11/20/08
Police Racism & African Youth in Melbourne
In response, the VEOHRC is currently undertaking the 'African Young People Research Project' in the City of Greater Dandenong. The report will be handed down sometime in the next couple of months.
The Southern Ethnic Advisory and Advocacy Council (SEAAC) prepared a submssion to VEOHRC regarding Police discrimination against African Young People in the City of Greater Dandenong.
Young people commonly report a general feeling
that the police treat them unfairly because of their race. The most commonly reported
specific complaints are:
• Young people being regularly stopped and questioned by Police in public,
sometimes up to several times in a single day.
• Police asking young people to ‘move on’ without citing a legitimate reason.
• Racist comments being made by Police.
• Young people being searched in public.
• Police refusing to submit their details if young people request them. This request
often acts as a trigger for police aggression.
• Police refusing to respect young people’s right to silence — beyond submitting
name and address. Again young people asserting this right to silence often acts
as a trigger for Police aggression.
Full Report follows:
8/13/08
Watchdog pans Queensland police over delays in Doomadgee death probe
QUEENSLAND'S anti-corruption watchdog has attacked state police over years of delay in the completion of an internal inquiry into the mishandling of the investigation of the 2004 death in custody of Palm Islander Mulrunji Doomadgee.
In a rare public stoush between the two leading law enforcement agencies in Queensland, Crime and Misconduct Commission head Robert Needham yesterday told The Australian he was concerned about the stalled inquiry and had repeatedly asked police to hand over the final report from its Investigation Review Team.
At least five officers face disciplinary action, and possibly criminal charges, over the death in custody and the police investigation, which was slammed in 2006 by deputy state coroner Christine Clements as lacking transparency, objectivity and independence.
Indigenous Deaths in Custody 1989 - 1996
11/16/07
More Dead Aboriginals in Police Custody :: Allegations of racism loom on first day of inquiry
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.
------------------------------------------------------
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."
10/1/07
Inquest into police shooting at Wadeye/More White Mans Just Arse
October 1, 2007 - 2:04AM
A police officer who fatally shot an Aboriginal teenager in a remote Top End community had failed a firearms instructor's course just over a year earlier, an inquest into the death has heard.
Robert Jongmin, 18, was shot twice in the back during rioting in October 2002 at Wadeye, 350km south-west of Darwin.
Senior Constable Robert Whittington, a married father of one, was charged with murder over the incident, but after protracted court proceedings the Northern Territory Supreme Court quashed the charge.
Three judges dismissed an appeal, but proceedings stalled in February this year when the Director of Public Prosecutions decided not to take the matter to the High Court.
The shooting happened during a large payback fight between rival family members at the community oval.
When the teenager died, the community turned into a war zone as people trashed houses, torched cars and vandalised public property.
A 10-day coronial inquest into the death which started at Wadeye heard Snr Const Whittington had trouble with shooting and had failed a course 14 months before the incident.
"Senior Constable Whittington had general difficulty shooting the Glock pistol, particularly over long distances," said counsel assisting the coroner Philip Strickland CS.
"The senior constable failed the firearms instructor course. The instructor says he did so because he failed to meet the test performance criteria."
Mr Strickland told the court he failed to achieve the accuracy required because of difficulty using his right eye.
In addition, Mr Strickland said the constable shot Robert Jongmin from a distance of 40 metres when the training course only covered proficiency up to 12 metres.
But Mr Strickland said the constable's instructors were of the opinion he met the minimum requirements for an operational member of the police force.
The inquest continues.
More White mans Just arse
Northern Territory Police senior constable Robert Gregory Whittington allegedly drew his Glock semi-automatic pistol on October 23, 2002 and fired four shots during a violent confrontation between two gangs of Indigenous youths at the Wadeye Aboriginal community. One 18-year-old man died with a bullet in the back and another was hit in the arm. Constable Whittington will not stand trial over the shooting incident. Why? Because of a legal technicality that has nothing to do with his guilt or innocence. And the decision is likely further deepen the mistrust within the Indigenous community of a justice system run by white men.
The technicality that has allowed Const Whittington to walk away without having to face trial has to do the charges he faced at various times – murder, manslaughter and committing a dangerous act – and the way they were laid.
The policeman, who at the time was the officer in charge at Wadeye, was originally charged with two counts of committing a dangerous act after Robert Jongmin was shot dead and Tobias Worumbu wounded.
The shooting occurred during a confrontation between two gangs, the Judas Priests and the Evil Warriors, on the oval at Wadeye. At Const Whittington’s committal in 2004, witnesses said Mr Worumbu had been armed with a shotgun and Mr Jongmin had wrestled with him before the gun dropped to the ground and discharged. After the shotgun discharged Const Whittingon allegedly fired off four quick shots.
At the end of the committal Magistrate Anthony Gillies said there was sufficient evidence to lay a charge of murder and a third charge of committing a dangerous act against the police officer.
But sometime before the Const Whittington’s murder trial was due to start in October 2005, the charges were downgraded to one charge of manslaughter and one charge of committing a dangerous act. Then the trial was postponed while the defence went to the NT Supreme Court arguing a number of points of law, including that the case should not go ahead because the prosecution could not prove which of the four bullets from Const Whittington’s pistol killed Mr Jongmin.
In March 2006 the NT Supreme Court ruled the case should go ahead.
Then the prosecution dropped the manslaughter charge and instead issued a fresh indictment with just one charge against Const Whittington of committing a dangerous act. This prompted the policeman’s defence team to go back to the Supreme Court to argue that under the NT Police Administration Act, such a charge should have been laid within two months of the original incident.
The Supreme Court agreed and quashed the charge.
The Northern Territory’s director of public prosecutions then appealed to the Court of Criminal Appeal, with Crown Prosecutor John Tippet, QC, arguing time constraints did not apply because it was an alleged abuse of police power. On Monday the court dismissed the appeal (the decision will be published at a later date).
The DPP initially indicated it would appeal to the High Court, but earlier today issued a statement saying the matter was being dropped and it would take no further action.
“The DPP has been advised by independent senior counsel that a further appeal to the High Court is not recommended and the director has now conveyed that information to the father of the deceased,” the statement said. “The matter is now at an end.”
Const Whittington spent four years suspended on full pay and is already back at work. His legal costs were paid for by the NT government.
Which no doubt leaves the inhabitants of Wadeye wondering what happened to the “just” in justice.
9/30/07
Police accused of race attacks on Africans
"Police in the region are being awarded for multicultural policing while perpetrators of brutality and racism remain in their stations, or in other stations in the region — or are promoted."
A LEAKED police report has questioned the future of a senior sergeant accused by lawyers of running a regime of "racially motivated police violence" against local African youths at Flemington police station.
The confidential Ethical Standards Department report, part of which has been obtained by The Sunday Age, recommended that Victoria Police call in "external agencies" to discuss whether the officer should stay at the station.
The officer was dubbed "Senior Sergeant X" in a recent VCAT judgement, which ruled that the report be kept secret. He was in charge of the station in 2005 and early 2006 but is on temporary secondment to the Victoria Police Centre, the tribunal heard. It was during X's time as the officer in charge of the station that lawyers from the Flemington & Kensington Community Legal Centre received a spate of complaints about police brutality, harassment and racism directed at young refugees from the Horn of Africa.
A secret "ethical health" review was conducted for the ESD last year by Inspector Mark Doney after the centre reported 13 complaints to the Office of Police Integrity.
Summaries of the complaints were presented to a VCAT hearing of the community legal centre's appeal against the police's refusal to release the report.
They included allegations of young people being "punched and kneed", punched while handcuffed, slapped and choked by police officers. One youth alleged he was forced to strip naked below the waist, in public and again at the police station, in the course of an unlawful search by police. There were also allegations of repeated racial abuse.
One youth alleged that he was punched twice in the head while his face was on the ground. His head was stood on while an officer told him he was a "black c---" and smoked. Another youth alleged that police hit him repeatedly on the head while he was seated and handcuffed, causing him to fall to the ground.
Tamar Hopkins of the Flemington & Kensington Community Legal Centre said she was appalled that the officer's possible return to the station was even being considered.
Although lawyers from the centre made a lengthy submission to the ESD review, police have so far fought successfully to keep its contents secret. First Victoria Police blocked the lawyers' Freedom of Information request for the report. Then, when the centre applied to VCAT for a review of that decision, the police fought them and won.
The lawyers have been told they have grounds for a Supreme Court appeal, but are reluctant to risk up to $30,000 of the centre's tiny budget to pay police legal costs should they lose.
The VCAT hearing about the report was told that two officers were moved from the station after the complaints were made to the OPI and before Inspector Doney began questioning police at the station.
One officer, referred to in the VCAT judgement, as "acting sergeant Z", featured in a number of the complaints and was transferred to another station afterwards. The other, "senior sergeant X", was not mentioned specifically in the complaints but was in charge of the station at the time of the complaints. But Inspector Nigel Howard, manager of the Moonee Valley Police Service Area, told VCAT that the move was at X's inititative, who was seeking promotion.
The hearing was also told that it was the redeployment of senior sergeant X and then acting sergeant Z that had enabled other officers to speak with greater candour to Inspector Doney. In ruling that the report be kept secret, the deputy president of VCAT, Mr M. F. Macnamara, noted Inspector Howard had said in evidence there was a culture of retribution against "those who ratted" to investigators about colleagues or superiors. He quoted Inspector Howard's evidence that publicising the report would enable others to work out "who the rat was".
Ms Hopkins called for the police to release the whole report and said the level of complaints about Flemington police dropped when a new senior sergeant introduced a "zero tolerance for racist comments" policy.
But she said that that senior sergeant had moved and the legal centre continued to receive complaints about racial harrassment and aggression by police from other stations, including Moonee Ponds.
She said that the centre now had 18 complaints awaiting investigation by OPI.
"Police in the region are being awarded for multicultural policing while perpetrators of brutality and racism remain in their stations, or in other stations in the region — or are promoted."
Complaints to the Office of Police Integrity
■March 2006, Flemington: Young man says he was punched in face by one officer. He was choked and punched in the lower back by another, and called a "black f---".
■March 2006, Flemington: A young man claims he was racially harassed and assaulted during a raid on his home. He was told: "I don't like you black guys around here. Go back to your country." At the police station, he was slapped on the face and threatened with serious injury.
SINCE THE DONEY REPORT
■February 2007, Moonee Ponds: One young man says he was bashed in the face with a torch while handcuffed. Another says he was repeatedly beaten with a torch and sprayed with capsicum spray while lying on his stomach on the ground.
■April 2007: A young man says he was punched repeatedly in the head, choked and kicked while being stood on and handcuffed by Footscray police9/10/07
No Justice Just Us
http://tjhickey.tripod.com/
http://sydney.indymedia.org.au//node/35169
http://uriohau.blogspot.com/2007/06/justice-for-tj.html
8/17/07
Harawira accuses taser cop of racism
A top cop has been accused of saying that Maori and Pacific Island people get tasered more then others because they have a propensity to commit violent crime.
Maori Party MP Hone Harawira told Parliament that the operational support manager of the Taser gun trial, Superintendent John Rivers, had made the comments at a meeting with the Maori Party.
Mr Harawira told MPs Mr Rivers had said Maori and Pacific Island people were more than half of the subjects of Taser use simply because: "Maori and Pacific people have a greater propensity to commit violent crimes."
He asked Police Minister Annette King whether the comment was indicative of racism in the police.
Ms King said she believed that Mr Rivers' bosses would probably be very disappointed if anyone believed that was the view of the police.
"However, that is not to say that there are not individuals in the police, as there are in this Parliament, who hold different views."
Mr Harawira also asked whether there was any research on the effects of Tasers on mentally-ill people.
Ms King said there was not much research on the issue but the current trial of the electric shock stun gun was designed to discover whether it is a useful, non-lethal alternative for police.
"The use of the Taser is not solely for the protection of New Zealand police. In fact, in the cases where it has been used it has been for the protection of other individuals or the individuals themselves," Ms King said
Maori perceptions of the Police
Study reveals police racism
ONE News Saturday, September 25, 1999
A Maori advisor to the police says a study which highlights racist
attitudes in the force will give it a clear mandate to do something
about it. Victoria University's Criminology Department interviewed
more than 700 officers in 1997, and found that at least two thirds of
them had heard their colleagues using racist language. The study also
found about 25% believe the negative attitudes of their peers are the
same towards Pacific Island and Asian people. Professor Gabrielle
Maxwell, who carried out the study of officers, says in a separate
study of the views of Maori, many felt they were targeted by police
officers because of their race"
http://www.police.govt.nz/resources/1998/maori-perceptions-of-police/maori-perce\ptions-of-police.pdf
Fifth officer resigns over racism film
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3203287.stm
Report raises police racism fears
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/glasgow_and_west/6945201.stm
http://uriohau.blogspot.com/2007/07/why-fuck-police.html
http://uriohau.blogspot.com/2007/07/how-to-fuck-police.html
8/12/07
Head Pig for APEC
Detective Chief Superintendent Ken McKay specialises in the conduct, leadership and management of large-scale major crime investigations. He is a specialist in the establishment of Squads and Specialist Units and has commanded the South East Asian Organised Crime Squad, The Drug Squad, The Gangs Squad, the Property Crime Squad and the Middle Eastern Organised Crime Squad.
He was a key speaker at this conference that was funded by corporate interests in the security industry
3.30pm - 4.15pm ISSUE AND POLITICALLY MOTIVATED ACTIVISM
Senior Constable David Christie, team leader, Security Intelligence Team, Counter Terrorist Co-ordination Command, NSW Police
This session will identify a number of different groups and the ideologies of issue and politically motivated activists.
·Get involved in the case study, Lessons from the past - 2005 Forbes global CEO conference
·Understand the nexus between activists and the staging of major events in Australia, such as the Asia Pacific Economic cooperation (APEC) to be held at a number of locations throughout Australia during 2007
·Discover what are the new strategies being used to enter into dialogue with organisers, public order management and security planners
http://www.policesummit.com.au/sydney_06/agenda.cfm
Not much of a distance from his racial profiling days and being a racist to profiling and oppressing activists
Friday 10 March 2006
Media, Police, and Politicians Stir Race Pot Again
by Dr. Ali-Paul White
Source: Muslims For Peace
They're at it again. Strike Force Enoggera boss, Detective Superintendent Ken McKay, has accused Sydney's Arabic-speaking community of 'hiding thugs'. In a statement by him in today's press (10 March 2006), Superintendent McKay berates all Arabs: 'The Middle Eastern community has to understand if they want to live in this society, the only way the police can operate is with community help', adding: If that doesn't happen it will all turn to rubbish'.
Superintendent McKay claims to believe that Sydney's Arab-Australians have the capacity to miraculously identify faces in grainy CC-TV footage taken at night. After all, they're Arabs, too! By the same twisted logic, the Superintendent ought to be able to identify each and every one of the elusive racist Cronulla thugs; after all, Superintendent McKay was born and bred in the Shire of Cronulla!
http://islamicsydney.com/story.php?id=2572
An excellent rundown of increased powers for state and federal police
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Police : "Testing The Power To Arrest Anybody"
Coming on the back of a flurry of alarming stories about police and state and federal governments pushing for new powers to enter homes without warrants to plant surveillance devices and monitor any and all internet activity; of new laws that will allow police to conduct full body searches on anybody they don't like the look of during September's APEC conference; detaining possible "troublemakers" during APEC in a fleet of "mobile prison" buses, and the more recent detention of a suspect who was held without charge for twelve days and then released, without charge, this "accidental" e-mail release could not have come at a worse time.
This morning, the Sydney Morning Herald received an e-mail that stated, ominously :
"Testing the power to arrest anybody".
Naturally, the NSW police claim this was all a big "mistake".
Perhaps so, but the explanation offered up to the Herald makes the "mistake" sound like anything but :
http://theorstrahyun.blogspot.com/2007/08/police-testing-power-to-arrest-anybody.html>
6/19/07
Politricks
A powerful film about deaths in police custody in the UK, featuring the poet Benjamin Zepheniah. Also check out Mikey's sis here, going hard and being fierce.Lovin ya sis stay strong.
In memory of Mikey Powell who died in police custody in Handsworth, Birmingham, West Midlands, UK on 7th September 2003
http://www.mikeypowell-campaign.org.uk/
6/15/07
Report says police persecute poor and Indigenous
Friday, 15 June 2007 8:35:23 AM
By Drew Cratchley
BRISBANE, June 145, 2007: Queensland's Indigenous people and the homeless suffer high levels of police harassment, according to a report by legal and community groups.
Commissioned by a coalition of legal organisations including the Queensland Council of Social Service (QCOSS) and community groups such as the Red Cross, the No Vagrancy report calls for a number of investigations into allegations police persecute the socially vulnerable.
Report chairpersons Bob Weatherall, an Aboriginal elder, and chair of Legal Aid Queensland Marg O'Donnell interviewed 131 people from Brisbane and Townsville living in poverty and surveyed 54 criminal justice professionals.
They found people experiencing poverty endure high levels of police interference in their lives, with approximately 75 per cent of interviewees making allegations of police harassment.
At least 20 people said they were frequently searched by police for no apparent reason, and some reported they had been strip-searched in public or by an officer of the opposite sex.
Many Indigenous interviewees said they believe police target them on the streets simply because of their skin colour.
"They think that anyone that's dark is Aboriginal, so they immediately think you're a crim or a drunk," one respondent said of police.
Launching the report in Brisbane yesterday, Magistrate Christine Roney, who runs a Special Circumstances Court in Brisbane to deal specifically with offenders from underprivileged backgrounds, described it as a "thought provoking and uncomfortable report".
She defended her involvement with the report, saying everyone needed to work together to solve ongoing social problems.
"It's very important to stimulate debate, and to continue talking to the community," Ms Roney said.
"There's a great deal of the report that is hard-hitting and controversial, and I've deliberately not commented about the role of other agencies."
Among the report's 20 recommendations is a call for an independent inquiry into policing the poor and the Indigenous community, as well as a Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) investigation into police powers related to search and seizure procedures.
Comment was being sought from Police Minister Judy Spence. - AAP
http://nit.com.au/breakingNews/story.aspx?id=11457
6/4/07
Muliaga family accuse police of racism
Police investigating the death of south Auckland woman Folole Muliaga have been accused of institutionalised racism by her family.
Mrs Muliaga, 44, died last Tuesday three hours after power was cut to her Mangere home because of an overdue power account.
Police investigating her death interviewed two of her sons and her husband over the weekend but family spokesman, Brenden Sheehan, said they were "hugely insensitive" and had shown "institutionalised racism" by not knowing how to deal with other cultures.
He said family members were interviewed for several hours in English in separate rooms.
"English is not their first language."
He said while the family had been in New Zealand for six years, Samoan was their first language and they thought and mostly spoke in Samoan.
"They are thinking and speaking in Samoan and the police are speaking to them in English which I find appalling."
Mr Sheehan said when another family support member had to leave the police station to pick up her own children he (Mr Sheehan) was not allowed in.
"They told me no they had to interview them alone and I was not allowed in," he said.
He said the Samoan way was to bring the body home, to grieve and mourn and to have the funeral.
"I think there is a real problem with the way police deal with other cultures."
He said as Mrs Muliaga's body was being taken home yesterday, he received a telephone message from police saying he was expecting one of Mrs Muliaga's sons to be interviewed with a lawyer present and "could he come down to the police station that day.
"Obviously I didn't return the call but it's outrageous. These people are victims. What hope has any brown person got if they are a suspect in a case in this country.
"If they treat victims like this how do they treat suspects?"
Mr Sheehan said he was also "disgusted and appalled" that the police had apparently said publicly that no charges would be laid because Mrs Muliaga was a very sick woman.
He said the unnamed police source was quoted in The Press newspaper after police had earlier told him they would not comment publicly but then breached their own undertaking by doing so.
"Of course she was a very sick woman. That is why we have gone to the press.
"But it appears (if you are sick) police seem to think your life is worth nothing."
He said he was "furious" and did not want to speak yet to police about it but the family now wanted a fresh police team to take over the inquiry.
"I think the investigation is so compromised at this stage that it cannot possibly produce a fair and balanced report."
The officer in charge of the inquiry, Detective Inspector Jim Gallagher, refused to comment on the claims today.
"I haven't had that conveyed to me so I am not prepared to make any comment about it.
"I am not entering into some media debate over police procedural inquiry matters.
"If he wishes to make those views known to the police then clearly we will listen but there is a process and that is what we would recommend," Mr Gallagher said.
Mr Sheehan said the family was coping with their grief but it would be after the funeral and the public service on Wednesday that it would fully sink in.
5/15/07
A Critical Media Analysis of the Redfern Riot
Memorial service for TJ Hickey in Sydney
by Andy Gargett
‘Our wealth and lifestyle, the much touted “Aussie way of life” have all been achieved as a direct consequence of Aboriginal dispossession’.[1] The Aussie notion of ‘fair go’ and our love of the underdog, indicate the extreme hypocrisy of the exclusion of Indigeneity in the production of ‘Australian identity’. How can a country extol the notion of a ‘fair go’ yet historically and currently, systematically discriminate against its first peoples? How can it cheer for the underdog, yet allow the plight of its Indigenous people fall, all too often, on deaf ears? How? Exclusion. Marginalisation. Denial.
It is imperative to assess the continuing role that the criminalisation of Indigenous Australians has in the construction of Australian identity and on the collective suffering of Indigenous communities today. Media representations play a crucial role in the production of public attitudes, particularly in relation to images of deviance.[2] The mass overrepresentation in the justice system and the third-world living conditions experienced by Indigenous communities are usually portrayed as a result of Indigenous incompetence/deviance. The criminalisation discourse excludes the role of white Australia in the criminalisation of Indigenous peoples.[3] Given Aboriginal overrepresentation in the criminal justice system, an examination of the media representations of Indigenous identity is particularly pertinent.
The ‘Redfern riot’ has been used as the focus for analysis of media representations as it has crystallised current attitudes and the power of the media in perpetuating a colonial mindset. The riot between Indigenous youths and the police on 15 February 2004 was sparked by the death of Indigenous teenager TJ Hickey, who fell off his bike and was impaled on a fence. The Indigenous community believed this occurred whilst the police were chasing him. Redfern, an inner Sydney suburb, has a strong Indigenous community and identity primarily situated around the Block.[4]
The focus on Redfern was justified by a number of considerations. The riot was seen as a crisis point in Indigenous relations with police, and with non-Indigenous Australians at large. There has been a long history of struggle in Redfern between Kooris and the police; this incident is part of a continuing cycle of interaction and tension. This tragic event was also heavily reported and commented on, thus providing a suitable vehicle to deconstruct media discourses. Redfern is arguably the ‘black heart’ of Australia with a strong political, spiritual and cultural significance to Indigenous people from all of NSW and across Australia.[5] Redfern is the birthplace of many Indigenous organisations and activism from the 1970s.
As a ‘white’ person, I feel I am implicated by my very being within the continued unequal distribution of power between non-Indigenous and Indigenous Australians. Self-reflection, consultation and a critical mindset were vital to ensuring my research project did not perpetuate the violence of exclusion and appropriation of Indigenous voice. As an academic I am in a position of authority. I am powerfully positioned to resist and provide resistance against the continuing drone of colonialism that pervades dominant discourses in society. From my position of resistance, I do not hope to speak for Indigenous Australia but to destabilise the taken-for-granted; to clear a domain for Indigenous public self-articulation.
Throughout the media coverage of Redfern, I examine how it portrays Aboriginality as a threat by linking Aboriginal people to crime. To avoid this, they say salvation is required, and appears to be attainable only through sporting prowess. Finally I examine the operation of victimisation. The image of the victim is mobilised in a number of ways to consecrate stories of Aboriginality that marginalise the Aboriginal voice. Victim status is only afforded to groups accepted by the dominant discourses of society,[6] and the police, not Aboriginal people, are accepted as victims.
The Criminal
Crime is central to the constructions of identity. To be criminal is to be outside the moral community of the state, and therefore an enemy.[7] Media discourse has a tendency to link crime and race. Representations of the riot applied this operation with vigour. These media representations of the Indigenous criminal perpetuate negative, stereotyped opinions within mainstream Australia.[8] Continually throughout the media coverage Aboriginality is painted as criminal; as ‘hopelessness, [as] depression, drug and alcohol addiction, and a life of petty criminality’.[9] TJ’s Walgett hometown is used as an example of the links between Aboriginality and crime. Throughout the discourse, TJ is constructed as the typical criminal Indigenous youth, yet ‘his criminal history was relatively light, at least by Walgett standards... [an area with a crime rate] 2 ½ times the state average’. The image of complete crime is created: outnumbered, ‘the non-Indigenous locals, the 40 per cent minority’,[10] are under siege by criminal Aboriginal people, out of control. The extraordinarily high crime rate is implicitly because of the town’s predominate Aboriginality.
The media produce the Indigenous body as criminal. Indigeneity itself becomes crime. Similarly, Redfern is a symbol of Indigeneity and crime.
The problems of drugs, alcohol, domestic violence, sexual assault and chronic medical problems continue to rise among Redfern’s urban Aboriginal population and there is little hope they can be contained...[11]
The two terms become interchangeable: Indigenous people as criminal. Criminalisation as discourse controls representations of Indigeneity amongst the Australian population. It controls what is acceptable to think.
Marginalised is an Indigenous voice that challenges society’s power relations which continue to subordinate the Indigenous population. The discourse of criminalisation is control, it reproduces Indigenous subordination. The criminalised body of the Indigenous person becomes an object of fear and thus a controlling agent is required, paving the way for law and order policies. ‘[Y]ou will hear story after story about the Aboriginal kids being out of control’.[12] The creation of fear demands a response to ‘restore control’.
The continual portrayal of Indigeneity as criminal is explicit. It reduces the riot to acts of criminality, rather than acts of desperation or frustration. It reinforces the either/or logic that places Indigeneity outside legitimacy and into the world of deviance. It washes away the links between colonial legacies and Indigenous crime. It removes context and diversity from the issue, resulting in what Indigenous Senator Aden Ridgeway predicted:
No doubt people will over-simplify the images and the reports they have seen. Many will be quick to point the finger of blame at Aboriginal youth.[13]
The Salvation of Sport[14]
Sport is created as the Indigenous saviour from crime. Media representations encourage the belief that to be Indigenous and non-criminal is the exception. To be a success is a rarity, and generally based on Indigenous sporting prowess. It is only through sport that Indigenous culture is readily accepted by mainstream culture:
Aboriginal Australians are the most gifted athletes on this earth. Therein lies their chance of survival and advancement.[15]
The underlying assumption is that freakish physical attributes are the only salvageable traits worth adopting into mainstream society from an ancient race. Survival and advancement means assimilation into mainstream culture and sport is the vehicle to accommodate this assimilation. Other Indigenous attributes are placed counter-posed to the mainstream. The richness and diversity of Indigenous culture is written only as an explicit challenge and threat as it is uniformly written as deviance.
TJ is constructed as the typical Indigenous youth, a ‘happy-go-lucky boy who played football with quicksilver bare feet... Then he entered his teens -- and things began to change. The football cut out’.[16] Without sport, deviance and dysfunction is the inevitable result. Indicated by the example above, TJ is explicitly and continually linked to criminality.
Front Line Human Targets
The media creation of the police as worthy victims strengthens the link between Indigeneity and crime. The construction of the Aboriginal criminal necessitates police presence in Redfern:
[T]he policing of the area is not overtly racist or heavy-handed. The blatant dealing, the public drunkenness, the routine thievery, would not be tolerated anywhere else in Sydney.[17]
The ‘criminality’ of Redfern is used to exonerate police and white roles in the riot and in Indigenous deviance. TJ is portrayed as a criminal in hiding: he ‘would have been fully aware he was wanted... He kept low in Sydney, enmeshed in the netherworld of the Block in Redfern’.[18] This while denying claims that TJ Hickey was being unreasonably chased at the time of his death. The loaded language of ‘netherworld’ operates here to make the distinction between the criminal and non-criminal. It creates Indigenous people as criminal and the police as non-criminal; hence the police over-presence in Redfern was justified.
Justified police presence removes any ‘residual doubt’[19] over police involvement in the death of TJ Hickey, thereby absolving the police of involvement in the riot. The riot is represented as borne out of an Indigenous perception that Hickey was being unreasonably harassed. The denial of this claim serves to marginalise the view that Hickey’s death was the culmination of crisis and tension between police and the Indigenous community. The police are constructed as neutral characters in the lead up to the riot; simply doing their job. During the riot this neutrality is replaced with victimisation – police sacrifice their well-being to return order to the streets.
In the face of this pervasive construction of neutrality and justification, Indigenous claims of police racism and over-policing are muted. Gail Hickey, TJ’s mother, describes police as ‘nasty... They treat our kids like dogs’;[20] yet such quotes are left in the margins. They are never supported or backed up with evidence. Further, these comments are often situated near the end of an article. The structure of the newspaper operates here to marginalise Indigenous voice. The layout of the newspaper compels the reader to a ‘readily accessible conclusion’ at a glance;[21] therefore, a waning of the readers’ attention as an article progresses is foreseeable. My analysis revealed that when Indigenous views were included, they were generally placed towards the end of the article. With no support, no evidence, and relegated to the end of articles this Indigenous protest, although technically voiced, is actually muzzled.
Police malpractice is written out of media representations. Birch’s analysis of the riot indicated that:
[N]o members of the NSW police force have been cited for provocation or violence despite witnesses stating that the police had not only incited the initial confrontation but had themselves acted violently.[22]
The silencing of criticism of police action, and the complete omission of eyewitness accounts of police inciting violence and violent behaviour is crucial to the ‘us versus them’ construction that shaped media representations. Silenced is the voice that speaks of historical and continuing systematic over-policing and harassment of Indigenous communities by the police. Marginalised are articulations of police violence, and the Indigenous voice that all too well remembers that the police did the dirty work of ‘the heads’ (the government).[23] Denied is the extensive history of institutionalised police violence against Indigenous people and communities. Without an understanding of Indigenous mistrust and angst towards the police, the police do become victims and Indigenous people do become threats.
Indigeneity is demonised while the police are championed. The policing of Indigenous communities is represented as justified; their resultant victimisation constructs them as the bastions of order – they suppressed a ‘riot, in which 40 police officers were injured in a sustained assault from hordes of Aborigines’.[24] The thin blue line protects social order and stability against the threat of these ‘Aboriginal hordes’. The dichotomies of order/disorder, civilisation/barbarism, us/them are manifested continuously. A process that simultaneously marginalises the Indigenous cry of pain whilst further cementing the naturalness of police neutrality and justified presence in Redfern, and Indigenous communities throughout Australia. The enactment of these dichotomies ultimately leads to the mutually exclusive distinction between those who feel police action was justified and those who contextualise the riot by listening to an Indigenous point of view. This contextualisation is constructed as making excuses.
As a child, I’d always fear. ‘get down in the car, jungais [police] coming.’ I’d always fear, jungais were like the ‘douligar’, a fear that was always built in us.[25]
The Indigenous discourse that speaks of historical fear and mistrust is written out of the public psyche simply as a ‘myth’, or worse, a ‘luxurious falsehood’.[26] The implication is that the solution to prevent another ‘Redfern riot’ is to deny Indigenous historical fear. One cannot sympathise with the Indigenous perspective without simultaneously administering blame to the police. It is constructed as anti-police, as disorder, as barbaric and most of all as one of them.
Conclusion
The violence of colonialism is repeated over and over again as the media continue to write Indigeneity as deviant. This power helps construct a public psyche that ‘condone[s] an endemic system of violence perpetuated against Indigenous people that inevitably produces a violent response when no other defence is available’.[27] This violent response to violence, as manifested in the Redfern riot, can be commonly witnessed through Indigenous dysfunction, alienation, substance abuse and crime throughout Australia. Public discourses such as the media ensure that this violent cry for help is constructed as Indigenous deviance, due to an innate criminality. The driving purpose of this work has been to debunk the perceived naturalness of these representations.
My analysis of the metaphor has shown that threats and victimisation work together to exclude Indigeneity from the production of Australian monoculturalism. If mainstream society’s inherent whiteness is challenged by the cultural power of Indigeneity then it is written as threat. If Indigeneity is constructed as threat, it can be legitimately marginalised. The police, representing and protecting the white mainstream, are constructed as victims of Indigenous violence, silencing mainstream’s involvement in the production of an Indigenous underclass. White as victim means white as innocent. Whiteness, the mainstream, is pardoned from involvement in the production of Aboriginal fear, mistrust, unemployment, substance abuse, welfare dependency and criminalisation. Therefore, the perpetrators become the Indigenous people. Their deviance is inherent and unquestionable; their status as victims, impossible.
The future of representing Indigenous and Australian identities is uncertain. I have struggled against the monologue of exclusion and subordination. Whilst we as a nation are stuck in a monologue, at ‘best’ we will be apathetic to Indigenous concerns, vulnerability and marginalisation. At ‘worst’ negative representations will invoke fear and hatred. The denial that paints injustices against Indigenous communities as a thing of the past, that removes their influence from the lives of Indigenous Australians in the present (and future), is evidence of our complicity in a system that perpetuates racial discrimination. The implications of this paper lie at the very heart of generating national identities:
Sooner or later, any society that would like to know itself as ‘post-colonial’ must confront an inevitable question: how to live with collective memories of theft and murder?[28]
The media discourse stuck in the monologue addresses this question through acts of blaming, constructions of threat and a washing of hands.
Andy Gargett has recently completed an Honours Degree in Criminology at Melbourne University.
[1] Bruce Elder, Blood on the Wattle: Massacres and Maltreatment of Aboriginal Australians Since 1788, (2003), viii.
[2] Howard Sercombe, ‘Youth Crime and the economy of news production’ in Judith Bessant and Richard Hil (eds) Youth, Crime & the Media (1997) 43.
[3] Aileen Moreton-Robinson, ‘Witnessing Whiteness in the Wake of Wik’ (1998) 17 Social Alternatives 11.
[4] The colloquial name for a residential block in Redfern bounded by Louis, Vine, Everleigh and Caroline Streets. The Block is owned by the Aboriginal Housing Company.
[5] NSW Legislative Council Standing Committee on Social Issues, Parliament of NSW, Inquiry into Issues Relating to Redfern and Waterloo: Interim Report (2004) 3.2.
[6] Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (2002).
[7] Chris Cunneen, Conflict, Politics and Crime: Aboriginal Communities and the Police (2001).
[8] Sercombe, above n 2.
[9] Tim Priest, ‘Stop the Social Engineering and Empower Sydney Police’ The Australian (Sydney), 18 February 2004, 13.
[10] Jamie Walker, ‘TJ’s Life Played Out in the “Dead Zone”’, The Australian (Sydney) 21 February 2004, 1.
[11] Priest above n 9.
[12] Walker above n 10.
[13] Aden Ridgeway, ‘Boiling Point After a Decade of Tension’, The Australian (Sydney), 18 February 2004, 13.
[14] The prevalence of Indigenous art and music in the mainstream indicates that this too can provide ‘salvation’. The focus of this analysis however was how sport provides salvation, as that was the recurring theme throughout my data.
[15] Priest above n 9.
[16] Walker above n 10.
[17] John Stapleton, ‘Hope the True Victim on Redfern’s Streets’, The Australian (Sydney), 21 February 2004, 22.
[18] Walker above n 10.
[19] Martin Chulov, ‘Key Image Gave Police Charge of Redfern Story’ The Australian (Sydney), 26 February 2004, 19.
[20] Martin Daly, ‘Eruption Was A Long Time Coming’ The Age (Melbourne), 21 February 2004, 3.
[21] Alison Young, Femininity in Dissent (1990) 121.
[22] Tony Birch ‘“Who Gives A Fuck About White Society Anymore?”: A Response to the Redfern Riot’ (2004) 175 Overland, 18, 18.
[23] Martin Flanagan, ‘Fear And Loathing From Tampa To Redfern’, The Age (Melbourne), 1 March 2004, 2.
[24] Steve Barrett, ‘Riot Controllers “put lives at risk”’, The Australian (Sydney), 17 March 2004, 5.
[25] Sarah James, Interview with a Koorie (Victoria) in Koories and Jungais: A Study of Aboriginal and Police Relations (2000), 16.
[26] Andrew Bolt, ‘Why I Won’t Change’ Herald Sun (Melbourne), 25 February 2004, 21.
[27] Birch, above n 22.
[28] Ross Gibson quoted in Maria Tumarkin, ‘First as a Tragedy, Second as a Farce: Traumascapes, Memory and the Curse of Indifference’, (2004) 175 Overland, 22, 25.
4/15/07
Auckland police face new allegations of racism
An Auckland man has made a formal complaint against three police officers alleging he was subjected to a racist roadside interrogation.
David Newell, 29, alleges during the incident in Auckland last week that an officer pulled down his pyjama pants and called him a "monkey".
The allegations have been referred to the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) following a formal complaint to Auckland police last week, The Herald on Sunday reported today.
Queen's Counsel Peter Williams told the newspaper it was the worst racial incident he had heard of in his legal career and he has also formally complained to the Attorney-General.
Mr Williams said unless action was taken against the three officers involved he will seek punitive damages.
Police spokeswoman Noreen Hegarty told the newspaper Mr Newell had been stopped on Monday evening after allegedly being clocked at 107kmh in a 50kmh zone and subsequently charged with refusing to provide a blood sample.
Newell denies he was speeding.
Ms Hegarty said that when confronted by police, Mr Newell said his mother-in-law was a High Court judge and he was a Kenyan diplomat.
He then pulled down his pyjama pants in front of the three officers and a civilian observer who had been accompanying them on patrol, she said.
Mr Newell, she said, was then told to pull his pants up before being handcuffed and put into the back of the police car.
Mr Newell's lawyer, Christopher Reid, has accused police of fabricating a story, saying the officers involved were going to extreme lengths to discredit his client.
Mr Newell told the newspaper he was still shocked by what had happened, could barely sleep and was undergoing counselling.
"It was such a violation, I couldn't believe it. I was humiliated when they pulled my pants down and exposed my private parts," he said.
A police spokesman said Newell was due to appear in court later this month.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4027170a10.htmlPolice in racism probe after 'monkey' claims
5:00AM Sunday April 15, 2007
By Stephen Cook
David Newell, who has lodged a complaint against the police, with his partner Amber. Photo / Janna Dixon
A group of Auckland police officers have been accused of subjecting a motorist to a racist roadside interrogation - which resulted in one officer allegedly pulling down the man's pyjama pants and then calling him a "monkey".
The allegations - described by leading Queen's Counsel Peter Williams as the worst racial incident he has heard of in his legal career - have been referred to the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) following a formal complaint to Auckland police last week.
Williams has also formally complained to the Attorney General and says unless action is taken against the three officers he will seek punitive damages.
The claims cap off a difficult fortnight for police, already under fire over the Bazley report which resulted in an unprecedented apology to the public about historic police behaviour.
Police said the complainant's account of the events differed greatly from those of officers.
Police spokeswoman Noreen Hegarty told the Herald on Sunday the complainant, 29-year-old Auckland man David Newell, had been stopped on Monday evening after allegedly being clocked at 107km/h in a 50km/h zone and subsequently charged with refusing to provide a blood sample. Newell denies he was speeding.
Hegarty claimed that when confronted by police, Newell said his mother-in-law was a High Court judge and he was a Kenyan diplomat. He then pulled down his pyjama pants in front of the three officers and civilian observer who had been accompanying them on patrol, she said.
Newell, she claimed, was then told to pull his pants up before being handcuffed and put into the back of the police car.
Newell has rubbished the police version of events and has agreed to undergo a polygraph examination to prove he is telling the truth.
His lawyer, Christopher Reid, has also accused police of fabricating a story, saying the officers involved were going to extreme lengths to discredit his client.
If he had, in fact, removed his pyjama pants he would have been charged with indecent exposure, he said.
In a sworn affidavit, Newell - a policy analyst with the Franklin District Council - said on the evening he was stopped he had been making a quick trip to his local Pt Chevalier shops to buy nappies for his three-year-old daughter. At the time he had been wearing a loose-fitting top and pyjama bottoms with no underpants.
He was stopped by one officer and the civilian observer in a marked patrol car on Great North Rd - one male and a female - on suspicion of speeding and was told his vehicle would be searched, according to his affidavit. While that was happening, two other uniformed officers turned up in an unmarked car - another woman and another man.
Newell claimed that the male officer asked him where he was from, to which he replied north London in the UK. The officer, who had an English accent, told him: "we used to deal with you people all the time," a reference, Newell said, to the colour of his skin.
According to Newell's affidavit, he was then ushered to the side of the road and asked if he had been drinking. Newell replied he had had half a glass of beer at lunch with his partner Amber but nothing that evening.
Then suddenly and without warning, Newell claimed, the police officer with the English accent "whipped down" his pyjama pants, exposing his private parts to the other officers.
The officers were all giggling and making jokes related to black men and the size of his penis, according to his affidavit. He said he was also called a "black ****".
With Newell's pyjama pants still around his ankles, he said he was asked to undergo a breath screening test and despite two attempts he claimed police were unable to obtain a reading.
Newell bent down to pull up his pyjama pants and was then handcuffed and put in the back of the police car and taken to the Balmoral Police Station, according to the affidavit.
He claimed he was then unnecessarily brutalised and suffered cuts and bruises as he was taken from the car into the station by one of the female officers.
Once inside the station, he claimed, he was hit in the face by the officer with the English accent and called "a monkey". That officer, he said, refused to accept his word he did not have a criminal record, saying "all you people (black people) have convictions".
In his affidavit, Newell said he had been happy to undergo a blood test but had wanted to go home after the ordeal. As there had been little objection, he did so and made a formal complaint at Auckland Central Police Station the next day.
He told the Herald on Sunday yesterday he was still shocked by what had allegedly happened, could barely sleep and was undergoing counselling.
"It was such a violation, I couldn't believe it. I was humiliated when they pulled my pants down and exposed my private parts," he said. "I came to New Zealand because it was supposedly a great place to raise kids. The last thing I ever expected was this. "
Williams said he had spoken to Newell, who presented as a "highly credible young man", and was astonished police could have behaved in such a "disgusting inhumane" fashion.
The police spokesman confirmed Newell had been taken to Balmoral Police Station and had chosen not to engage the services of the duty solicitor, preferring instead to call his partner. He was then charged with refusing to supply a blood sample. He is due to appear in court later this month
3/30/07
Pacific Politics: Somare Bites Back
| http://www.newmatilda.com/home/articledetailmagazine.asp?ArticleID=2096&HomepageID=184 Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister, Sir Michael Somare has now disbanded the Defence Force Board of Inquiry looking into the escape of Australian fugitive Julian Moti from PNG last year. The Board had earlier found [LINK: http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/s1856146.htm] that the PNG Prime Minister must have known about the clandestine military flight that helped Moti avoid extradition to Australia. But under charges by Somare that it was biased and a political witch hunt, PNG’s Defence Minister Martin Aini was forced to scuttle its work. And in a further dramatic move, the Defence Minister has now been sacked. In an interview with me last week, Somare stated that he believed there was a political motive behind the charges that he helped Moti escape PNG, despite the latter being arrested by Australian Federal Police on child sex charges:
Somare is running for re-election in national elections, expected to take place in June. In the last few days, Moti himself has claimed that he will sue the Howard Government over the child sex allegations, which were thrown out of a Vanuatu court in 1999. The affair reveals much about relations between Australia and our northern neighbors. Take the Solomon Islands, for example. The Prime Minister, Manasseh Sogavare recently claimed that Canberra was operating a ‘parallel government’ in his country — hitting back after Australia’s Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Sogavare was trying to destroy the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI), and after Downer took out ads in local papers, calling on Solomon Islanders to stand by RAMSI and reject attempts to re-arm the police. Sogavare accused Canberra of dirty tactics, and circumventing correct diplomatic procedure in writing to the local papers. Is this the way Pacific relations are to be played out? Has Australia decided to strong arm Pacific Island nations, and to hell with the consequences? Or could it be, as some suggest, that Moti was going to point the finger of blame at Australian police for the riots in Honiara? Speaking from the coastal town of Wewak in PNG last week, Prime Minister Somare did little to dispel the accusation that Australia has taken on a colonial attitude to our Pacific neighbours. Speaking passionately about the need for Pacific countries to be run by their own people, Somare launched a scathing attack on Canberra:
As to Downer’s claims that, as PNG’s biggest contributor of aid, Australia had a right to a say in PNG’s affairs, Somare raised serious questions about the intent and effectiveness of Australian aid:
As the first leader of PNG after independence, Somare has a long political memory. He is vocal about Australia’s treatment of his people after World War II, during the fight for independence, and today.
Historically, PNG has always had a role in Australia’s defence, and the depiction of the Pacific as ‘failed states’ for the last few years must be read in this context. While the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) and other so-called ‘independent’ think tanks continue to depict Pacific Island nations as on the verge of collapse and overrun by criminals, this can also be read as diplomatic talk that camouflages not just ‘strategic’ but defence rationale. As Hugh White, one time Deputy Secretary for Strategy and Intelligence in Australia’s Defence Department, and former head of ASPI, said of Australia’s Pacific policy in 2004:
The Australian Government’s rhetoric about failed States and ‘the arc of instability’ comes from a security agenda that requires these nations to be depicted as constantly on the brink of chaos. John Howard has referred to ‘an inherently unstable situation’ in PNG — but the cry in the region is: Who is creating the instability, and who benefits? There has been a coup in Fiji, unrest, ‘outside influences’ and ‘shadowy forces’ in East Timor, riots in the Solomons and in Tonga. And this is not just a Liberal Party pre-occupation. Robert McLelland, Shadow Defence Minister indicated in 2006 that Labor under Kevin Rudd would maintain the current direction of ‘hands on’ administration of the Pacific. [LINK: http://www.aspi.org.au/events/recentEventDetail.aspx?eid=234] Recent comments from the leader of both PNG and the Solomon Islands indicate, however, that they are not happy about the intrusive nature of the Australian ‘Pacific Policy.’ Somare talks of ‘the West, maybe fearing China,’ in reference to the new economic player in the region. PNG, has inked a $1billion dollar agreement with Chinese company Metallurgical Group Corp (MCC) for the Ramu nickel project — the largest such project with the Chinese in the region. Despite disquiet over labour conditions at the mine, as well as allegations that his former Ambassador to China facilitated illegal entry of Chinese citizens into the country, Somare says they are small problems of ‘public relations’ and unsubstantiated allegations:
As to concerns that cosy bilateral relations with a country the USA calls their ‘peer competitor’ might lead to further unwanted scrutiny from Canberra, Somare maintains it is simply about business:
Whether or not Somare is returned in the PNG elections, the current machinations in the Pacific will continue. Attempts by Australia to discredit those that challenge Canberra’s heavy-handed tactics will only further tarnish our image in the region. Sir Michael Somare fought for PNG’s independence 32 years ago. At 70, he should not have to remind Canberra to respect his country’s sovereignty — and his people. The Australian Government must be careful to respect the sovereignty of our nearest neighbours or risk the charge of ‘colonial interference’ being leveled at every Australian action in the region. |
 |
About the author |
| Maryann Keady is a freelance radio journalist. Her interview with Sir Michael Somare can be heard at www.asia2025.net. |
3/28/07
Dog used in strip search, accused say
This is yet another disgusting breach of these mens human rights. Their treatment has alot in common with how the Irish community were treated during Thatcher, Birmingham 6, Guliford 4 anyone?
Dog used in strip search, accused say
A VICTORIAN Supreme Court judge has suggested that 13 men facing terrorism charges could be released on bail after claims of mistreatment, including that a German shepherd guard dog sniffed the genitals of a naked prisoner during a strip search.
Another prisoner is alleged to have received bruising when grabbed by his beard and hands as he left a prison van and others were ill after being returned to Barwon Prison in a reportedly unventilated vehicle in extreme heat on Thursday.
Lawyers for the men claimed that one of the vans was left parked in the sun for more than an hour with the defendants inside after a morning court appearance. They say prison guards refused the men water during strip searches before the men were returned to their cells.
After being confronted with the guard dog, Bassam Raad was forced to stand naked for 10 minutes, lawyer Peta Murphy said she had been told, in an affidavit filed with the court.
Justice Bernard Bongiorno said if the allegations were true they reflected "a most unsatisfactory situation, which will need to be corrected".
He said if this was likely to happen again, the case for granting bail would "seem to be looming on the horizon".
The defendants have made numerous unsuccessful applications for bail since late 2005. But Justice Bongiorno said similar treatment might constitute the exceptional circumstances the men must demonstrate to be released on bail.
A spokeswoman for Corrections Victoria said the prison van's air-conditioning had broken down but it could not interrupt the trip for security reasons.
The spokeswoman said the prisoners were seen by nursing staff on arrival. "Their condition was monitored and checked the next morning and they required no further medical assistance."
She said strip searches were standard for prisoners entering a high-security unit. But she said that Ms Murphy's affidavit was the first time that Corrections Victoria had heard about the use of the German shepherd in strip searches. This would be investigated along with any other claims.
Ms Murphy, of Rob Stary and Associates, said the men sweated profusely on the journey. They were dehydrated and feared for their wellbeing. One of the men, Ezzit Raad, vomited several times in the night.
She said the prisoners claimed to have told the prison officers about the failed air-conditioning in the van before the return trip.
In a separate affidavit, Marie Costa, of Galbally & O'Bryan, said she had been told her client, Izzydeen Atik, had difficulty breathing in the smaller of two vans and he was kept waiting for more than an hour after arriving at the prison.
"Once removed from the bus, (Atik) still shackled, was manhandled forcefully by prisoner officers. (Atik) was grabbed by his hands and his beard whilst being thrown around (and) states that there is bruising to his right arm," Ms Costa said.
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/03/27/1174761474938.html3/27/07
Ae Marika Column - Hone Harawira - Friday 30 March 2007
When two tamariki Maori (8& 10) are pepper sprayed by the cops, whose going to police that Hone? Its more than once that tamariki Maori have been pepper sprayed by the
Police, whose going to police that? The same lot that police rape?
Giving the police more discretionary power, that will be used to
further oppress our communities. This will result in Maori parents in
jail and Maori children in state 'care'. Empowering grassroots
communities to deal with these issues works, and is completely lacking
in this approach, direct action, critical dialogue and grassroots
organizing would go along way to addressing issues of violence in our
communities. We need to develop community accountability principles
and practices that strengthen our resistance to the criminal justice
system, not empowering and using our people as (the continual) fodder
for it.
The Maori party are good at proving they know all about parliamentary
'democracy'. Moana Jackson's report about Maori & the "criminal
justice system" was written 20 years ago, have they lost faith that we
can do things our way, based on our Tikanga and that our communities
can decide and know what is best for them.
Ana
http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikatotimes/3987375a6579.html
you can send messages of support to this whanau to:
moheka.williams@wintec.ac.nz
Ae Marika Column - Hone Harawira - Friday 30 March 2007
Don't smack the messenger!
Last week I rang a mate of mine and asked him "Howzit? What you up to?"
"I'm smackin' my mokopuna," he replied. His moko said "what's that for
papa?" and my mate said to him, "well, your stupid bloody uncles are going
to make this illegal next week, so I'm going to give it to you now!" and
then the two of us roared with laughter over the phone. He wasn't smackin'
his moko, but his message was pretty clear.
Sue Bradford has put forward a bill to repeal section 59 of the Crimes Act
so that you can no longer use it as a defence for smacking a child. Those
against the bill will likely think the above story is a little sick. The
funny thing is that those who support the bill will probably think the same
too.
Folks, this bill is no joke, but life often is, and we can sometimes get so
intensely caught up on one side of an argument or the other that we lose our
sense of balance, and with it our sense of humour. I know. I've been there.
But when I hear a good story, I like to share it and I hope you can see the
humour in it for what it is. Nothing more, nothing less.
This week Sue Bradford's bill may come before the House as a matter of
urgency. If it does, that means it'll go up on Wednesday afternoon and all
other business will be suspended until it is voted on. That means we may go
back into the House on Thursday morning at 9am and continue possibly until
midnight and we may even come back on Friday to complete the debate and take
a vote.
Last week I thought the Bill might take a while before it came up for the
vote, and that the Maori Party was hoping to take the issue on tour to get a
handle on how people felt about it. If the bill is tabled as a matter of
urgency, that won't happen which will be a pity.
Some of the korero I've heard has been nasty, but most of it's been well
thought out. The arguments have been strong, but clear and they have really
helped me with the position that I have taken. For all the debate, a world
without violence is worth striving for, and while Sue Bradford's bill may
not be perfect, it does challenge us all to raise our sights beyond the
immediate circumstances of our own lives.
Hone Harawira
Tai Tokerau MP
www.tokerau.co.nz