Jamie Jackson Reed was already handcuffed when he was slammed face first onto the ground at Sydney Mardi Gras. (Facebook)
Police in Australia took three years to fire an officer who brutally slammed a shirtless gay teenager to the ground at Sydney Mardi Gras.
In 2013, a video of Jamie Jackson Reed’s brutal arrest during Mardi Gras was watched by more than a million people in a week.
Reed, who was 18 at the time, was already handcuffed when he had his legs swept out from under him and was slammed face-first onto the ground by police constable Leon Mixios.
Mixios then heavily pinned him down, putting one of his legs on Reed’s back to keep him down.
Despite video footage of the incident and Mixios’ own account, New South Wales police then spent three years investigating Mixios before firing him.
In the video, other police officers can be heard telling others celebrating Mardi Gras not to film the incident.
Mixios was put on office duty after the incident, but Guardian Australia reports it took three years for the force to actually fire him for “unreasonable use of force”.
“The internal investigation sustained ‘unreasonable use of force’ and the officer was removed from the NSWPF under Section 181D of the Police Act,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
In a handwritten diary entry after he arrested Jamie Jackson Reed, Mixios had said: “I have pulled him back and thrown him to ground with a leg sweep…
“I placed my foot on his back to hold him down as he was bleeding and I didn’t want to be contaminated nor did I feel safe getting down with the crowd around us.”
Reed was charged with resisting arrest, assaulting police officers, and using offensive language.
These charges were eventually dropped, and in 2014, he was awarded $40,000 in damages and said he planned to sue New South Wales police.
Jamie Jackson Reed said he was never informed that Mixios had been fired, adding: “It makes me sad to think that police brutality is still continuing within different ‘minority groups’ in Australia.
“I also wanted to shed light on the disgusting amount of Aboriginal deaths in custody. Over 400 human beings have lost their lives and justice is yet to be served for their families.”