ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
For a number of years, Greg Roink’s friends used to laugh at him.
They used to say he wasn’t a real policeman because he worked for the Australian Federal Police – and to a certain point, they were right.
The 27-year-old bigfella worked as part of the Betoota Grove Consulate District protection detail; meaning Roink would spend long hours sitting in his AFP Holden Commodore Sportswagon outside many of the town’s consulates.
However, Greg said his friends perception of him has changed in recent days.
“They’ve effectively stopped talking to me,” he said.
Greg spoke briefly to The Advocate outside the AFP’s French Quarter compound this afternoon in his civilian clothes.
“Every group chat I’m in, they’ve kicked me out,”
“People don’t trust me anymore. They used to see me as some simple lump that kept the anti-whaling protesters away from the Danish consulate. Now, they reckon I’m out there like Jason Bourne but a baddie version,”
“It’s hard. I’m considering putting in a transfer to the State cops so people might trust me again.”
The Advocate reached out to the AFP for comment but there were too busy going through our phones.
More to come.
