By now, the treatment that I endured at the hands of the NSW police at a protest against racists and fascists on 19 July 2015 is publicly known. It’s one of those rare occasions when the crimes of “the force” are brought to light.

It’s all in the footage. The police footage. The footage they didn’t want to hand over to court because it corroborated the story that I had told from the start. It showed multiple riot squad and regular police force officers – a newly para-militarised gang – bearing down on me and other protesters. It showed their excessive numbers and the outrageous force they employed. It showed the pushing and shoving I was subjected to – targeted because I dared to object to an indecent assault by another police officer.

The footage showed me taking photos of a police officer who had just groped my breasts in a scuffle. Those photos went missing soon after, while I was in police custody. I sat and watched as a police officer involved in my arrest scrolled through my phone, clicking at the screen as he perused the contents. I noticed the CCTV camera inside the custody van and made a point of telling the officer not to delete the photos.

Once released, I immediately checked. The photos were gone.

The footage from inside the police van that might have shown my photos being deleted does not exist, the police say. The cameras were “faulty”. Well that was the final excuse presented to explain why the footage could not be produced in court. One of the first was that the footage (non-existent as it was) was of “national security importance”.

My story isn’t unique. Australia has seen dozens, perhaps hundreds of reports, investigations, a few royal commissions and a Pandora’s box of individual stories of police violence and corruption.

Hunting Muslims, tick. Hunting Aboriginal people, tick. Hunting down unions and their working class members, tick. Hunting down and demonising people who commit petty crimes, tick. The police force reflects the class divide under capitalism; if you’re rich and running the show. you can get away with murder and everything else besides. If you’re a nobody on the wrong side of the class divide, you are overwhelmingly shit out of luck.

I was in luck when I won a rare victory against police thuggery and sexism. The magistrate in my case found that the police fabricated charges against me to cover up their own behaviour. I had the backing of my union, work colleague and some incredible lawyers.

Most won’t be so lucky. Police get away with this kind of stuff every day of the week. What they did to me is the stock-standard behaviour of police towards Aboriginal people, leftists, gay rights activists, anti-racists and women’s liberationists throughout history. And doesn’t that tell us something about the nature of the system they protect.