On a Boorloo/Perth train on Sunday, a 13-year-old Aboriginal girl was pinned to the floor by an off-duty WA Police officer and thrown into the wall of the carriage, her head striking it on impact.

He was a much larger adult male, out of uniform and travelling with family.

Video shows him on top of her, straddling her chest as she lay on her back, before lifting her and throwing her into the adjacent seats. Her head hits the wall. She clutches it immediately. "My head, my head," she cries.

She posed no serious physical threat.

She was trying to help her friend recover a necklace that had just been stolen. She had confronted a group of boys who had allegedly assaulted her niece and taken it. When she reached to get it back, the officer intervened. In plain clothes, he looked like any other passenger.

Speaking to the National Indigenous Times, the girl says she apologised after making contact with his face while trying to move away. She says that is when she was tackled.

That is when the force began.

The footage starts with her already on the ground. There is no attempt to slow the situation down. No visible effort to de-escalate. The response is immediate and physical.

Her voice cuts through it. She says she is not resisting. She says her friend had been robbed. She says her head was slammed.

A bystander watching it in real time called it what it was: "An unnecessary escalation."

Now consider how WA Police approached Liam Alexander Hall, accused of committing a terrorist act, alongside charges of endangering life and possessing explosives under suspicious circumstances, following the alleged attack on the Invasion Day rally in Forrest Place.

Police walked up to him calmly. They spoke. They did not lay hands on him.

One situation involved allegations carrying a potential life sentence. The other involved a 13-year-old girl caught up in a minor altercation after trying to help her friend.

Only one was met with force.

The difference is plain. One is a white adult man. The other is an Aboriginal child.

This is not a one-off.

In Broome, Evelyn Sampi was pushed by police onto a bitumen road, landing hard on her back. It was the kind of force that could have caused a serious head injury. She is now considering legal action.

There are countless other examples, in Western Australia and across the country.

These incidents reflect a pattern - and we are sick of it. Aboriginal people are met with quicker escalation, heavier force, and a lower threshold for physical intervention.

WA Police leadership will point to reform. The public is seeing something else.

Policing is decided in seconds. In those moments, judgement matters. Right now, those judgements are not being applied equally.

The WA Police Commissioner must order a full, transparent review into the use of force against Aboriginal people and act decisively on the findings.

It is also appropriate that the officer involved in this incident should be stood down until an independent investigation of the matter is complete.

The Premier, Roger Cook, must make clear that this will not be tolerated. This goes to the core of public trust.

Until fundamental cultural change within the WA Police force is achieved, there appears to be two standards. And the public can see it clearly.

This article was written by the leadership of the National Indigenous Times.