Broken and battered, this is the face revealing the high cost of keeping our streets safe. Constable Mathew Tipoti suffered four fractures to his eye socket and cheekbone when hit by a brick after a party descended into a riot last month. He tells his story today as The Sunday Mail launches a campaign backing our officers on the beat. Source: The Sunday Mail (Qld)
THE screams and shouts and sounds of breaking glass were gone in an instant when the concrete block hit the side of Constable Pete Boyle's head.
It felt like an eternity of blinding pain as the young officer - instantly deaf from the blow - fought to stay conscious.
But pain and shock distorts - and in reality, Const Boyle went down the second the Besser brick slammed into his face.
In the silence of that riot, everything went black.
He has a flash of a memory. He is on the bus where his fellow officers have dragged him - maybe on the floor, maybe on a seat.
Constable Pete Boyle is struggling to recover after being injured in the line of duty. Picture: Jamie Hanson
His hand is pressed to his head. He pulls it away and looks at it. Someone has put a bandage in his palm and pressed it to the gash on his skull.
The bandage is soaked through and as he stares at it, he feels the blood run down his face and into his eyes.
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Someone guides his hand back to his head, encouraging him to hold the bandage to the bleeding wound. He tries to talk but he can't get the words to form. He is deaf and dumb and completely helpless. He doesn't know where he is. He doesn't even know who he is.
Dangers: Constable Mathew Tipoti (with daughter Kiana) is struggling to recover after being injured in the line of duty. Picture: Jamie Hanson
The person holding the bandage to his head may have spoken to him, reassured him. But Const Boyle hears nothing.
He remembers watching through the blood in his eyes as the glass windows of the bus imploded while those outside pelted them with anything they could get their hands on.
He does not remember the shouts of his colleagues, urging the bus driver to get them to safety.
Constable Mathew Tipoti remembers more.
Aftermath of the party at Acacia Ridge that left Constables Pete Boyle and Mathew Tipoti seriously injured. The shattered windows and blood on floor of the damaged bus, and one of the bricks thrown during the attack.
It was 11pm on March 16 and the team from Inala, on Brisbane's southwestern outskirts, had been called to an out-of-control party of more than 200 teenagers at nearby Acacia Ridge that needed to be shut down.
Police dispersed the crowd but trouble broke out at a nearby bus stop on Bellamy St.
The bus arrived and opened its doors. Police will allege some of those at the bus stop clambered on board and began kicking out the windows.
Constables Boyle and Tipoti were among several police officers who came to help.
"I had surgery last Tuesday," Const Tipoti told The Sunday Mail this week. "I sustained four fractures throughout my eye socket and also the cheek bone on the right side.
"They've put in four plates with a number of screws to hold the plates in - two plates around the cheekbone area, one plate on the right side of my nose and also a plate on the right side of my eye socket and titanium mesh under my eyeball for support."
OUR SAY: As ordinary, decent, law-abiding people, most of us probably give little though to police officers. They need our respect, they need our strong support and they need to know that it is intolerable to Queenslanders when those who put life and limb on the line to protect us are themselves targeted.
EDITORIAL: We stand by our police.
Const Tipoti was shielding his unconscious mate when he was hit by another flying brick.
"It felt like a truck had hit me in the head," he said.
"But then adrenaline kicked in and there was just no pain - it was just concern for the safety of my partner who had been hit as well."
The two officers agreed to speak to The Sunday Mail to give people a greater understanding of the issues affecting frontline officers.
While police in Queensland have millions of interactions with the public without incident every year, 2639 officers reported being attacked while on the job during the 2011/12 financial year.
In the past 12 months, officers have been bashed, knocked unconscious, bitten, run over, threatened with guns and knives and had blood spat in their faces.
On April 1, a police constable who noticed a car acting suspiciously was allegedly run down as he walked over to speak to the driver. A 17-year-old Waterford West man has been charged with attempted murder.
On April 2, police were called to another out-of-control party in Eagleby. Individuals threw rocks, bottles and fence palings at them, damaging two police cars.
A third police car on patrol was hit by a flying rock. The officer who got out to investigate was kicked in the leg as they tried to arrest the suspected culprit.
"I just wanted to make a difference to a lot of kids out there, try and help them change their mentality towards police officers," Const Tipoti, 39, said.
"I find it heartbreaking that young kids could do this to any other living being. Any person.
"I know my kids wouldn't do it to anyone else. But then, I don't know the life stories of other kids out there - what they've been through, what they're going through."
The bones in Const Tipoti's face will heal and he is eager to return to work in the next two to three weeks.
But Const Boyle's injuries are more complex.
Aside from the scars that run from eyebrow to jaw and a patch of hair that will never grow back, the 26-year-old now suffers from short-term memory loss and constant migraines.
Doctors have said the post-concussion trauma could heal in a matter of days - or it could take up to a year. I can't speak for every police officer, but I joined to help people," he said.
"I've been assaulted before but it's just one of those parts of the job.
"It is frustrating because you're there to help - you're there to defuse situations (and) you cop a punch or a kick or a brick to the head for just doing your job."
Despite this, Const Boyle is eager to get back to the job he loves.
"The support at Inala has been great," he said. "I just want to get back into it like before the incident.
"We're all humans. We're just doing a job. I don't think anyone deserves to get pelted in the face with a brick just because we were trying to shut a party down." Commissioner Ian Stewart says policing is a complex and "at times dangerous" vocation.
"Any assault on a police officer ... is unacceptable," he said.
"In a society where a lack of respect for authority and the use of illicit substances occurs, there will be situations where we will face this type of anger.
"People need to be aware that if they assault our members, or assault a member of the community, our people will do everything they can to place that person into the criminal justice system."
Four people have been charged with a range of offences in relation to the Acacia Ridge party.
March 2013: After clearing Brisbane's Queen Street Mall of thousands of shoppers in a matter of minutes, police held a gunman at bay. Several officers, guns drawn, followed the man without cover to keep him away from customers trapped inside shops. The man was arrested after being shot by police.
March 2013: A 31-hour siege in Upper Coomera, south of Brisbane, ended when police successfully coaxed a man out of his home who had been threatening to blow up three LPG cylinders. Police had earlier evacuated the street and smashed the windows of the home to stop it filling up with gas.
March 2011: A senior constable was off duty and out for dinner when he noticed a man wielding two axes at another man and woman across the road. Within minutes the man was arrested.
March 2011: Responding to reports of a disturbance at a home, two female constables were confronted by a man armed with six knives. The man was shot and arrested.
August 2009: A group of officers, including one with a police dog, were confronted by a knife-wielding woman after kicking in the door of her house in an attempt to arrest her for a series of burglaries. She lunged at them with the knife before stabbing the police dog. One of the officers shot the woman in the stomach. She was later convicted of serious offences.
September, 2008: Four police officers who came to the aid of a woman under attack from a man were forced to taser him when he allegedly turned on them with a knife.
