A NSW police internal investigation has found that off-duty officers who allegedly shouted “Allahu Akbar boom” and “Hezbollah” at a Christmas party after a verbal dispute with a Muslim man who lived next door were indulging in “banter between friends”.
The incident allegedly took place on 13 December at Glenmore Park in western Sydney, after the man complained to his neighbours about water from their swimming pool leaking into his property.
In CCTV footage viewed by Guardian Australia, people at the party can be heard shouting “Allahu Akbar” and “Allahu Akbar boom”. More than an hour later, a number of voices chant “Allahu Akbar” in unison, followed by laughter, and a call of “Hezbollah”, followed by laughter.
The party guests who shouted the words cannot be seen in the footage.
It is understood at least nine men and women were at the party. The Muslim man was unable to confirm whether the property owner was among those shouting. He said he believed a number of the guests were police officers.
The man filed a complaint to NSW Police on 15 January, documents seen by Guardian Australia show. He then attended an interview at Nepean police station on 2 February.
He told officers he “was asking … [the party guests] to take it easy as they were flooding my place, instead they decided to racially insult us because we are Muslims”.
A police inspector who dealt with the complaint emailed his findings to the man on 28 February.
“What I can say from the outset, which is extremely positive, is that the chanting you heard was not directed at you in any way. I can definitely understand how you came to this conclusion,” the inspector wrote.
“I can assure you that the behaviour that you heard and captured on your devices was not directed at you in any way. Each of the Directed Officers indicated that the yelling and chanting that you heard was banter between friends at a private Christmas Party and definitely not aimed at you.
“Whilst I can understand that you concluded something significantly different to that, I can assure you that the evidence that I have gathered does not support that conclusion and I would hope that this allays your concerns and fear of anything more sinister occurring on that date. There is no threat to your safety and welfare that I can establish from this investigation.”
Correspondence shows the man then asked for the matter to be escalated, and a police “region office” on Tuesday agreed with the findings of the original investigating officer.
NSW Police told Guardian Australia the matter was now under review after further representations made by the complainant. They declined to comment further during the review process.
The man told Guardian Australia the shouting made him and his family feel unsafe and that he now questioned whether he could trust the police.
“Were they saying I’m a suicide bomber or were they threatening me with a bomb?” he said.
“If I said what they said, they’d jump over the fence and arrest me,” the man said.
The neighbours have had a history of disputes, documents show.
Complaints about water flowing on to the Muslim man’s property led to a claim of private nuisance against the neighbouring property’s former owners, with a supreme court judge last year finding in the man’s favour.
The man said the dispute remained unresolved after the current owners of the neighbouring property moved in.
