NAP member run off the road by stupid white police

Police harassment of drug law-reform activists continues

A Darwin human rights activist was run off a suburban road early Sunday morning, by what he called a “gang of stupid police”.

Rob Inder-Smith, 46, a member of the controversial Network Against Prohibition, says he can’t believe how “moronic and idiotic” the police’s actions were.

He was riding his pushbike to a Nightcliff service station just before 4am, when a police van slowly pulled up beside him and somebody flung open the passenger door while the vehicle was still moving.

He was forced into the curb and he and his bike fell onto the verge, where they lay sprawled as the van’s occupants, three members of the Northern Territory Police Service, got out and began questioning him.

“I couldn’t believe how idiotic they were and I told them so,” Mr Inder-Smith said.

“After giving them my name and address, I let them have it. It was surreal – almost as if they didn’t know why they were there, or what they were doing. It is scary how this gang of stupid police could do something like this.

“They must have been on drugs.

“One of them had said to another, ‘that’s Robert Inder-Smith’, so they knew who I was.

“The woman officer, Constable Frame, an American, kept asking me why I didn’t stop when asked to back at the Nightcliff Sports Club, which I’d ridden past moments earlier.

“I’d noticed some figures and a cop car in the shadows, but I’m damned if I heard anybody shout ‘stop’ and wasn’t interested in what or who they were.

“I told the Frame woman truthfully that I didn’t have a clue what she was talking about.”

Mr Inder-Smith said he demanded to be either arrested or released. After about 30 minutes, they issued him with an infringement notice for riding without a helmet or lights, and for offensive language.

Mr Inder-Smith intends to make an official complaint about the incident which he says, is just one more example of the type of harassment he and his co-Napatistas are having to contend with, and which they have been enduring since NAP was founded more than three years ago.

“I expect my complaint will go nowhere,” Mr Inder-Smith said.

“NAP has consistently challenged the corruption and brutality within the NT Police. Several of our complaints have been fruitless, including the one we laid against Commander Bert Hofer, who assaulted two of our members during one of our non-violent protest rallies.

“I have since learnt that Hofer is now head of the Professional Responsibility Unit, which is supposed to investigate complaints, like mine, against cops.

“I ask you: how seriously do you think he will take my complaint?”

For details, call Rob on 0415 236268, or visit the NAP website.