twitter.com/elronxenu/status/409930449817841664
https://twitter.com/jetpack/status/409930864034717697

I am shocked and horrified at this blatant abuse of “power” against a teenage girl. I have TWO teenage girls at home. Hate to think what might have happened if this had been a boy. I have two of them as well. Consequently, this article worries me VERY MUCH!

The investigating officer, one Mr Alan Gosland, found no excessive force had been used. NO EXCESSIVE FORCE????

Mr Gosland, I don’t know you from a bar of soap, but as a parent, let me assure you of a couple of things. First, the teenager should not have been fare evading, however you show me a teenager who has never done a silly thing and I’ll show you one likely to be cannonised after death. Secondly, if anyone grabbed me by the clothing from behind I would MOST DEFINITELY swing around and slap them in the face and ask questions later. You have heard of the number of murders of young women lately in Victoria, have you not? For that very reason I teach my daughters the same thing – defend first.

What if this teenager had been a boy? Would a teenage boy have received worse treatment? The mind boggles that you could even remotely consider this was an “acceptable” level of “force”.

I am surprised to read no complaint was received, for had I been the parent I would have done everything possible to ensure that inspector was charged with assault.

This is totally, absolutely, categorically UNACCEPTABLE. The risk of serious injury should be obvious. Here we are warning young people about the risks of one blow to the head in fights, yet here we have a person of authority exhibiting excessive force.

The girl and a friend who came to the defence of  the girl have been charged, according to The Age, with assault.

The girl was FIFTEEN at the time of the incident. FIFTEEN!!!

You can sign the Change.org petition here: http://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/metro-trains-take-leadership-against-inappropriate-violence-towards-a-15-year-old-girl

Related articles

• Girl ‘body-slammed’ at Flinders St (theage.com.au)
• CCTV shows ticket inspector using heavy-handed tactics on teen (abc.net.au)
• Ticket inspector body slams girl (heraldsun.com.au)