The United States and Australia don’t have everything in common: during 2020, American cops retreated to the donut shop while Australian cops went nuts fining people for going to the beach and the like. But now, just a few decades after Australia imported its first Africans, it has a very American-style race-crime problem. It must be Australia’s heritage of slavery, Jim Crow, and redlining. Or something.

African and Middle Eastern communities over-represented in COVID-19 fines in Victoria, data shows

By Casey Briggs and Ahmed Yussuf

In short: Police data suggests people of African or Middle Eastern appearance got four times as many COVID fines for breaking public health rules as their share of the state’s population
What’s next? Police accountability advocates have accused police of racially profiling these communities. Victoria Police reject any suggestions that police targeted specific ethnic groups during the pandemic