A near-riot situation between Aborigines and the police in Taree, a mid-north coast town in NSW, resulted in criminal charges of an unusual nature against numerous Aboriginal defendants. The convictions and conditions attaching to them were even more unusual. The antipathy of the police towards Aborigines seems to derive from a persistent negative stereotyping. These attitudes plus the appalling conditions of unemployment, overcrowding, and alcoholism tend to inflame anti-Aboriginal feeling. The law is, in turn, viewed with cynicism by under-educated people for whom legal processes, and the administration of justice, are tools of repression. Three references are cited. (Author abstract modified)