EXCLUSIVE: White man, 26, who was 'kerb-stomped by cops during humiliating strip search' says protests should be about ALL police brutality - not just Aboriginal deaths in custody
- Callum Cameron, 26, claims Perth police assaulted him at stations after an arrest
- Alleges they made him open mouth on concrete floor then stomped on his head
- He lost two front teeth and said it still haunts his nightmares to this day
- Mr Cameron says protests shouldn't just focus on violence against Aboriginals
- But he admits if that was done to him 'how would they treat a black person?'
- Aboriginals allegedly abused in custody have lost much more than two teeth
A young white man who claims he was kerb-stomped by cops while being strip searched says Australians should be protesting against all police brutality.
Callum Cameron, 26, lost his two front teeth from the 2014 incident at a Perth police station that he said still haunts his nightmares.
The web developer detailed the shocking alleged assault in an official complaint to the Corruption and Crime Commission seen by Daily Mail Australia.
Having turned his life around after years of homelessness and alcoholism, he said making police violence a 'racial issue' wouldn't solve the problem.
'Black Lives Matter is necessary to stop systemic racism, but if we want to address deaths in custody and police brutality it needs to not just be about race,' he said.
'I know Aboriginals have it worse, though. If officers did that to me as white male, how would they treat a black person?'
Callum Cameron, 26, claims he was forced to open his mouth against a concrete floor before an officer stomped on his head three times after an arrest
Mr Cameron lost his two front teeth from the 2014 incident at a Perth police station that he said still haunts his nightmares
Mr Cameron was arrested after a drunken altercation in the CBD on April 9, 2014, and taken to a cell at a Perth police station.
'I was confused about why I had been locked up and I banged on my door repeatedly for help,' he wrote in the complaint to the police watchdog.
He says he was then dragged to a room with no cameras by four male auxiliary officers, a policeman, and a policewoman to be strip searched.
'I was told to strip naked - I obliged. Then, I was tripped on to my face by two of the auxiliary officers,' he claimed.
'A third auxiliary officer and the male police officer then pushed my head into the floor very firmly.
'One of them opened my bottom jaw so my two front teeth were resting on the grey concrete floor.
'The fourth auxiliary officer stomped on the back of my head with wanton force, then repeated the action three more times.
Protests like this one in Adelaide attracted tens of thousands of Australians angry with Aboriginal deaths in custody, but Mr Cameron says all police brutality should be condemned
The protests highlighted the 434 Aboriginal deaths in custody since the 1991 Royal Commission, and were sparked by the death of black man George Floyd at the hands of a white U.S. cop
'The female police officer watched the ordeal, gloating at the strength and bravery of her colleagues.
'I was curb stomped by six officers for banging on the door of my cell.'
Mr Cameron claimed a nurse at the prison he was sent to refused to give him any notes of his injuries that he could use in reporting the alleged incident.
'It was extremely demoralising being pinned down and stomped on when I was naked. I felt violated and treated unfairly by the whole system,' he told Daily Mail Australia on Tuesday.
Mr Cameron was forced to have his two front teeth removed due to damage from the incident and now wears dentures.
He said the incident, along with other adolescent trauma, contributed to symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder he still experienced.
WA Police has been asked for comment on Mr Cameron's complaint to the CCC.
Mr Cameron claimed that in a second incident in 2018 he was arrested for living on the street and left in the back of an overheating paddy wagon for half an hour.
Mr Cameron turned his life around after years of homelessness and alcoholism and is now a web developer and IT student
Mr Cameron admitted he had fallen afoul of the law numerous times when he was a teenager and in his early 20s while struggling with alcoholism and mental health issues, but did not deserve his alleged treatment
He alleged he was denied water despite repeated pleas, both in the car and after he was taken to hospital.
'I was so extremely dehydrated that I felt like I was going to die,' he said.
'They weren't letting me get water and it felt like life or death, so I ignored them and walked to the drink fountain. I was then punched in the throat by a male officer.'
Mr Cameron admitted he had fallen afoul of the law numerous times when he was a teenager and in his early 20s while struggling with alcoholism and mental health issues.
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However, he said that did not justify or excuse the violence he claims to have been subjected to.
He has since got his life together, found love, and runs his own web development business while studying at university.
Mr Cameron said he initially felt his alleged treatment was ignored in the protests against the 434 Aboriginal deaths in custody since the 1991 Royal Commission, sparked by the death of black man George Floyd at the hands of a white U.S. cop.
'They literally almost murdered me and somehow I'm meant to feel privileged for being white because it's more common for people of colour?' he said.
Mr Cameron acknowledged his alleged treatment could have been worse if he was Aboriginal
'What makes more sense, teaching police not to bash people of colour, or enforcing that they cannot bash anyone?'
However, he realised though police brutality was an issue for all that needed addressing separately, the protests were about wider racism towards Aboriginals.
'It's horrendous the things police get away with. The scariest part for me is that the perpetrators all seem to be in it together,' he said.
Black activists have in recent days argued the issue only started getting traction when white protesters were subjected to what black people were subjected to every day.
These included viral pictures and video of police beating protesters or shooting them with rubber bullets at demonstrations across the U.S.
Australia had its own ugly scenes on Saturday when protesters were herded into Sydney's Central Station concourse and pepper sprayed along with commuters caught in the crossfire.
George Floyd was allegedly murdered by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who kneeled on his neck for eight minutes during an arrest
Aboriginals who have allegedly suffered brutality by police and prison guards also came off with worse than two missing teeth.
Cameron Doomadgee, 36, died in a cell on Palm Island, off the coast of Queensland, in 2004 after being arrested for drunk and disorderly.
The arresting officer was acquitted of his manslaughter but an inquest found Mr Doomadgee could have died as a result of a 'knee drop' by the 2.01m tall 115kg policeman, or him accidentally falling on him.
David Dungay, 26, suffocated in November 2015 when five prisoners held him down while he repeatedly told them 'I can't breathe' in a manner eerily similar to Mr Floyd's death.
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