 His comment was criticized as hypocritical and systematic of "one rule for us and one for whites and that's a racist legal system where the cops get their way" by Burketown 
Aboriginal activist Murrandoo Yanner and relative of the Doomadgee family was at the centre of controversy over his calls for Aboriginal people to bash all "racist cops" and for all police stations to be burnt.Yanner said that Hurley was no racist, that he was loved by the Indigenous communities he had previously worked in, and that he identified with Hurley in that "he was a thug and a mug.I am the same", and that they would both respond with fists when confronted or challenged, portraying a cop who some years ago had confronted and overcome his own inherent racism while working in the Torres Strait.