Indigenous TV host Karla Grant claims racially profiled by police buying wine in Northern Territory

An indigenous TV host claims she was racially profiled by a police officer while buying a bottle of wine in the Northern Territory.

Karla Grant, the host of SBS program Living Black, said she was targeted by a female police officer at a BWS Alice Springs who thought she was illegally buying alcohol to re-sell.

Grant told the Women In Media national conference on the Gold Coast on Friday that what followed was ‘totally racist,’ ABC reported.

‘She focused in on me and said “have you got any ID? where are you staying?” I was so shocked and she didn’t ask for my producer’s ID, she just asked me, she really focused in on me,’ Grant said.

‘She said “you know there’s penalties for this?” She was implying I was a grog runner, that I was getting alcohol to take to a restricted area,’ Grant said. 

Grant said the police officer continued to harass her, asking her where she was staying and why she was there. 

The TV host said her producer was ‘fuming’ from the police officer’s attitude.  

‘He was like “oh my God, this is so racist”. I happened to run into a friend who was coming into the alcohol store as well and I told him what happened and … he said “it happens to us all the time”.

Grant said that while racism in Alice Springs is on the decline, it’s still an underlying problem within the community. 

Northern Territory Police said they weren’t ‘aware’ of the incident. 

Grant said that when driving around Sydney and other big cities, she will detour to avoid police cars out of fear of being harassed.

She said being racially targeted by police is common concern for indigenous people.

Grant said the police officer continued to harass her, asking her where she was staying and why she was there