Politricks / We Know who the killers are

A powerful film about deaths in police custody in the UK, featuring the poet Benjamin Zepheniah. 

 

What Stephen Lawrence Has Taught Us

from "Too Black, Too Strong"

We know who the killers are,
We have watched them strut before us
As proud as sick Mussolinis',
We have watched them strut before us
Compassionless and arrogant,
They paraded before us,
Like angels of death
Protected by the law.

It is now an open secret
Black people do not have
Chips on their shoulders,
They just have injustice on their backs
And justice on their minds,
And now we know that the road to liberty
Is as long as the road from slavery.

The death of Stephen Lawrence
Has taught us to love each other
And never to take the tedious task
Of waiting for a bus for granted.
Watching his parents watching the cover-up
Begs the question
What are the trading standards here?
Why are we paying for a police force
That will not work for us?

The death of Stephen Lawrence
Has taught us
That we cannot let the illusion of freedom
Endow us with a false sense of security as we walk the streets,
The whole world can now watch
The academics and the super cops
Struggling to define institutionalised racism
As we continue to die in custody
As we continue emptying our pockets on the pavements,
And we continue to ask ourselves
Why is it so official
That black people are so often killed
Without killers?

We are not talking about war or revenge
We are not talking about hypothetics or possibilities,
We are talking about where we are now
We are talking about how we live now
In dis state
Under dis flag, (God Save the Queen),
And God save all those black children who want to grow up
And God save all the brothers and sisters
Who like raving,
Because the death of Stephen Lawrence
Has taught us that racism is easy when
You have friends in high places.
And friends in high places
Have no use whatsoever
When they are not your friends.

Dear Mr Condon,
Pop out of Teletubby land,
And visit reality,
Come to an honest place
And get some advice from your neighbours,
Be enlightened by our community,
Neglect your well-paid ignorance
Because
We know who the killers are.
 

By Benjamin Zephaniah 

More Dead Aboriginals in Police Custody :: Allegations of racism loom on first day of inquiry

Thanks to my brother Angry Indian for this
http://angryindian.blogspot.com/2007/11/more-dead-aboriginals-in-police-custody.html

As you know in Strayaliea Aboriginal murder in police custody & police racism are huge concerns. Much love , respect & solidarity to the families and relations of Frank Joseph Paul.


globeandmail.com: Allegations of racism loom on first day of inquiry

VANCOUVER -- Before Frank Joseph Paul was dragged out of a city jail like "garbage," and left in a back alley, where he died of hypothermia, he had been picked up by police 230 times for drunkenness, assault and disturbing the peace.

Now, nine years after he was left lying in the rain on a cold December night, instead of being housed in the Vancouver Police Department drunk tank or sent to a detoxification centre, some big and troubling questions are being raised about Mr. Paul's last time in custody.

As an independent commission of inquiry began yesterday into Mr. Paul's death, it became clear the issue is not just the mechanics of how the alcoholic, 47-year-old Mi'kmaq died on Dec. 5, 1998, but whether the police actions and a broader social safety net failed him because of racism.

"Why was Frank Paul left in an alley to die? Was it because he was aboriginal?" asked Kimberley Murray of Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto, who is attending because the issue is of national interest.
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First witness at inquiry seeks answers regarding death of native

First witness at inquiry seeks answers regarding death of native: "The family of Frank Paul, the New Brunswick native who died after police left him in a Vancouver alley in 1998, wondered how such a thing could happen. Peggy Clement, the 47-year-old's cousin, was the first witness to give evidence Tuesday in Vancouver during the opening of the public inquiry looking into the death of Paul in the Downtown Eastside."
-------------------------------------------------
Paul put out to die like 'garbage' cousin tells inquiry

Paul put out to die like 'garbage' cousin tells inquiry: "VANCOUVER -- Nine years ago Frank Paul, 45, an aboriginal man and a chronic alcoholic, died drunk, cold and alone in an Downtown Eastside alley where he had been dumped by the driver of a police wagon. He died of hypothermia, freezing to death behind a detox centre in soaking wet clothes. On Tuesday a full scale public inquiry into Mr. Paul's death began after years of lobbying by aboriginal groups and others in the Downtown Eastside."

Cameras to tape police interviews

Pity there weren't cameras around back then to film their complicity with Aboriginal genocide.

Police were not neutral in the conflict between settlers and Aboriginal people; instead they provided military reinforcement for the forced expansion of white settlement, thereby presiding over the wholesale destruction of Aboriginal society. The thoroughness of the destruction of Aboriginal life effected with the help of Port Phillip’s police is attested to by the fate of its Native Police Corps. By the early 1850s, less than twenty years after the first police were sent to the district specifically to deal with the ‘Aboriginal problem’, there were so few Aboriginal people left that not only did the corps no longer have a reason to exist it was no longer even a
possibility, there were so few Aboriginal people left (Bridges 1971: 130).

KEEPING THE PEACE OR KEEPING PEOPLE
DOWN? POLICING IN VICTORIA
Dr Jude McCulloch

Dan Oakes
April 20, 2007

INTERVIEWS conducted by detectives at the St Kilda Road police complex will be videoed in a bid to stamp out police brutality and stop frivolous complaints by suspects.

Tenders have been called for the installation of the cameras in all interview rooms used by the crime squads and investigators.

The cameras will start rolling as soon as the door to a room is opened for an interview.

"It reduces the likelihood of any false allegations because you'll be able to just pull out the videotape to see and hear exactly what went on," police spokesman Sergeant David Spencer said yesterday.

"The cameras are going to be overtly mounted. There's nothing secret about it. Both the suspects and the members doing the interview will know it's there."

Unlike footage from cameras already used to record interviews by the homicide and drug squads, footage from the new cameras will not be used as evidence in court.

The new cameras will run continuously, except in certain circumstances. Sergeant Spencer said they could be shut down in cases where confidentiality was required.

The decision to introduce the new cameras also comes in the wake of secret recordings made of disgraced members of the disbanded armed offenders squad beating suspects during interviews.

The Office of Police Integrity made the recordings at the St Kilda Rd complex as part of its investigation into corrupt practices in the squad. It led to dramatic scenes at a public OPI hearing when an unsuspecting detective collapsed in the dock when confronted with a recording of him bashing a suspect.

Police Association secretary Paul Mullett said the union supported the installation of the cameras on the grounds that it protected members from frivolous complaints, but was suspicious about the motivation.

"We're supportive of them. The only criticism we have is that it should have been done sooner rather than later," Mr Mullett said.

"We understand that they had the funding and the equipment some time ago and it should have been installed as it arrived.

"It's a protection in terms of the judicial process for our members … but that equipment was available prior to the (OPI hearings). It was sitting around offices at St Kilda Road. As a matter of principle it should have been installed 18 months ago."

Judge withdraws from Palm Island case

March 29, 2007 - 2:29PM

A Queensland judge has disqualified himself from deciding whether a man accused of rioting on Palm Island in 2004 following a death in custody can withdraw his guilty plea.

Lex Wotton, from the north Queensland island, earlier pleaded guilty to rioting with destruction but last week sought to withdraw that plea.

On Thursday, his lawyer asked Brisbane District Court Judge Milton Griffin to step down from hearing the withdrawal application.

Wotton pleaded guilty as the trial of four men charged with rioting with destruction over the Palm Island incident recently started before Judge Griffin.

But he sought to change his plea just hours before the four - John Major Clumpoint, William Neville Blackman, Lance Gabriel Poynter and Dwayne Daniel Blanket - were found not guilty last week.

The island's police station and courthouse were razed during the riot that erupted a week after the controversial Palm Island watch-house death of Mulrunji Doomadgee.

Defence barrister Peter King on Thursday argued Judge Griffin could not bring an "unprejudiced mind" to the upcoming hearing of the withdrawal application.

Mr King said the judge had dismissed his client's version of events contained in an affidavit submitted during a bail application on March 16.

"Your honour said it was a 'complete misrepresentation of what occurred," Mr King said.

He said a transcript tendered to the court revealed Judge Griffin had commented: "What occurred in my view to cause the people to move toward the police station were the words, among others, of your client".

At the time, Judge Griffin also allegedly said he found the affidavit misleading "because it is contrary to what is shown on the video".

The footage allegedly featured Wotton shouting "things are going to burn".

Mr King suggested Judge Griffin had "reached a conclusion Wotton was the ringleader".

"Your honour made observations which might be described as findings of fact, which were made in advance of an agreed statement of facts," he said.

Mr King said Judge Griffin had made those comments despite Wotton not being cross-examined nor giving evidence at the trial of the four other men.

He said the comments had been adverse to his client's "credit".

Mr King denied his client was the alleged ringleader and questioned the "integrity" of the video footage.

"Wotton was not the ringleader, not the person that led the crowd to the police station, he did not behave riotously," he said.

"In fact, the police asked him to intervene on their behalf to ask the crowd to go home."

He said the guilty plea should be scrapped because it was, among other reasons, "not attributable to a genuine consciousness of guilt".

Judge Griffin said his comments were based on Wotton's guilty plea and details submitted to the court alleging Wotton had "gone to the police station, smashed windows and so on".

"The man had pleaded guilty," Judge Griffin said.

However, Judge Griffin said another judge would hear the matter.

© 2007 AAP

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Judge-withdraws-from-Palm-Island-case/2007/03/29/1174761638334.html

been learning alot from watching and supporting Murri resistance against Gubbment oppression, ending the silence, stopping the genocide in Australia against Aboriginal peoples. heres another item of interest, that Steve(I kill Aborigines) Hurley, should be tried on Palm Island

Thursday, March 29, 2007. 12:15pm (AEST)

Lawyer wants Hurley trial held on Palm Island

Sydney lawyer Stewart Levitt says the manslaughter trial of Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley should be held on Palm Island in north Queensland.

Hurley is charged with manslaughter for the death of Palm Island man Mulrunji.

Mr Levitt was a member of the legal team that succeeded in shifting the trial of Lex Wotton, accused of rioting on Palm Island, from Townsville to Brisbane.

He said earlier this week, the police officer's trial should be moved to Brisbane because of the difficulty of finding non-racist jurors in Townsville.

Now Mr Levitt says ideally Mr Hurley's fate should be in the hands of an Indigenous jury.

"Very often they are subjected to trials where they are the lone black person being trialled by whites. So it's a situation where sauce for the goose is not sauce for the gander in Queensland," he said.

Mr Levitt says ideally the trial should be held in the town where the alleged crime was committed.

"Palm Island is geographically further from Townsville than the north of France is from the south of England, but culturally and in every respect it's a million miles away," he said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200703/s1884542.htm