Video:
Introduction:
Recent events have put BLM and
Aboriginal Deaths in Custody back in the public spotlight but examination of
the data reveals a false narrative that is just as destructive for Aboriginal
people as the NSW Aboriginies [sic] Protection Act of 1909. We will examine in
detail the facts, the numbers and the propaganda to understand what is behind
the phenomenon of aboriginal deaths in custody and uncover who the victims are of
those aboriginal people that are incarcerated for their crimes. Further, we
will discover if police or corrective service officers been convicted of murder
for deaths in custody and examine if the coroners reports on the deaths match
the narratives or are these actually media myths designed to create mayhem by
dividing Australian by race?
My fellow Australian’s, I’m John
Andrews and welcome to a new episode of Advancing Australia - Aboriginal Deaths
in Custody: Murder, Myth or Mayhem?
This is the first in a series of video
essays on that pertain to race relations. Race relations and identity politics
are the main weapons that are used to divide Australians from each other, every
time a centre-right or right leaning government takes a step to the left to
accommodate a position, the left take another leap further left and the right
dutifully follow. This situation needs to be addressed and this is the first of
many steps a Nationalist perspective can help navigate back to a sensible
position.
There are two issues that must be very
briefly addressed: there is a trend on the left to cancel or attempt to silence
non-aboriginal voices when discussing aboriginal issues but Australian citizens
have a franchise to exercise at the ballot box and all of our voices contribute
to the body politic. That franchise is non-negotiable, silence no longer an
option.
Additionally there needs to be a
distinction in language, on nomenclature: the word Aboriginal comes from the
Latin ab origine meaning “from the
beginning” and the word indigenous comes from the Latin indigena meaning “native”.
Like many of you I was born in this
country, as such this is our native home, we may travel the world but we will
always call Australia home, this feeling, this love, is at the heart of every
Australian Nationalist. The left place a high degree of importance on language,
with good reason, and I do too. I am a native born Australian, I am
indigenous to this land, however from the perspective of English settlers the
Aborigines were here from their
beginning, for this reason I shall be using the term “Aboriginal”, now and
always.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-28/sydney-black-lives-matter-protesters-detained/12498034
Six
protesters arrested at Sydney Black Lives Matter march
By Jesse Dorsett and Emma Elsworthy -
28 July 2020
The article states that “Mr Gibson
told the ABC the protest was being held to demand justice for David Dungay Jr
and other black people who have died in custody.”
And, “Following an inquest, NSW
Corrections Commissioner Peter Severin acknowledged "systemic issues"
and "clear failings" contributed to Mr Dungay's death.”
https://coroners.nsw.gov.au/content/dam/dcj/ctsd/coronerscourt/documents/findings/2019/DUNGAY%20David%20-%20Findings%20-%20v2.pdf
Searching the coroner’s report for the
term “systemic issues” yields one result:
Section 2.” Why was an inquest held?”
“2.7 Inquests have a forward-thinking,
preventative focus. At the end of many inquests Coroners often exercise a
power, provided for by section 82 of the Act, to make recommendations. These
recommendations are made, usually, to government and non-government
organisations, in order to seek to address systemic
issues that are highlighted and examined during the course of an inquest.
Recommendations in relation to any matter connected with a person’s death may
be made if a Coroner considers them to be necessary or desirable.”
Further a search of the document for the
words “clear failings” yield no results.
This is the nature of the reporting on
this issue, emotional language and conflation, narrative construction and
maintenance. As you will see, this is a theme of the reporting and the
language, the discourse, around the issues. It is a meta-discussion where facts
are irrelevant in the maintenance of division.
Conflict in the past:
In the prologue of Richard Broome’s Aboriginal Australians, a history since 1788,
4th Edition (2010) the author opens his book with an account of the
life and death of Malcolm Smith:
https://www.booktopia.com.au/aboriginal-australians-5th-edition-richard-broome/book/9781760528218.html
“In Dareton, New South Wales, in 1965,
eleven-year-old Malcolm Smith and his brother Robert ‘borrowed’ pushbikes
leaning against a bus shelter and went joy-riding. This small act led to the
involvement of the police, welfare officers and the court. Malcolm’s widowed
father, who was in seasonal work and thus not always present, was judged an
unfit parent. The boys were taken and placed in a series of homes and foster
care placements, where their Aboriginality was undermined, even denigrated. As
a confused youth, Malcolm found himself behind bars, where his Aboriginal
identity was somewhat affirmed by other Koori men. The gaol door revolved and
he was finally reconnected with family, as best any fostered youth could. In
1980, in the hope of pleasing and defending his sister, he outraged her by
killing her boyfriend, who had been bashing her. He was sentenced to four years
for manslaughter. In Long Bay gaol he expressed interest in the Bible and was
given a tape of the book of Matthew. He began to paint religious images but
became delusional, said he was Jesus Christ, then claimed he was evil. Mental
torment mounted, reflecting his alienation from family and his Aboriginal
cultural roots. Self-hatred engulfed him and, driven by the passage in Matthew:
‘And if in thine own eye offend thee, pluck it out’ (Matthew 18:9, King James
Bible), he drove the handle of an artist’s brush into his eye and brain while
in a toilet cubicle, collapsed and died. He became one of 99 cases investigated
in 1990 by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.”*
* Footnote: Honourable J.H. Wooten QC,
‘Report of the Inquiry into the Death of
Malcolm Smith’, Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Reports,
AGPS, Canberra 5 January 1989.
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/IndigLRes/rciadic/individual/brm_mcs/
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/IndigLRes/rciadic/individual/brm_mcs/32.html
Quoting from that document directly:
“MALCOLM CHARLES SMITH - GENOCIDE AND
THE AFTERMATH OF ASSIMILATION
No-one at the Malabar Assessment Unit
[at Long Bay Gaol] that day was at fault. Each officer was doing his or her
duty in the normal way and had no reason to expect what would happen. When
Malcolm inflicted the fatal injury on himself, the officers responded promptly
and sensibly and can only be commended for the way they handled a most
distressing incident. Equally, the medical attention which he subsequently
received was beyond criticism.”
However this is a 31,000 word report,
it is very extensive, Malcolm died in 1983, the report was finalised in 1989.
It goes on to say:
“The attempt to 'solve the Aboriginal
problem' by the deliberate destruction of families and communities, which was
the policy of the Aborigines Protection Board, and to some extent its
successor, the Aborigines Welfare Board, not only wrecked individual lives but
is seen by many Aboriginals as falling squarely within the modern definition of
genocide.”
Peter Read is cited as a source in the
report and he is the academic that first coined the term “stolen generations”.
To date I found no evidence that this
was the intent of the policy and there is no evidence presented in the report to
support that conclusion. Also there is much argument in academia about what we
colloquially refer to as the stolen
generations and that is a topic I am very interested in but not the subject
of this video.
There is a list of exhibits at the end
of the report but they are not attached to it. Further, when reviewing the NSW Aborigines
Protection Act 1909 (1909 - 1969) it is not possible to discern intent from the
legislation. At some time in the future I will have to physically track down
the exhibits and read Hansard, the recordings of proceedings from parliament,
if available, to see what the creators of these documents were saying. At the
moment I have no evidence before me of their intentions, however parts of the legislation
and the results are very confronting:
Aborigines
Protection Act 1909, NSW
https://findandconnect.gov.au/ref/nsw/objects/ND0000104.htm
The Act was amended in 1915, 1918, 1936, 1940, 1943 and
1963. To quote from the 1909 Act,
“6. The board may appoint local committees consisting of not
more than seven nor less than three persons, to act in conjunction with the
board, and also officers to be called guardians of aborigines; and may at any
time abolish such local committees, or remove any members therefrom, or cancel
the appointment of any guardian. Such committees and guardians shall exercise
and perform the powers and duties prescribed by this Act and the regulations.”
“7. It shall be the duty of the board—
(a) to, with
the consent of the Minister, apportion, distribute, and apply as may seem most
fitting, any moneys voted by Parliament, and any other funds in its possession
or control, for the relief (if aborigines ;
(b) to
distribute blankets, clothing, and relief to aborigines at the discretion of
the board;
(c) to
provide for the custody, maintenance , and education of the children of
aborigines;
(d) to manage
and regulate the use of reserves;
(e) to
exercise a general supervision and care over all matters affecting the
interests and welfare of aborigines, and to protect them against injustice,
imposition, and fraud.”
“8. (1) All reserves shall be vested in the board, and it
shall not be lawful for any person other than an aborigine, or an officer under
the board, or a person acting under the board's direction, or under the
authority of the regulations, to enter or remain upon or be within the limits
of a reserve upon which aborigines are residing, for any purpose whatsoever.”
“10. Whosoever, not being an aborigine, or the child of an
aborigine, lodges or wanders in company with any aborigine, and does not, on
being required by a justice, give to his satisfaction a good account that he
has a lawful fixed place of residence in New South Wales and lawful means of
support, and that he so lodged or wandered for some temporary and lawful
occasion only, and did not continue so to do beyond such occasion, shall be
guilty of an offence against this Act.”
“16. (1) If it appears to a court on complaint by or on
behalf of the board that any near relative is of ability to maintain or to
contribute to the maintenance at the cost of the Government of any child of an
aborigine under sixteen and over five years of age, the court may on summons
order such near relative to pay to the board a reasonable sum in instalments or
otherwise, as the court directs for or towards—
a. the past
maintenance of such child, whether such child be alive or not at the time of
the application;
b. the
future maintenance of such child”
It was repealed by the Aborigines Act
1969, following the 1967 referendum.
Aborigines
Act 1969 (1969 - 1983) NSW
https://findandconnect.gov.au/ref/nsw/objects/ND0000115.htm
The new Act established Aboriginal
Welfare Services in the Department of Child Welfare and Social Welfare; the
Directorate of Aboriginal Welfare and the Aborigines Advisory Council. This Act
was amended in 1973 and repealed in 1983 by the Aboriginal Land Rights Act.
We can note that this is actually very
draconian legislation that controls every aspect of the lives of aboriginal
people.
Mental Health of Prisoners:
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, The health of Australia’s prisoners 2018
https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/prisoners/health-australia-prisoners-2018/summary
May 2019
2 in 5 prison entrants had been told
they had a mental health condition, with almost 1 in 4 currently taking mental
health-related medication
About 2 in 5 prison entrants (40%) and
prison dischargees (37%) reported a previous diagnosis of a mental health
condition, including alcohol and other drug use disorders. Women were more
likely than men to report:
·
a history of a mental health condition (65%
compared with 36%)
·
taking medication for a mental health
condition (40% compared with 21%).
Non-Indigenous prison entrants (26%)
were more likely than Indigenous entrants (19%) to report currently taking
medication for a mental health condition.
3 in 4 deaths in prison custody were
due to natural causes
Between 2013–14 and 2014–15, 115
people died in prison. Almost 3 in 4 (71%) of these deaths were from natural
causes, and 1 in 4 (25%) were due to suicide or self-inflicted causes.
1 in 5 prison entrants reported a
history of self-harm
More than 1 in 5 (21%) prison entrants
reported a history of self-harm. Women entering prison (31%) were 1.5 times as
likely as men (20%) to report a history of self-harm. More than 1 in 4 (26%)
younger prison entrants (aged 18–24) reported a history of self-harm, higher
than any other age group.
The Prison Population:
Australian Law Reform Commission: Pathways to justice
inquiry into the incarceration rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Peoples Report 133
https://www.alrc.gov.au/publication/pathways-to-justice-inquiry-into-the-incarceration-rate-of-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-peoples-alrc-report-133/executive-summary-15/disproportionate-incarceration-rate/
3.13 Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander peoples are disproportionately represented in Australian prison
populations. In 2016, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people constituted
just 2% of the Australian adult population but comprised more than one quarter
(27%) of the national adult prison population.[25]
3.14 As shown in
Figure 3.1 below, the extent of the over-representation varied by state and territory.
For example, in the NT, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
constituted 30% of the general population, and 84% of the prison population. In
Victoria, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples constituted 1% of the
general population and 8% of the prison population.
3.70 Nationally,
the proportion of prisoners with a prior record of imprisonment was very high:
three quarters (76%) of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners and
half (49%) of non-Indigenous prisoners in 2016 had been in custody on at least
one previous occasion.
Australian Bureau of Statistics, PRISONER CHARACTERISTICS
AUSTRALIA SNAPSHOT
https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4517.0~2018~Main%20Features~Prisoner%20characteristics,%20Australia~4
At 30 June 2018 there were 42,974 prisoners in Australian
gaols:
• Seven out of ten prisoners (68% or
29,030 prisoners) were sentenced, whilst 32% (13,856 prisoners) were
unsentenced.
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander prisoners accounted for over a quarter (28% or 11,849 prisoners) of
the total Australian prisoner population. The total Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander population aged 18 years and over in 2018 was approximately 2%
of the Australian population aged 18 years and over (based on Australian
Demographic Statistics (cat. no. 3101.0) and Estimates and Projections,
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, 2001 to 2026 (cat. no.
3238.0)). (Table 1)
Victims of crime:
Australian Bureau of Statistics, Recorded Crime - Victims,
Australia
https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/crime-and-justice/recorded-crime-victims/2019
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander victims of crime
NOTE FROM ABS:
Statistics on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander victims
of crime are presented for New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and the
Northern Territory. Based on an ABS assessment, Indigenous status data for
other states and territories are not of sufficient quality and/or do not meet
ABS standards for national reporting in 2019.
Assault
The number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander victims
of assault recorded in 2019 were:
• 4,694
victims in the Northern Territory of 6730
o 69.7% victims vs 30.3% of
population
• 4,435
victims in New South Wales of 67661
o 6.6% victims vs 3.4% total
population
• 2,321
victims in South Australia of 16,165
o 14.4% victims vs 2.5% total
population]
Of the Northern Territory’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander assault victims:
• The
majority were female (64–76%)
• More than
a quarter (26–34%) were aged between 25 and 34 years
• Half occurred in a community
location in the Northern Territory, which is to say, not in a private
residence.
• Around two-thirds of assaults
occurred in a residential location in New South Wales (66%) and South Australia
(63%)
Sexual assault
The number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander victims
of sexual assault recorded in 2019 were:
• 929
victims in New South Wales of 11,009 total of sexual assaults
o 8.4% victims vs 3.4% of population
• 130
victims in the Northern Territory of 354
o 36.7% victims vs 30.3% of
population
• 563
victims in Queensland of 4,859 total of sexual assaults
o 11.6% victims vs 4.6% of population
• 95
victims in South Australia of 1,550
o : 6.1% victims vs 2.5% of
population
The victimisation rate for sexual assault increased from 255
victims to 331 victims per 100,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
persons, the highest in the current time series.
For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander victims of sexual
assault:
• The
majority were female (78–95%)
• About a third were aged between 10
and 14 years in New South Wales (37%), Queensland (32%) and the Northern
Territory (28%).
• In South
Australia about a quarter (24%) were aged between 15 and 19 years
• Most knew
the offender (62–84%)
• The most common location was
residential, ranging from 49% in the Northern Territory to 75% in New South
Wales
Other Data
There is no specific National Data available on either
perpetrator or victims of crimes such as robbery, unlawful entry with intent,
motor vehicle theft, or other theft.
Domestic Violence
NSW DOMESTIC VIOLENCE DEATH REVIEW TEAM REPORT 2015 2017
https://coroners.nsw.gov.au/content/dam/dcj/ctsd/coronerscourt/documents/reports/2015-2017_DVDRT_Report_October2017(online).pdf
12% of women killed by an intimate partner identified as
Aboriginal. (1.7% of NSW population)
31% of men killed by an intimate partner identified as
Aboriginal. (1.6% of national population)
The official numbers are there, a trend Australia wide of
aboriginal people committing crimes against other aboriginal people and the
activists are totally silent on the issue, their media allies totally ignoring
the problem.
Let us compare the numbers we have seen with how they are
reported:
Indigenous
prison population continues to increase, while non-Indigenous incarceration
rate falls
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jan/22/indigenous-prison-population-continues-to-increase-while-non-indigenous-incarceration-rate-falls
Elias Visontay Friday 22 January 2021
This article reports:
·
imprisonment rate
o
Indigenous rate 1,935 people per 100,000 adults
(when adjusted for the average age among Indigenous Australians)
o
non-Indigenous rate 166 people per 100,000
adults
You will note that the figures for aboriginal Australians
was adjusted up for average age but the rate for non-aboriginal people was not.
·
most prisoners in the Northern Territory are
Indigenous
o
30% of the population but committing assaults at
twice that rates
·
the words “crime”, “conviction” or “victim” does
not appear in the article
Deaths in custody:
Australian Institute of Criminology
keep statistics via their National Deaths in Custody Program
https://www.aic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-12/Data_tables-Deaths_in_prison_custody_2018-19.xlsx
Table
B1 of their 2018-2019 Death in custody spreadsheet reveal that 18% of
all deaths from all causes were Aboriginal, from a prison population that was
28% Aboriginal. Aboriginal people are under-represented in deaths of all causes
within the prison population by about 1/3.
That is that the death rates are a
third lower than the rest of the prison population.
Indigenous
life expectancy and deaths - Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
(AIHW)
https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-health/indigenous-life-expectancy-and-deaths
In 2019 the death rates for:
·
aboriginal people of all ages was 440 per
100,000
·
non-aboriginal people all ages 652 per 100,000
Australian Institute or Criminology,
Statistical Report 31 Deaths in custody
in Australia 2018–19
https://www.aic.gov.au/publications/sr/sr31
·
The death rate of Indigenous prisoners was 130
per 100,000 prisoners
·
3.11 per 100,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander population aged 18 years and over
Aboriginal Deaths in custody 2018/19 (n=13)
Natural causes: 11
Self-inflicted hanging: 1
External trauma: 1
Natural Causes:
“Of the 11 Indigenous deaths resulting
from natural causes (see Table B1), the specific cause of death was recorded in
nine cases. Two of these deaths were from heart disease or related ailments,
two were from cancer, two were from respiratory conditions, two were from other
diseases and one was from a stroke.
Natural causes were the most common
cause of death for Indigenous and non-Indigenous prisoners (79% and 65%
respectively; see Table B1). The death rate for natural cause deaths was
similar for Indigenous prisoners (0.09 per 100) and non-Indigenous prisoners
(0.11 per 100).”
Self-inflicted hanging:
Hanging death rates among Indigenous
and non-Indigenous prisoners were also comparable (0.02 vs 0.03 per 100
respectively). The rate of Indigenous hanging deaths has been lower or the same
as the rate of non-Indigenous hanging deaths in all but two years since 2001–02
(see Figure 6).
External trauma:
*External trauma includes head
injuries and gunshot wounds. External trauma can also include unlawful homicide
and justifiable homicide.
14 Case Studies:
Deaths inside Indigenous Australian
deaths in custody 2020
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/ng-interactive/2018/aug/28/deaths-inside-indigenous-australian-deaths-in-custody
“More than 400 Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander people have died in custody since the end of the royal
commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody in 1991.
The royal commission emphasised the
importance of monitoring and maintaining accurate data about deaths in custody.
Despite public reporting and tracking through the Australian Institute of
Criminology’s national program, detailed, up-to-date information is hard to
find.
In 2018, Guardian Australia’s reporting team collected and
analysed all available coronial data and other sources to build this searchable
database.
One year on, we have updated “Deaths
inside”, which tracks every known Indigenous death in custody in every
jurisdiction from 2008 - 2020.
Now you can download the data, and we
have added new search functions.
We want to thank all the families who
agreed to participate in this project.
This database contains descriptions of
self-harm, and we understand some viewers may find the information, images and
stories contained within to be distressing.”
1. “Unknown” -
06 November, 2019
The Guardian reported it thus: “The
20-year-old Aboriginal man fell 10m to his death while being escorted from
Gosford hospital to Kariong Correctional Centre on 6 November 2019”.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-07/man-dies-escaping-custody-near-gosford-hospital-plunging-10m/11683276
Corrective Services said the man
jumped a 1.5-metre-high wall and fell down the 10-metre drop on the other side.
No Justice – No Peace, Black Lives
Matter
2. Patrick
Fisher - 07 February, 2018
The Guardian: “Patrick Fisher fell
from a 13th-floor balcony in the Waterloo public housing block in Sydney in
February 2018 while allegedly trying to climb down to escape from the police,
who had turned up at the address to arrest him over outstanding warrants. His
family, who have called for an independent investigation, said he probably felt
he had no option but to run or he would be "bashed" by police.”
https://coroners.nsw.gov.au/content/dam/dcj/ctsd/coronerscourt/documents/findings/2019/PATRICK%20FISHER%20FINDINGS.pdf
“11.There were 21 warnings on Mr
Fisher’s ‘Police profile’, including, “may assault police”, “known prohibited
drug user”, “may carry weapon”, “may become violent when intoxicated”, “POI has
threatened to kill any Redfern Police officer whilst on or off duty- warning
should be taken seriously”, “approach with caution”, “consideration should be
given to handcuffing whilst speaking to POI for Police officer safety”,
“self-admitted ice user”, and perhaps most relevantly “May escape or attempt to
escape; May resist arrest”.”
Magistrate C Forbes NSW Deputy Coroner
said:
“I find that Patrick Fisher died on 7
February 2018 at the Sir Joseph Banks Building, 249 George Street, Waterloo,
NSW as a result of multiple injuries he received when he fell from a 13th floor
balcony. Methylamphetamine intoxication was a significant condition that
contributed to but did not cause his death.”
3. Terry Carl
Ah-See “Tas” – 29 March 2017
The Guardian: “TAS was critically
injured when the car he was driving flipped less than a minute after police
began a pursuit on Lloyd’s Road in Bathurst. He died in hospital a short time
later, but a passenger in the car survived. The car was unregistered. The
coroner’s report said there was confusion between police officers about whether
the pursuit had been terminated, and the coroner reiterated a previous
recommendation about defining the word “termination” in relation to police
pursuits. She also recommended it be made clear whether a loss of vision of a
vehicle amounted to the termination of a police pursuit.”
https://www.westernadvocate.com.au/story/5237167/driver-jailed-over-police-pursuit-which-led-to-fatal-crash-on-vale-road/
At the trial of one of the parties
involved it was reported: “Dennis had earlier failed to stop for police who
initiated a pursuit before Dennis stopped the car and absconded on foot. A man
who had been a passenger in the car while Dennis was driving then got behind
the wheel and drove off. Minutes later the car crashed on the Vale Road,
killing the driver.”
https://coroners.nsw.gov.au/coroners-court/download.html/documents/reports/158632_STATE_CORONERS_COURT_Deaths_in_Custody_2019_-_WEB_VERSION_LR.pdf
According to Deputy State Coroner Ryan’s
finding:
“Toxicological analysis of Mr Ah-See’s
post mortem blood samples detected cannabis, fentanyl, methylamphetamine,
midazolam and oxycodone. Expert toxicologist Dr Judith Perl assessed the concentration
of methylamphetamine to be ‘very significant’. In her opinion it would have
been expected to impair the ability of Mr Ah-See to control a car.”
Further, “the evidence does not enable
the court to find that Mr Ah-See drove in the manner he did because he was
being pursued by police.”
The Coroner made no findings of wrong
doing by any of the officers involved in the pursuit.
I wrote to the Guardian specifically
on this matter:
Dear Guardian,
Am writing to you regarding your
interactive report on "Deaths inside, Indigenous Australian deaths in
custody 2020", https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/ng-interactive/2018/aug/28/deaths-inside-indigenous-australian-deaths-in-custody
In this report you report the death of
"TAS" on 29th March 2017 thus: "TAS was critically injured when
the car he was driving flipped less than a minute after police began a pursuit
on Lloyd’s Road in Bathurst. He died in hospital a short time later, but a
passenger in the car survived. The car was unregistered. The coroner’s report
said there was confusion between police officers about whether the pursuit had
been terminated, and the coroner reiterated a previous recommendation about
defining the word “termination” in relation to police pursuits. She also
recommended it be made clear whether a loss of vision of a vehicle amounted to
the termination of a police pursuit."
You (The Guardian) directly quoted the
coroner’s report, which identifies him as Terry Carl Ah-See and Deputy State Coroner
Ryan found that: "Toxicological analysis of Mr Ah-See’s post mortem blood
samples detected cannabis, fentanyl, methylamphetamine, midazolamand oxycodone.
Expert toxicologist Dr Judith Perl assessed the concentration of
methylamphetamine to be ‘very significant’. In her opinion it would have been
expected to impair the ability of Mr Ah-See to control a car."
Further, the coroner made no finding
of wrongdoing by any officer.
This issue is obviously very important
to The Guardian given the resources the paper has devoted to the topic, and the
volume of coverage. I am preparing an essay on media reporting on the topic and
was wondering if you would care to make any comment, on the record, regarding
the following:
Why did The Guardian specifically omit
the severe intoxication of Mr. Ah-See's in the reporting?
Why is Mr. Ah-See's name obscured in
the reporting?
Further, why did the report omit the
fact that Mr. Ah-See moved from a passenger seat to the driver's seat when the
pursuit originally came to a stop, and then continue to flee police as the
driver?
I expect to publish tomorrow
afternoon.
Many thanks in advance,
John Andrews
4. Tane
Chatfield - 22 September, 2017
The Guardian: “Tane Richard Chatfield
died while on remand at Tamworth correctional centre in New South Wales during
a trial in which his lawyer said he was confident of being found not guilty. In
the 24 hours before he was found unresponsive in his cell on the morning of 20
September 2017, he had been separated from his cellmate and received medical
treatment for a seizure. He died in Tamworth hospital on 22 September.
Corrective Services NSW said his death was "not suspicious". His
family say they received inconsistent information from authorities and do not
believe he was suicidal. The inquest is pending.”
https://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/courts-law/tane-chatfield-death-ruled-suicide-but-nurses-actions-slammed/news-story/a6036f8b96d6eef2dbb85db0f82c78ed
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-14/coronial-inquest-death-of-aboriginal-man-tane-chatfield-prison/12454594
https://coroners.nsw.gov.au/coroners-court/download.html/documents/findings/2020/Chatfield_findings.pdf
Reading the coroner’s report and
findings outlines a tragic case. Tane had a series of seizures and was admitted
to hospital where he stayed for observation, was returned to gaol and his cell,
paperwork was late coming from the hospital to the gaol, there was a shift
change and the handover did not contain the missing information and the dazed
and confused Tane hung himself in his cell. The coroner found that Tane should
have been placed in an observation cell until his health issues could be
properly assessed in a clinical setting.
The coroner made a finding of
“intentionally self-inflicted death” with a series of recommendation regarding
clinical care particularly: “I am confident that input and involvement from an
Aboriginal Mental Health Worker could have been an important component of
improved care and support for Tane and his mental state. The provision of
culturally appropriate treatment and suicide prevention work must be pursued.”
Further, the coroner ordered a transcript
of the evidence of the nurse who last saw Tane alive be forwarded to the Chief
Executive, Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia for consideration of
whether her professional conduct should be the subject of review.
5. David
Dungay - 29 December, 2015
The Guardian: In November last year NSW deputy
coroner Derek Lee found “it was neither necessary nor appropriate for David to
be moved and that he did not pose a security risk." He said: "From a
medical point of view there was no evidence of any acute condition which would
have warranted a cell transfer." However, he said none of the five guards
should face disciplinary action. Their conduct, Lee said, “was limited by
systemic efficiencies in training” and was “not motivated by malicious intent”.
But the Dungay family said they will fight for somebody to be made accountable
for his death. “It’s plain and simple, the use of force was a contributing
factor to his death,” Dungay’s nephew, Paul Silva, told Guardian Australia. “If
you take that use of force out, would David Dungay still be alive today?”
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jul/31/manslaughter-or-assault-charges-over-david-dungays-death-are-viable-barrister-says
26-year-old man who had diabetes and
schizophrenia, was in Long Bay jail hospital in November 2015, when guards
stormed his cell after he refused to stop eating a packet of biscuits.
Dungay was dragged to another cell by
guards, held face down and injected with a sedative by a Justice Health nurse,
before losing consciousness and dying.
https://coroners.nsw.gov.au/content/dam/dcj/ctsd/coronerscourt/documents/findings/2019/DUNGAY%20David%20-%20Findings%20-%20v2.pdf
The 102 page report on coroner’s
inquest states:
“Cause of death
The cause of David’s death was cardiac
arrhythmia.
Manner of death
David died whilst being restrained in
the prone position by Corrective Services New South Wales officers. David’s
long-standing poorly controlled type I diabetes, hyperglycaemia, prescription
of antipsychotic medication with a propensity to prolong the QT interval,
elevated body mass index, likely hypoxaemia caused by prone restraint, and
extreme stress and agitation as a result of the use of force and restraint were
all contributory factors to David’s death.”
Footnote 338 of the Coroner’s Report
States: “The QT interval is the measure of electrical activity between the Q
and T waves in the heart’s electrical cycle and shows activity in the heart’s
lower chambers, the ventricles. Normally the QT interval is about a third of
each heartbeat cycle. When the QT interval is prolonged it can upset the timing
of the heartbeat and cause dangerous arrhythmias (irregular heartbeats). An
abnormally prolonged QT interval is associated with an increased risk of
ventricular tachycardia, a fast heart rate caused by improper electrical
activity in the ventricles, especially a condition known as Torsades de Pointes.”
Section 24.9 of the report states:
“Associate Professor Adams noted that
David had been prescribed both chlorpromazine and zuclopenthixol, both
medications of which are known to increase the QT interval. Therefore Associate
Professor Adams opined that “it is likely that the combination of antipsychotic
drugs may have contributed to development of a cardiac arrhythmia due to their
combined effects on contributing to QT prolongation”.”
The coroner found no wrong doing and
made no recommendations for charges although did recommend changes to procedures.
Although the Guardian attempt to
trivialise the justification of guards intervention “after he refused to stop
eating a packet of biscuits” he was severely mentally ill, was in crisis and
had poorly managed diabetes and the sugar spike could have had serious long
term health complications. If they had ignored those and he died there would
still have been an issue with a death in custody.
6. Julieka
Ivanna Dhu - 04 August, 2014
The Guardian: Ms Dhu died while “cutting out” unpaid
fines after enduring what a coroner called “unprofessional” and “inhumane”
treatment from some police officers at South Hedland police station. She had
been told she was “faking it” and called a “fucking junkie”. She was dropped on
the cell floor when she could not stand up, dragged along the floor, and then
carried, handcuffed and shackled, to a police van because she could not walk.
Her death was attributed to septicemia caused by an infection in a rib broken
by her violent partner some weeks before. Her family received a $1.1m ex-gratia
payment and a formal apology from the Western Australia attorney general, and
are still considering further legal action.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-17/wa-unpaid-fines-reforms-pass-wa-parliament-after-ms-dhu-death/12357888
https://coronerscourt.wa.gov.au/_files/Dhu%20finding.pdf
There is no doubt that the death of
Julieka Dhu is an absolute tragedy and a result of failures within WA’s Health
and Police departments. The coroner’s report is 165 pages long, very thorough.
The aspect of this death that pertains
to Aboriginality seems to be paragraph 747, “Given that police officers
stationed in the Port Hedland area (and other regional areas) would be
interacting with Aboriginal persons and be responsible for their care in a
custodial environment, and given what was already known about the health status
of Aboriginal persons, in hindsight their training ought to have included
information concerning Aboriginal persons’ higher rates of common medical
illnesses and susceptibility to illnesses.”
And par. 749 “749. However, the
purpose of training police officers in the health status of Aboriginal persons
is to impart an understanding of the social determinants of ill health and to
thereby, hopefully, avoid preconceptions being made to the effect that
apparently unusual, aberrant or atypical behaviour must be due to intoxication
or drug withdrawal. Training in this area is inextricably connected with
cultural competency.”
And, crucially par 751:
“Whilst this deficiency in training
did not contribute to Ms Dhu’s death, more focussed training in this area may
have softened the attitudes shown to Ms Dhu during the last hours of her life.
Even though by this stage medical assistance was not likely to revive Ms Dhu,
it may have caused police officers to more readily seek it, and may have made
her last hours more comfortable.”
The failing in this instance appear to
be related mainly to her examinations at the hospital. So although an absolute
tragedy this is by no means the deliberate killing by the state of a young
woman because she is aboriginal.
https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/health/causes-death/causes-death-australia/latest-release
It is worth noting that in 2019 Chronic
lower respiratory disease was the second leading cause of death of Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander people, ahead of Diabetes.
7. Rebecca
Maher - 19 July, 2016
The Guardian: Rebecca Maher is the
first Aboriginal person to die in New South Wales police custody since the introduction
of the mandatory custody notification service (CNS) in 2000. She was taken into
protective custody for allegedly walking in an intoxicated manner along a road
in Cessnock. Police did not attempt to contact a responsible person, as
required under the relevant legislation, did not call an ambulance, and did not
search her for drugs because they mistakenly believed she was HIV positive.
They did not enter her cell between 1.27am, when she was checked in, and
5.51am, when it was discovered she was dead. An inquest found that her level of
intoxication and apparent breathing difficulties, which were noted by police
although some police at the inquest denied discussing the issue, meant that she
should have been taken to hospital. Had an ambulance been called, the coroner
found, she would have survived. The coroner made seven recommendations
including expanding the CNS to include people taken into protective custody.
https://coroners.nsw.gov.au/content/dam/dcj/ctsd/coronerscourt/documents/findings/2019/Findings%20-%20Rebecca%20Maher.pdf
https://coroners.nsw.gov.au/content/dam/dcj/ctsd/coronerscourt/documents/findings/2019/Maher%20-%20directed%20interviews%20-%20Reasons%20for%20Decision%20-%204%20March%202019.pdf
Rebecca was arrested because her Central
Name Index (“CNI”) check indicated that Rebecca had failed to report on bail
that day. That information later proved to be incorrect. Further Rebecca was
not searched prior to being placed in her cell, if she was two pill bottles may
have been found (it is contended that one may have been in her vagina) and she
would have been denied the opportunity to overdose. Police did not search her
because records showed (again incorrectly) that she was HIV positive, although
she was accurately recorded as having Hepatitis C and police procedures gave conflicting
advice on “the risk of occupational transmission of Hepatitis C and HIV”
The report noted, on par 13:
“Rebecca also had a lengthy history of
using illicit and prescription drugs from the age of 15 or 16. In November
2000, records show Rebecca reported “constant” use of opiates and five
accidental overdoses. From at least November 2000, Rebecca was prescribed
Methadone by the Hunter/Newcastle Methadone Program (“Pharmacotherapy
Service”). Rebecca continued to regularly consume Methadone on prescription
until the time of her death, dispensed either by the Pharmacotherapy Service
or, while in gaol, by Justice Health.”
8. RB - 25
October, 2014
The Guardian: “RB died of heart
failure while in his cell overnight on 25 October 2014. The coroner found that
the cell alarm system had not been working properly the night RB called for
assistance. Fellow inmates said they'd seen the alarm light, but the guards had
not been alerted.”
Due of the use of the pseudonym “RB” I
am unable to trace the coroner’s report and I think that is a deliberate choice
by The Guardian given the manifest trend.
Is it because fellow inmates could
have assisted in alerting guards but chose not to?
9. Bud Lord -
19 January, 2013
The Guardian: “Mr Lord, known to his
family as Bud, had a heart attack while in hospital awaiting gall bladder
surgery. He was serving a jail sentence for driving disqualified. An inquest
found his health care in hospital was adequate but his family called for
changes to the laws that allowed him to be jailed for driving while
disqualified, saying they unfairly targeted Aboriginal people and those in
remote and regional areas. A 2017 review by the Australian Law Reform
Commission later found the laws overwhelmingly affected Aboriginal people.”
“Bud” Lord, I found was actually named
Stanley Allan Lord I can see why his details were hidden.
https://coroners.nsw.gov.au/content/dam/dcj/ctsd/coronerscourt/documents/findings/2014/stanley%20lord%20findings%20final%20version.pdf
Coroner: “Manner of death: Mr Lord
died from natural causes while serving a custodial sentence.”
Had a heart attack while in hospital
awaiting gall bladder surgery.
With respect to the Australian Law
Reform Commission and Bud’s gaoling the coroner said: “the road toll demands
that governments respond robustly to drink driving and dangerous driving.
Disqualifying offenders from driving is the most direct and obvious response, even
though it will also have unintended consequences in some cases.”
No Justice No Peace!
10. DWW - 14
April, 2013
The Guardian: “DWW had a background of
self-harm and suicide attempts and a diagnosed history of schizophrenia. The
coroner was critical of the mental healthcare he received. It took far too long
to transfer DWW to the mental health screening unit by which time he was in
crisis. "The evidence and expert opinion indicates DWW's mental health deteriorated
without sufficiently prompt and active intervention," the coroner wrote.
He was required to be under constant video surveillance but managed to throw
wet toilet paper onto the lens of a camera about 3.14pm on 5 April 2013. While
the guards had noticed this, they did not investigate until about 20 minutes
later, when they came to deliver him a meal. DWW was found with an apparent
ligature around his neck. He never regained consciousness and died nine days
later at John Hunter hospital.
https://coroners.nsw.gov.au/content/dam/dcj/ctsd/coronerscourt/documents/findings/2017/Wotherspoon%20findings%20final.pdf
This man’s name was David WOTHERSPOON.
“130. There was no need or authority
to resort to the provisions of the Mental Health Act which enable compulsory
treatment until David had been transferred to a declared mental health
facility, an arrangement he would have voluntarily agreed to. The problematic
delay from a treatment perspective was the failure to decide to transfer him to
the MHSU until 15 March, by which time he was he was in crisis. The evidence
and expert opinion indicates David’s mental health deteriorated without
sufficiently prompt and active intervention.
34. Dr Bench decided David should be
referred to the MHSU at Silverwater. In the meantime, Dr Bench recommended that
David remain in the MHU at Cessnock under a Risk Intervention Team (“RIT”)
Protocol.
36. However, for reasons which were
not adequately explained, the form was not completed until 21 March 2013. Nurse
Kibble indicated that she cannot now recall if the referral was to be given
priority but she absent from work from 16-19 March 2013 inclusive and attended
to this administrative task two days after she returned to work.”
This is another failure of a system,
which is indeed tragic but far from a coordinated campaign to kill prisoners
based on their aboriginality.
11. FWD - 28
December, 2013
The Guardian: “FWD had a heart attack
while playing rugby at the age of 28. He never mentioned those heart problems
to Justice Health when incarcerated in New South Wales, and gave his medical
history as not having a history of heart disease. He had never been diagnosed
with heart disease. On 28 December he had difficulty breathing while lying on
his bed at Junee correctional centre and asked his cellmate to call for help.
He was rushed to hospital but died, with the cause of death listed as ischaemic
heart disease. His family said prisons should try to take more comprehensive
medical histories.”
Due of the use of the pseudonym “FWD” I am unable to trace the coroner’s report and I think that is a deliberate choice by The Guardian given the manifest trend.
Natural Causes: No Justice no Peace.
12. PB - 16
June, 2012
The Guardian: “PB overdosed on heroin
which had been smuggled into the Emu Plains minimum security correctional
centre by a visitor. She was only 21 years old. Guards admitted to the coroner
that they would have found the contraband if they had followed correct daily
procedures, including searches and perimeter checks. PB's cellmates also failed
to alert authorities to her condition during the evening. "The tragedy of
this matter is that, apart from the failings by Corrective Services staff on
the night of her death, had any of the other inmates in House 3 chosen to “buzz
up” there seems little doubt PB could have been saved," the coroner wrote.
Her name was Paigh Bartholomew
https://coroners.nsw.gov.au/content/dam/dcj/ctsd/coronerscourt/documents/findings/2017/Bartholomew%20Findings.pdf
Deputy State Coroner H Barry:
"Paigh’s aunt had raised Paigh from the
age of 13 months to 18 years. Paigh’s father died whilst he was in custody and
her mother exhibited scant interest in her. As she entered into her teens Paigh
found it more difficult to reconcile the fact that her mother had no
involvement with her. By the age of 18 Paigh was pregnant and already addicted
to drugs. Her baby was taken from her and this exacerbated her deteriorating
behaviour."
Emu Plains Correctional Centre is
a
minimum security correctional centre for females. It is a working dairy farm
utilising the services of inmates to perform dairy farm duties. Paigh’s friend
was able to supply her with heroine from a boundary fence.
The term “buzz up” refers to use of an
alarm that would alert corrections staff to an issue and several of the inmates
in the house were against using the system even though Paigh was showing clear
symptoms of over-dose.
13. DJJ - 03
September, 2011
The Guardian: “DJJ died in his cell
from medical issues relating to hypertension and heart disease, worsened by
diabetes mellitus and morbid obesity. His health problems were well known and
the coroner said there remained an intention to move DJJ to the hospital but
"the mills grind slowly, especially in this country".
“ISSUES RAISED - Medical care required
but not all given.”
https://coroners.nsw.gov.au/content/dam/dcj/ctsd/coronerscourt/documents/reports/dic%20report%202013.pdf
Darrell John Jones
State Coroner Jerram found his
treatment had been “complicated by the fact that he himself had asked not to be
moved.”
The coroner’s report is a 2 page
document that contains no criticisms or recommendations simply finding that
Darrel John Jones died of natural causes.
14. Mark
Edward Mason - 11 November, 2010
Mark Edward Mason was shot twice by a
police officer during a struggle at a house in Collarenebri. Five police
officers went to the house to arrest Mason over an allegation that he had
threatened to kill his ex-partner and over an incident where he drove at police
earlier that day. He was Tasered and sprayed with capsicum spray, which coroner
Hugh Dillon said caused him considerable pain. “He was a whirling dervish
almost, trying to beat off his attackers to relieve himself of the terrible
pain that he was suffering,” Dillon said. He found Senior Constable Michael
Bobako shot Mason in self defence because MEM was beating him around the head
and said Mason’s Aboriginality was not a motivating factor in the shooting.
https://coroners.nsw.gov.au/content/dam/dcj/ctsd/coronerscourt/documents/reports/dic%20report%202013.pdf
What the Guardian does not mention is
that Mason had rammed a police car, injuring two officers, and that Mason had
threatened to stab Stacey Adams, his ex-girlfriend, and as such had to be
brought into custody.
Deputy State Coroner Dillon’s report
contains the following phrases that describe the encounter:
·
it was not unreasonable to use the taser
·
He did not drop the iron bar, he then began to
lash out
·
swinging the iron bar, the tyre lever with
enormous force
·
Anyone of those blows could have killed Senior
Constable Bobako
What is being done:
At present political activists have
focussed exclusively on Racism, Policing, Prison policy and procedure as being
the main contributing factors to the deaths of arrestees and convicted
criminals. A conversation around personal and community responsibility, and community,
familial or indeed even tribal responses to the endemic levels of crime and
victimisation within Aboriginal communities have been obvious in their absence
and silenced by media, academia and activists.
In a real sense, to quote an activist
slogan, “silence is violence”.
Noel Pearson is a greatly respected Aboriginal
leader, I had the pleasure of introducing myself to Noel in Sydney Airport over
a decade ago whilst we were both waiting in the Regional Express departure
lounge.
Indigenous
people need to take responsibility over youth incarceration
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/aug/03/noel-pearson-indigenous-people-need-to-take-responsibility-over-youth-incarceration
Australian Associated Press 3 August
2016
“Indigenous leader Noel Pearson has
criticised “selective outrage” over the Northern Territory juvenile detention
abuse saga, saying Indigenous people need to take some responsibility.
Pearson says more focus is needed on
preventing children from entering the justice system and Aboriginal people need
to take more responsibility for the welfare of their children.”
Grandmothers
unite to combat youth crime in NT town of Tennant Creek
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-22/grandmothers-of-tennant-creek-unite-against-crime/13265750
Oliver Gordon 22 March 2021
“Last year, the BP service station on
the edge of town was a crime hotspot: the site of vandalism, theft and
violence. Now, the service station hosts a nightly camp-out of grandmothers and
volunteers determined to stop youth offending before it happens.
"[When they started] we were
having an average of between 30 and 50 kids on the streets at night," Mr
Duxworth said. "Now it's somewhere between 15 and 30. We're also finding a
lot more parents are actually out and about grabbing the kids and taking them
home, so we're definitely seeing an impact."
These were two positive media stories
that I could find on the issue, I know that others like Warren Mundine and
Jacinta Price are both doing fantastic work in the area and they are another
two figures that I greatly admire, they are great Australians.
These are two small examples of how
communities are taking control of themselves. This is encouraging to see it can
only be done at the grassroots level and we can support this by challenging
narratives in order to ensure that these ideas can become acceptable and can be
communicated freely.
Approved Discourse and Media:
Let’s look at the approved, formulaic
media representations and the perpetuated narrative by examining what Lidia Thorpe has
to say and the context of the reporting:
Death
in custody: Aboriginal man dies in Victorian prison
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/death-in-custody-aboriginal-man-dies-in-victorian-prison-20210311-p579pi.html
Simone Fox Koob with David Estcourt - March
11, 2021
“An Aboriginal man has died while in
custody at a Melbourne prison.”
And:
“A statement from Corrections Victoria
said the Aboriginal Justice Caucus was advised of the prisoner’s death on the
day. “We continue to work closely with them and the First Peoples’ Assembly of
Victoria,” the statement said. “All deaths in custody are reported to the
Coroner, who formally determines the cause of death.””
Further,
“Victorian Greens senator Lidia Thorpe
said her thoughts were with the grieving families and communities after three
Aboriginal deaths in custody in Australia in a week.
“This is relentless and traumatising
for our people,” she said.
“The system is broken. Thirty years on
since the Royal Commission, how is it possible that our people are still dying
in custody and not a single person or institution has been held to account?
When will we have peace? At this point you have to say, the system is deeply
racist. We have the solutions in the Royal Commissions recommendations – but
there’s no political will to do anything with them.””
Later the article reads:
“The co-chair of the First Peoples’
Assembly of Victoria Geraldine Atkinson also expressed her devastation at the
death. She said in Victoria, Aboriginal people are imprisoned at rates 12 times
higher than the rest of the population.
“My thoughts are with the families who
have lost loved ones, and with all of our community who have been impacted by
deaths in custody,” she said.
“I stand with our community in grief
and solidarity, and will continue to fight for safety and justice for our
people.””
Note: Patrick
Fisher, you will recall from the Case Studies, was a man known to police for
extreme violence and died trying to escape lawful arrest by attempting to climb
out of a 13th floor balcony high on methamphetamine.
Still
no justice for Patrick Fisher
https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/still-no-justice-patrick-fisher
Jonathan Lockhart – 22 November 2019
“The inquest found that no blame for
Fisher’s death could be attributed to the fact police demanded entry to the
apartment, even though Magistrate Carmel Forbes said “it is not in dispute that
there was, however, an onus on the police to properly assess the risk of the
situation before they embarked upon the arrest”.
Patrick’s death resulted from an
operational procedure that took place while he was evading arrest, raising the
question as to why police did not avoid taking actions that ultimately
contributed to this outcome.
The inquest offered no criticism of
the racism endemic within the police and justice system, which has contributed
to a rise in the number of deaths in custody during the 12 months leading to
August.
Police, prisons and courts have proven
themselves capable of only delivering murder, cover-ups, obfuscation and
suffering to First Nations people.
Coronial inquests are not independent
investigations into the actions of police officers or prison guards. Only
independent inquiries can deliver the kind of information and justice required
when dealing with deaths in custody.”
This is how the Left wing alternative
media covered this violent offender, as a victim of a system “capable of only
delivering murder”. It doesn’t look like they are not doing a very good job of
that.
To further examine the present day framing
of Deaths in Custody and their
attendant narratives we will touch on an article by Latoya Aroha Rule. Firstly
I need to point out that her brother died in a police van in 2016 whilst being
transported. The coronial inquest into his death is yet to conclude and present
a report, the Victorian response to COVID19 may be effecting the operation of
the inquiry, I don’t know. If I had the report we would go over it.
Rule has my deepest sympathy as to the
loss of her brother, it is an enormous tragedy for a family to lose a loved
one, especially in the prime of their lives. Rule you have my deepest sympathy,
no Australian deserves to die in an untimely manner.
Who
is accountable for our deaths?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/13/who-is-accountable-for-our-deaths
Latoya Aroha Rule – 13 January 2019
“I worry that Aboriginal deaths in
custody have continued as common practice and, in fact, normalised in prisons
and police systems. I reflect on the symbolism of the coroner’s court and how
recommendations are largely made to change practices within the prison and
strengthen the prison’s ability to accommodate more Aboriginal peoples, rather
than abolish the systemic racism that supports the prison industrial complex in
the first instance. I think about the discourse this creates deriving from the
lack of justice for our people’s deaths.”
Further, Rule goes on:
“In 2015 I posted a video to the ABC’s
Q&A television program, calling on the Australian government to respond to
the pressing issue of Aboriginal deaths in custody over symbolic reform. My
video to the Q&A panel posed the question: “At the time of the 1991 royal
commission into deaths in custody Aboriginal people accounted for one in seven
deaths. That number has now soared to one in four. If the government’s response
to Indigenous issues is to remove symbolic representations of racism from the
Australian constitution, will we ever see practical change? Or is it time that
us First Nations peoples sought international aid?””
There is much to comment on just in
these two paragraphs but I will only focus on the last sentence.
[read it again]
These are two phrases that have been
butted up against each other, this is in fact an anti-sentence: it has been
designed to enable to reader to infer meaning whilst having none.
There are a lot of things to unpack in
that last paragraph:
·
One thing to note is that Rule was a hard core
identitarian even before the tragic death of her brother. He died in 2016 and
this quote she makes, of herself, is from 2015.
Sovereign
Union of First Nations is inevitable - MEDIA RELEASE
http://nationalunitygovernment.org/content/sovereign-union-first-nations-inevitable
Michael Anderson, Darwin, 3 September
2012
·
Another is the appeal to internationalism “is
it time that us First Nations peoples sought international aid?” There is a
kind of disembodiment from reality in this question, to become independent
within Australia we need foreign help, to become more cosmopolitan, and also an
inherent contradiction: in order to get self-determination we need an external
force to enable us.
·
The next to note is that there is an implicit
assumption in the premise of her question, from her perspective that she does
not consider herself to be part of the Australian Nation, she has self-identified
“First Nations” as being separate from The Nation, that there are many of them
and hints that they are entitled to pursue independent foreign policy goals
outside of the Nation. This is actually part of a tradition within aboriginal
activism that goes back many years.
·
Also, this is sedition. Good old fashioned
sedition and every nationalist should be familiar with the concept of sedition,
to refresh at the start of WW1 parliament passed the War Precautions Act 1914,
this made sedition a Commonwealth offence where:
o
Any person who by word of mouth or in writing
or by any act or deed:
§
advocates, incites, or encourages disloyalty
or hostility to the British Empire or to the cause of the British Empire in the
present war; or
§
advocates the dismemberment of the British
Empire, or who says or does anything calculated to incite encourage or assist
such disloyalty or hostility, shall be guilty of an offence against the
Act".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_sedition_law#Repeal
o
The Government accepted the recommendations of
the ALRC report Fighting Words: A Review of Sedition Laws in Australia, which
included removing the term 'sedition' and replacing it with the phrase 'urging
violence' and clarifying and modernising elements of the offences. Sadly the
term 'sedition' was removed from in the National Security Legislation Amendment
Bill 2010.
·
Incidentally I see a very toxic female energy
in these demands, the framing is emotional and the death rates of prisoners
devoid of the context of rates of crimes committed and victim rates, a call to
action based on that attempted manipulation, then a threat to lash out or
humiliate if that manipulation isn’t successful. I think you see a lot of that
toxic femininity in most postmodern projects and this is a very clear example
of that. Another aspect of that toxic femininity is the arrogant
self-righteousness that emboldens someone to make those manipulations and
demands even with the false framing and the threats of retaliation.
Back to The Guardian and another article
My
hope for the March 4 Justice and beyond is that we consider the plight of Black
women in Australia
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/mar/15/my-hope-for-the-march4justice-and-beyond-is-that-we-consider-the-plight-of-black-women-in-australia
Latoya Aroha Rule 15/03/21
According to The Guardian “Latoya
Aroha Rule is an Aboriginal and Māori, Takatāpui person residing on stolen
Gadigal land, Sydney. They’re a PhD candidate at UTS, an
educator and a freelance writer”.
https://maryleeexchange.com/latoya-aroha-rule/
https://twitter.com/claire_loughnan/status/1372455570670678019/photo/1
“In 2017 Latoya completed her Social
Work Honours degree, with her thesis focused around the death in custody of
Aboriginal woman Ms Dhu and the ways in which Ms Dhu, and other Aboriginal
deaths in custody victims, have largely been held responsible for their own
deaths through discourse of Aboriginality as inherently criminalised.”
It is important to note that what we
have just heard is not a sentence. The phrase “through discourse of
Aboriginality as inherently criminalised” is grammatically retarded.
Discourse
- Social Justice Usage
https://newdiscourses.com/tftw-discourse/
“Discourse” means at its simplest,
“written or spoken communication.” However, it more specifically means “ways of
talking about things” or, more accurately, “ways that things can be talked
about.” That is, discourses are, in some sense, the linguistic systems that are
created by our boundaries on acceptable and unacceptable uses of language.
If we rewrite Rule’s phrase we get: “Aboriginal
deaths in custody victims, have largely been held responsible for their own
deaths through discourse that criminalises Aboriginality”.
The linguistic trick here is to write
something that seems intelligent but is actually simultaneously impenetrable
and unintelligible yet also infers meaning, rather than states something
absolute that can be verified as being false. Indeed if you read any of the
coronial reports linked below you will not see a single example of “discourse that
criminalises Aboriginality”.
However “discourse of Aboriginality as
inherently criminalised” carries no meaning outside of whatever the reader
takes too it, it is a phrase designed to capture prejudices and projections of
the reader. Also the phrase is designed to de-couple the concept of custody
with crime by delegitimising the concept of aboriginal people being subject to
the criminal justice system.
Further, we have gone through the case
of Ms Dhu and there is nothing in the coroner’s report that contains discourse
that holds her responsible for her own death.
In the article Rule explains: “I
question why people are fighting for gender equality between cis men and cis
women when equality has not yet been achieved between Black and white women in
the first instance, let alone women who are transgender and/or non-binary and
gender non-conforming people.”
And:
“Calling for justice for
Black women requires a call to end the systems that oppress Black women; a call
to end the over-representation of Aboriginal women in custody, a call to end
deaths in custody, a call to abolish the carceral state, and even more so, a
call for decolonisation.”
Note the focus here, the
projection of solidarity with those who self-identify and other carefully chosen
identitarian groups so as to disconnect them from the whole of the Nation and
the body politic. To wedge division rather than bind together in mutual respect
and commonality. Identification of cis and trans categories is deliberately
done to ensure that people of Christian or conservative disposition are
excluded from cooperation in the struggle.
Decolonize/Decoloniality - Social Justice Usage
https://newdiscourses.com/tftw-decolonize-decoloniality/
Just to be clear Latoya Rule is saying
that by saying “abolish the carceral state” she wants to abolish prisons, and
gaol is not a legitimate form of punishment for any crime of any degree of
severity. Further, according to newdiscourses.com “Decolonization is best
understood as a deconstructive and reconstructive project within Social Justice
to remove “White” and “Western” influence or centrality from essentially any
and everything”.
What this demonstrates is a change in
the framing of death, from a misfortune (whether by deliberate state intent or
unintended consequence), to unjustified brutality by the state, in every
instance and context, that seeks to “oppress Black women” specifically.
Mick
Gooda says NT government 'backing away' from youth detention royal commission
findings
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-25/mick-gooda-nt-government-youth-bail-plans-royal-commission/100025466
To quote the relevant part: “The
government also wants to expand a list of offences that do not allow young
people to face court with a "presumption in favour of bail" —
including for break-and-enters into premises, unlawful use of a motor vehicle,
and assaults against police or workers.
Mr Gooda's criticism echoes complaints
from local and international NGOs on Tuesday, including Amnesty International
and the Human Rights Law Centre, that labelled the changes "politically
motivated".
But some groups have welcomed the
government's proposals, with support for the tougher measures coming from the
NT Chamber of Commerce and NT Police Association.
Mr Gooda clearly remembers the day he
handed the commission's final report to the NT government.”
The point here to make is simple, that
Royal Commissions can make recommendations, from a set of narrow terms of
reference, but political decisions on legislation are made by the parliament
and parliament derives its authority from the ballot box, not from experts,
NGO’s, activists or the media. In too many areas of public life and political
debate the points of view of so-called experts are put forward totally
unchallenged, or are only ever challenged in so far as those points of view
challenge pre-established orthodoxies.
Perpetuation of narrative:
Division in trust over Indigenous
deaths in custody continues as recent events open up old wounds
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-20/aboriginal-deaths-in-custody-cycle-continues/13263726
Isabella Higgins 20 March 2021
Labelled as “ANALYSIS” which means opinion.
“Three years ago, when that young man
was 17, he watched his two friends drown in front of him while they were all
trying to escape from the police.
A group of youths ran into Perth's
Swan River trying to outrun two police officers pursuing them after a nearby
break and enter.”
The man, who for legal reasons was
referred to only as "P", watched footage showing the police officers
entering a powerful, wide stretch of the Swan River in a rescue attempt.
His response to the video of tactical
response officers in the water was blunt:
"He [the officer] could've gone
in sooner."
She goes on: “If you can't understand
that young man's anger and distrust, let me try to explain.
It's not just him, but his immediate
circle and the broader Indigenous community who are angry that their people are
still dying this way, despite decades-long calls for change.
In the past month alone, there have
been several painful reminders for Indigenous Australians that reinforce their
beliefs they can't always trust the state to keep them safe.”
I present this a perfect
representation of narrative perpetuation. By disguising an opinion piece as
“analysis” the author is able to present work that has the appearance of
straight, unbiased, reporting when it is deliberate and selective perpetuation
of self-justified victimhood in an entirely uncritical way.
Aside from perpetuating the approved
discourse this narrative driven account has the effect of actively discouraging
self-reflection and growth within the aboriginal community, giving
justification to grievance rather than opportunity to grow.
Here's
why Black Lives Matter resonates in Australia
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6826632/heres-why-black-lives-matter-resonates-in-australia/
JULY 10 2020 - Ray Steinwall
Black Lives Matter also speaks to a
more profound connection between Indigenous Australians, African Americans,
Asians and other minorities. One has to be black or coloured to actually feel
it. It's about bonds that unite all coloured people, something innate, not taught.
Simple. Powerful. Uniting. The knowledge that the oppression of one is the
oppression of all.
Ray Steinwall, Adjunct Associate
Professor, Faculty of Law, a white university scholar, senior counsel in large
corporations and has been a solicitor for the High Court and member of the
Australian Competition Tribunal. How could, by his own logic, Steinwall make
this truth claim? Doesn’t matter, the medial will print it because this is
racialized thinking at it’s very worst, the propagation of an idea, by a white
man, that all black people all around the world somehow share some collective
bond that is innate, powerful and uniting. Can you think of where you have
heard those arguments before, may be in the early 1930’s?
BLM
advocates push for Police floats to be removed from Sydney Mardi Gras
https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2020/12/04/blm-advocates-push-police-floats-be-removed-sydney-mardi-gras
DECEMBER 4 2020
The article says, in part “Now, a
motion has been put forward to the group calling for a ban on the NSW Police
Force float and the NSW Corrective Services floats in 2021 and into the future.
The motion states it is "in recognition
of the ongoing violence perpetrated by Police and corrective services towards
First Nations communities."
While the motion calls to ban the
police-associated floats, members of the force would still be able to
participate in the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, out of uniform.”
This may surprise you but I actually
agree, on this issue with Black Lives Matter, that Police and NSW Corrective
Services should be excluded from the parade but not because of the so-called
deaths in custody, but because the Mardi Gras is suck, disgusting and
degenerate behaviour that is corrupting our youth, that issue isn’t for this
topic but it is worth mentioning.
If BLM think that is some kind of own,
of some sort of disrespect to NSW Police and Corrective Services then I have to
say you are proving that you have no solutions to these issues and your focus
on the police and not the perpetrators and the victims who, as we have seen are
disproportionately Aboriginal. Just get out of the way, you are hurting not helping
and you are dividing. Your diversity is hurting Australia and unity between
Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people.
BLM:
Last year the inaccurately and innocuously named Black Lives
Matter movement hit the shores of Australia. Who are BLM?
https://blacklivesmatter.com/herstory/
“As organizers who work with everyday people, BLM members see and
understand significant gaps in movement spaces and leadership. Black liberation
movements in this country have created room, space, and leadership mostly for
Black heterosexual, cisgender men — leaving women, queer and transgender
people, and others either out of the movement or in the background to move the
work forward with little or no recognition. As a network, we have always
recognized the need to center the leadership of women and queer and trans
people.”
Deputy
CMO Nick Coatsworth warns BLM protest march is ‘unacceptable risk’ as
protestors plan to defy court ban
https://www.news.com.au/world/coronavirus/australia/blm-activists-to-defy-sydney-rally-ban-and-go-ahead-with-protest/news-story/e3f9369973160e05fcc73bfe89e78f1e
“Paul Silva, whose uncle David Dungay
JR’s 2015 death in custody was a rallying point for the protest, said “we need
to see action and we will not be silenced”.
“This decision to push ahead has been
made by the family and we thank all our supporters who are standing with us,”
he posted on Facebook.
“Whatever happens in court … we will
be leading a rally in Sydney on July 28.””
And,
“Mr Silva said he wanted NSW Premier
Gladys Berejiklian to order an investigation into whether charges can be laid
over the death of Mr Dungay, who he claims was “killed” by prison officers in
Long Bay Hospital.
“I would like the premier to confirm
that black lives matter in NSW by asking for that investigation,” Mr Silva
posted today.
“If she refuses then it just goes to
show that no one cares about our lives and we will see you on Tuesday.””
We covered the case of David Dungay, his tragic death during
a mental health crisis, in the case studies. The coroner found no wrong doing,
We saw the reporting on his death at the start of this essay
with media reports citing “systemic issues” and “clear failings” yielded no
results in relation to finding or recommendations but the media and BLM are not
interested in truth or facts and the media have no interest in challenging
narratives that give them cheap and easy content. BLM know this and exploit it.
From all of the metrics we have seen
Aboriginal Australia is in crisis, what is BLM’s response? To further degenerate
social bonds within the community.
BLM
site removes page on ‘nuclear family structure’ amid NFL vet’s criticism
https://nypost.com/2020/09/24/blm-removes-website-language-blasting-nuclear-family-structure/
https://realnewsaggregator.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/BLM-Statement-09-2020.jpg
On a now deleted “About” section on their website BLM made
the following statements about the goals of their organisation:
“We are self-reflexive and do the work required to dismantle
cis-gender privilege and uplift Black trans folk, especially Black trans women
who continue to be disproportionally impacted by trans-antagonistic violence.
We build a space that affirms Black
women and is free from sexism, misogyny, and environments in which men are
centred.
We practice empathy. We engage
comrades with the intent to learn about and connect with their contexts.
We make our spaces family friendly and
enable parents to fully participate with their children. We dismantle
patriarchal practice that requires mothers to work “double shifts” so that they
can mother in private even as they participate in public justice work.
We disrupt the Western-prescribed
nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended
families and ‘villages’ that collectively care for one another, especially our
children, to the degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable.”
In this sense there is no difference
between BLM and the Aboriginies Protection Board.
BLM stands in direct contrast to Aboriginal tradition!
Uluru Bark Petition
http://ulurubarkpetition.com/
“The heart of the Petition states that marriage between man
and woman is, and has always been, sacred to the oldest living culture on
earth. The Petition adds that fathers and mothers – who are deeply honored in
Aboriginal culture – also form the “foundation of our families, clans and
systems, and pass down our teachings, our culture, our traditions, from
generation to generation.””
Aboriginal communities are extended kinship networks that
have been disrupted, the nuclear family has been interrupted by the actions, as
described in Richard Broome’s Aboriginal
Australians, a history since 1788 and Honourable J.H. Wooten QC’s ‘Report of the Inquiry into the Death of
Malcolm Smith’ who killed himself by driving a paintbrush into his eyeball
in Long Bay Gaol in 1983. We have seen the consequence and it has formed
the basis of all of the activism that BLM seeks to be a part of, in order to do
exactly the same thing.
The quote I read said in part: “The
attempt to 'solve the Aboriginal problem' by the deliberate destruction of
families and communities, which was the policy of the Aborigines Protection
Board”.
Conclusion:
This essay started with a question,
was the phenomenon of Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Murder, Myth or Mayhem?
Of the 432 protested deaths mentioned
in the media reports cited there is only one example where an office has been
charged with murder, which is in WA. Of all the examples researched there have
been no recommendation of charges for either murder or manslaughter. There is
no valid reading of either individual instances or the deaths collectively to
determine that aboriginal people are being murdered or systematically killed by
the criminal justice system, there is no prima facea evidence of this and if
there was that would be the focus of intense scrutiny of a system I have seen
that routinely goes out of its way to accommodate the sensibilities and
vulnerabilities of aboriginal people. This is not an issue of murder.
Aborigines are dying in police and
corrective services custody, as are every other single demographic. Human
populations have mortality rates, we cannot live forever. The danger in
peddling the myth of Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and BLM propaganda is because
it undermines trust. At some point in the future there may be a crisis
requiring urgent attention be directed toward the Aboriginal population but
crying wolf is not going to get the trust required to deliver in such a
circumstance.
We have seen that:
• 2 in 5 prison entrants had been
told they had a mental health condition, with almost 1 in 4 currently taking
mental health-related medication
• 1 in 5
prison entrants reported a history of self-harm
• 3 in 4
deaths in prison custody were due to natural causes
• 1 in 4
were due to suicide or self-inflicted causes
• 18% of
all deaths from all causes were Aboriginal, from a population in custody that
was 28% Aboriginal
• death
rates are a third lower than the rest of the prison population
We have also seen that Aboriginal people are vastly
over-represented as victims of crimes at the hands of their own demographic,
some key figures:
• In NT
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander make 69.7% assault victims vs 30.3%
population
O The
majority were female (64–76%)
o More
than a quarter (26–34%) were aged between 25 and 34 years
• In New
South Wales 8.4% sexual assaults victims yet 3.4% of population
• In
Queensland 11.6% victims of sexual assaults vs 4.6% of population
• In South
Australia 6.1% victims of sexual assault vs 2.5% of population
For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander victims of sexual
assault:
• The
majority were female (78–95%)
• About a third were aged between 10
and 14 years in New South Wales (37%), Queensland (32%) and the Northern
Territory (28%).
• In South
Australia about a quarter (24%) were aged between 15 and 19 years
• Most knew
the offender (62–84%)
In relation to intimate partner violence in NSW:
• 12% of
women killed identified as Aboriginal vs 1.7% of population
• 31% of
men killed identified as Aboriginal 1.6% of population
We can clearly see from the evidence
that Aboriginal people are overrepresented in the prison system because of
massive crime rates being perpetrated by Aborigines against other Aborigines.
To deny this reality is simply an attempt to create mayhem.
Stop hurting your own communities and
yourselves, stop blaming a system that is overstretched trying to keep you
alive and do better!
Why is it that people that are decent,
that obey the law, that are civic minded, why are we supposed to feel sorry for
a demographic that disproportionately commits crimes and that the victims of
those crimes are disproportionately also members of the same demographic?
Are we supposed to feel guilty because
they die in prison, as we have demonstrated, at rates below the rest of the
prison population?
If aboriginal activists and BLM were
to say, look aboriginal people are vulnerable, we have elevated risks of
diseases and mental illnesses and when in custody we need help, there have been
instances where one of our demographic have killed themselves or died in
circumstances where systems have broken down, we would say yes, and we want
that to end too but we in turn are also we are concerned about the crime rates
going on in those same communities. Young girls and women are vulnerable to
assault and sexual assault, domestic violence, in the streets and in the home.
We ask you to own that so we can move forward.
Continuing the quote from the ‘Report of the Inquiry into the Death of
Malcolm Smith’, Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths That started this
essay and I have already revisited said “The
attempt to 'solve the Aboriginal problem' by the deliberate destruction of
families and communities, which was the policy of the Aborigines Protection
Board, and to some extent its successor, the Aborigines Welfare Board, not only
wrecked individual lives but is seen by many Aboriginals as falling squarely
within the modern definition of genocide.”
That quote, that exact same paragraph
went on to say:
“Few would openly advocate such
policies today, but unless continuing positive steps are taken to understand
and counteract them, there is a risk that long-standing racist attitudes will
continue to influence the formulation and implementation even of more
enlightened policies. In particular it is essential to stop treating
Aboriginals as dependent people, whose welfare is looked after by others who
know better than they, and give them back the opportunities for self-reliance,
independence and self-respect that were so cruelly taken away and denied them
for most of the last two hundred years.”
This is essentially what lies at the
heart of the future for how we move forward together as a Nation. Right now
aboriginal people are victimising other aboriginal people, their lands are
locked up under community title and forty year old narratives centred on deaths
in custody, that don’t stand up to the most elemental scrutiny, are destroying
self-respect, crushing independence and opportunities to participate fully in
the Australian life that every Australian deserves.
I was stuck by a paragraph from the Mason
inquest, after Mark Mason was shot by an officer after the officer was attacked
with an iron bar which read: “The thing is that in Australia we are Siamese
twins, we’re joined at the hip. The white people can't go and the Aboriginal
people aren’t going. We can live in resentment and anger and hatred and corrode
ourselves or we can try to overcome the bitterness that separates people. I
can't say to anybody here the police officers or the Mason family or others,
what to do, but I suggest that all of us if we simply live in that intensely
corrosive mind set are hurting ourselves more than we hurt those whom we hate.”
Sources:
Six
Protesters arrested at Sydney BLM march
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-28/sydney-black-lives-matter-protesters-detained/12498034
Aboriginal
Australians : 5th Edition, Richard Broome
https://www.booktopia.com.au/aboriginal-australians-5th-edition-richard-broome/book/9781760528218.html
‘Report
of the Inquiry into the Death of Malcolm Smith’, Royal Commission into Aboriginal
Deaths in Custody
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/IndigLRes/rciadic/individual/brm_mcs/
Aborigines
Protection Act 1909, NSW
https://findandconnect.gov.au/ref/nsw/objects/ND0000104.htm
Aborigines
Act 1969 (1969 - 1983)
https://findandconnect.gov.au/ref/nsw/objects/ND0000115.htm
Australian
Institute of Health and Welfare, The health of Australia’s prisoners 2018
https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/prisoners/health-australia-prisoners-2018/summary
Australian
Law Reform Commission, Pathways to justice inquiry into the incarceration rate
of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples Report: 133
https://www.alrc.gov.au/publication/pathways-to-justice-inquiry-into-the-incarceration-rate-of-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-peoples-alrc-report-133/executive-summary-15/disproportionate-incarceration-rate/
Australian
Bureau of Statistics, PRISONER CHARACTERISTICS AUSTRALIA SNAPSHOT
https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by
Subject/4517.0~2018~Main Features~Prisoner characteristics, Australia~4
Australian
Bureau of Statistics, Recorded Crime - Victims, Australia
https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/crime-and-justice/recorded-crime-victims/2019
NSW
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE DEATH REVIEW TEAM REPORT 2015 2017
https://coroners.nsw.gov.au/content/dam/dcj/ctsd/coronerscourt/documents/reports/2015-2017_DVDRT_Report_October2017(online).pdf
Indigenous
prison population continues to increase, while non-Indigenous incarceration
rate falls
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jan/22/indigenous-prison-population-continues-to-increase-while-non-indigenous-incarceration-rate-falls
Australian
Institute of Criminology keep statistics via their National Deaths in Custody
Program
https://www.aic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-12/Data_tables-Deaths_in_prison_custody_2018-19.xlsx
Indigenous
life expectancy and deaths - Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW)
https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-health/indigenous-life-expectancy-and-deaths
Australian
Institute or Criminology, Statistical Report 31 Deaths in custody in Australia
2018–19
https://www.aic.gov.au/publications/sr/sr31
Deaths
inside Indigenous Australian deaths in custody 2020
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/ng-interactive/2018/aug/28/deaths-inside-indigenous-australian-deaths-in-custody
14
Case Studies:
1 - “Unknown” - 06 November, 2019
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-07/man-dies-escaping-custody-near-gosford-hospital-plunging-10m/11683276
2 - Patrick Fisher - 07 February,
2018
https://coroners.nsw.gov.au/content/dam/dcj/ctsd/coronerscourt/documents/findings/2019/PATRICK
FISHER FINDINGS.pdf
3
- Terry Carl Ah-See “Tas” – 29 March 2017
https://www.westernadvocate.com.au/story/5237167/driver-jailed-over-police-pursuit-which-led-to-fatal-crash-on-vale-road/
https://coroners.nsw.gov.au/coroners-court/download.html/documents/reports/158632_STATE_CORONERS_COURT_Deaths_in_Custody_2019_-_WEB_VERSION_LR.pdf
4
- Tane Chatfield - 22 September, 2017
https://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/courts-law/tane-chatfield-death-ruled-suicide-but-nurses-actions-slammed/news-story/a6036f8b96d6eef2dbb85db0f82c78ed
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-14/coronial-inquest-death-of-aboriginal-man-tane-chatfield-prison/12454594
https://coroners.nsw.gov.au/coroners-court/download.html/documents/findings/2020/Chatfield_findings.pdf
5
- David Dungay - 29 December, 2015
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jul/31/manslaughter-or-assault-charges-over-david-dungays-death-are-viable-barrister-says
https://coroners.nsw.gov.au/content/dam/dcj/ctsd/coronerscourt/documents/findings/2019/DUNGAY%20David%20-%20Findings%20-%20v2.pdf
6
- Julieka Ivanna Dhu - 04 August, 2014
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-17/wa-unpaid-fines-reforms-pass-wa-parliament-after-ms-dhu-death/12357888
https://coronerscourt.wa.gov.au/_files/Dhu%20finding.pdf
https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/health/causes-death/causes-death-australia/latest-release
7
- Rebecca Maher - 19 July, 2016
https://coroners.nsw.gov.au/content/dam/dcj/ctsd/coronerscourt/documents/findings/2019/Findings%20-%20Rebecca%20Maher.pdf
https://coroners.nsw.gov.au/content/dam/dcj/ctsd/coronerscourt/documents/findings/2019/Maher%20-%20directed%20interviews%20-%20Reasons%20for%20Decision%20-%204%20March%202019.pdf
9
- Bud Lord - 19 January, 2013
https://coroners.nsw.gov.au/content/dam/dcj/ctsd/coronerscourt/documents/findings/2014/stanley
lord findings final version.pdf
10
- DWW - 14 April, 2013
https://coroners.nsw.gov.au/content/dam/dcj/ctsd/coronerscourt/documents/findings/2017/Wotherspoon
findings final.pdf
12
- PB - 16 June, 2012
https://coroners.nsw.gov.au/content/dam/dcj/ctsd/coronerscourt/documents/findings/2017/Bartholomew
Findings.pdf
13
- DJJ - 03 September, 2011
https://coroners.nsw.gov.au/content/dam/dcj/ctsd/coronerscourt/documents/reports/dic
report 2013.pdf
14
- Mark Edward Mason - 11 November, 2010
https://coroners.nsw.gov.au/content/dam/dcj/ctsd/coronerscourt/documents/reports/dic
report 2013.pdf
Indigenous
people need to take responsibility over youth incarceration
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/aug/03/noel-pearson-indigenous-people-need-to-take-responsibility-over-youth-incarceration
Grandmothers
unite to combat youth crime in NT town of Tennant Creek
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-22/grandmothers-of-tennant-creek-unite-against-crime/13265750
Death
in custody: Aboriginal man dies in Victorian prison
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/death-in-custody-aboriginal-man-dies-in-victorian-prison-20210311-p579pi.html
Still
no justice for Patrick Fisher
https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/still-no-justice-patrick-fisher
Who
is accountable for our deaths?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/13/who-is-accountable-for-our-deaths
Sovereign
Union of First Nations is inevitable - MEDIA RELEASE
http://nationalunitygovernment.org/content/sovereign-union-first-nations-inevitable
History
of Sedition Law in Australia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_sedition_law#Repeal
My
hope for the March 4 Justice and beyond is that we consider the plight of Black
women in Australia
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/mar/15/my-hope-for-the-march4justice-and-beyond-is-that-we-consider-the-plight-of-black-women-in-australia
https://maryleeexchange.com/latoya-aroha-rule/
https://twitter.com/claire_loughnan/status/1372455570670678019/photo/1
Discourse
- Social Justice Usage
https://newdiscourses.com/tftw-discourse/
Decolonize/Decoloniality
- Social Justice Usage
https://newdiscourses.com/tftw-decolonize-decoloniality/
Mick
Gooda says NT government 'backing away' from youth detention royal commission
findings
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-25/mick-gooda-nt-government-youth-bail-plans-royal-commission/100025466
Division
in trust over Indigenous deaths in custody continues as recent events open up
old wounds
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-20/aboriginal-deaths-in-custody-cycle-continues/13263726
Here's
why Black Lives Matter resonates in Australia
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6826632/heres-why-black-lives-matter-resonates-in-australia/
BLM
advocates push for Police floats to be removed from Sydney Mardi Gras
https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2020/12/04/blm-advocates-push-police-floats-be-removed-sydney-mardi-gras
Who
are BLM?
https://blacklivesmatter.com/herstory/
Deputy
CMO Nick Coatsworth warns BLM protest march is ‘unacceptable risk’ as
protestors plan to defy court ban
https://www.news.com.au/world/coronavirus/australia/blm-activists-to-defy-sydney-rally-ban-and-go-ahead-with-protest/news-story/e3f9369973160e05fcc73bfe89e78f1e
BLM
site removes page on ‘nuclear family structure’ amid NFL vet’s criticism
https://nypost.com/2020/09/24/blm-removes-website-language-blasting-nuclear-family-structure/
https://realnewsaggregator.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/BLM-Statement-09-2020.jpg
Uluru
Bark Petition
http://ulurubarkpetition.com/
