by ray jacksaon
i recently had brunch with two young comrades who told me, among other
matters, that 2012 is the nsw year of the police even though i can find
nothing on google. apparently the police intend to hold events
throughout this year to highlight to themselves, the nsw government and possibly
some of the public just what they do and how they do it. an important part of
what they do we all need to take a closer look at.
i have also volunteered to write up what was put to activists, aboriginal
and not, about formulating a national deaths in custody coalition that
would talk as one voice and strike as one fist every time a person, any
person, died in custody. this too ties in with the article by anna
brown.
then the actual article by anna brown that asks why police, in this case
in victoria but i have widened it to cover all australian cops, should
continue to investigate their mates. arising from this i will update on
where several deaths in custody cases are currently and how each dic is
corrupted by a police investigation .
so to begin.
the concept of a year for police is not new but i cannot remember it
being done in nsw before or maybe it just passed me by. if it follows the
structure of other police years elsewhere there will be a march that
will include some time and place given to police officers who have died on
duty. we aborigines can have a mirror event that honours those of our
people who have died in custody. that is why i consider the proposed
memorial to those nsw deaths in custody for our mobs to be so important.
this year we must all get behind the establishment of that memorial to
be situated in the block. what better place for it to be than in the
refurbished block that is also going to become a bit of a tourist spot.
this is our custodial history since 1980. why should it not be in a
prominent aboriginal site to be seen by all. we honour our warriors such
as pemulwuy, who was killed by an english sailor who was part of the
troopers party, so why not those who died at the hands of the police,
the gaols and the justice health scene. there are definite underlying causes
why our people finished up in custody but none deserved to die because
of it. whilst mick mundine of the aboriginal housing company hates the idea
of the memorial our lord mayor, clover moore, has put in writing that
she is very much in favour of it happening and even offered to broker a
meeting with mick to make it a reality.
alas, no such meeting ever took place.
another possible police year event is to have a family day. our mobs
have families also and we should mirror that event. all sorts of mirror
actions are possible so we too should declare 2012 as the nsw year of
aborigines.
what a year we are facing. so keep your eyes and ears open to the police
events that could be on in your area.
the next item is to relate the events at the tent embassy relative to
forming a national deaths in custody coalition or any other name that
may arise and be agreed to.
it has been in my mind for some time that there should be formed a
national body that looks at all deaths in custody but especially
aboriginal and torres strait islander deaths. this concept over the
previous years with sam watson who also wanted a national aboriginal
body of activists to form a body that would take on aboriginal issues at a
national body. for various reasons this did not happen but it was raised
that the tent would be the ideal place to raise the concept once more as
we had positive representatives from qld, nsw, vic, and wa. a quick
feeler was put out and people showed interest in the concept.
we had our meeting arranged but unfortunately sam couldn't make it due
to other considerations but he had told me the day before that he was very
much in favour of the national concept becoming a reality. at that
meeting was marrianne mackay and an elder whose name i now cannot remember from
wa, from qld was sam in absentia, cheryl and keith kalfauss from the
isja (melb) group and raul bassi and myself representing nsw. others were
also there but i do not remember their names. after discussion it was agreed
that the representatives would return home and talk to their groups and
communities seeking their support for the national concept. all the
aspects of the particular custodial systems was discussed including the
major problem of police investigating not only police deaths in custody
but also gaol and medical custody deaths. again the same culture is
brought into play when the police look at other custodial deaths. the
fault always remains with the victim and the respective family. nothing
has changed from the royal commission days. i will highlight this
nefarious practice later.
i offered to make contact with my old friend in sth australia, tauto
sansbury, with whom i had the pleasure to work with when he was with the
aboriginal legal rights movement. i intend shortly to make contact with
the mansells in tasmania and also ms. barbara shaw in the nt along with
ms. matilda house in the act for guidance as to whom i should be talking
to re the national concept. when we have active representatives from all
states and territories then we will speak with one voice and strike with
one fist. we will be acting as a national lobby using, where possible,
national resources. we will also begin a major national program to stop
police investigating any deaths in custody events and call on all
governments to institute a viable and truly independent investigation
team, sans police. another issue to put to governments is that civilian
police boards to be introduced to oversee police complaint issues.when a
complaint is made against a police officer then the investigation of
that complaint is monitored by the civilian board, again sans police. they
are in use in many american states and cities and there is no reason why
they could not be brought in here also.
of course the police and their unions will argue against these changes
to their protective systems but we must push our governments to introduce
such sorely needed changes to better have the police forces of this
country be fully answerable for their dic actions.
i do not have any contacts for tauto or matilda, would someone please
supply them to me.
and so to the anna brown article.
a good article that asks the proper questions as to why victorian (all)
police are still allowed to investigate themselves. the cmc in qld was
charged with investigating dic events by the police but were not
resourced to do so, did not have the available officers to do the investigatory
work and they therefore contracted the qld police to do the investigation on
their behalf. bingo! full circle!
any independent investigation team that is set up must have nothing to
do with any police ethics or police integrity or whatever such misnamed
group as the governments and police want to set up. whatever 1984 language
they try to hide behind it is still a police unit where the culture reigns
and truth is an unknown entity. in my view even the use of such bodies as
anti-corruption commissions is suspect as well. the interchange of
officers between the two organisations places them in a questionable
position during any investigation. the police argue that they are the
only group trained enough to be able to do these investigations but that is
utter rubbish. there are enough forensic experts in all the required
fields to form an independent team.
i think the best way to illustrate the corruptive actions of the police
investigations into dic events is to look briefly at the cases isja is
currently involved in beginning with the death of tj hickey.
as we know 17 year old tj became involved in a police exercise that led
him to be chased and rammed by a redfern police vehicle on st.
valentine's day, 14th february, 2004. he became impaled upon a spiked fence and
because the police acted improperly by pulling him off the fence and
began a search of his pockets before they called for back-up at the scene. it
took the efforts of a young girl to have the ambulance called but he had
lost too much blood for him to survive. the impalement experts, the
police rescue division, came to the scene but was sent away by constable
hollingsworth. tj died in the hospital the next day which was then
followed by the misnamed redfern riots. those riots served the police
well. too well perhaps as it pushed the death of tj out of the media
spotlight.
police control swung into action and witnesses were found that supported
to varying degrees the police evidence given to the coroner. the police
media unit held sway and when diminishing reports were made on tj the
mainstream media printed what the media unit gave them. forensic
evidence was destroyed by order of the police when the site was steam-cleaned
within hours and within a week or so all the vehicles involved in the
police exercise had been steam-cleaned and repainted. an aboriginal
detective was moved out of redfern on the sunday that tj died.
political pressure was applied to bring the coronial inquest on in a
matter of months. both the police and the nsw carr government wanted the
whole messy matter wiped off the slate. a corrupt and very limited brief
of evidence was given to the coroner isja had originally acquired a good
legal team to represent gail hickey and the family but pressure was
applied to gail to drop that legal team in favour of one appointed by
the government. tj's bike was not brought into the inquest as it should have
been and when it was returned to gail some time after the inquest it had
two new wheels and tyres on it. a grinning police officer suggested to
gail that her daughters could now ride it. tv footage of the badly
buckled back wheel of tj's bike could not be found. both the interim and final
autopsy reports were not tabled in court. when the coroner found out
that the four officers that were brought to court had openly colluded their
statements several times whilst also receiving advice from senior
officers the coroner done nothing but chided them. witnesses to the police rescue
van event were blocked by gail's legal team who merely sat on their
hands and allowed the coroner to exonerate the police. hollingsworth was
allowed to not give any evidence as it could be incriminating. the coroner had
the power to force hollingsworth to give evidence but in an inquest of this
importance, he chose not to.
all this and more was allowed to happen because the police had a
stranglehold on everything that happened. i was told that the mainstream
media had been instructed not to seek my views. the police power is evil
and it must be changed. the police at redfern are stopping gail from
placing a plaque under the fence-line to remember and honour her son and
this police ban has continued since 2005. and people ask why we just
don't move on!
a victorian legal team worked with gail to put a submission into the un
law and justice section seeking redress through that avenue. we still
are awaiting results as the required government reply has yet to be made.
some weeks ago raul bassi and i approached the nsw minister for aboriginal
affairs, victor dominello, and asked for a meeting with him and the a/g
greg smith to at least have a look at our arguments of why the case
should be re-investigated and a new inquest called. we are awaiting a reply
from victor's office. i know they are both politicians but they are also have
legal backgrounds and i presume they have both sworn to uphold the law.
or is that only for sheriffs? doctors have their oath, what do solicitors
have?
the next case is that of the suicide of veronica baxter, also known as
paris, who is a transwoman who was arrested by police in a drug sting
and held in the sydney police centre at surry hills for 5 days before being
transferred to the metropolitan remand and reception gaol at silerwater.
this happened in march, 2009. whilst corrective services carried out
their own investigation the matter also became active for a police
investigation. neither the family nor their supporters were given any
details of the case until after the coronial inquest was held. the
inquest lasted some 3 1/2 hours, the quickest inquest i have ever seen and was
held in april, 2011. the inquest was a farce and clearly showed that
there was absolutely no interest in finding the facts of the case. paris was
on hormonal medication but neither the corrective services barrister nor
the als representative seemed interested as to whether she had been given
her hormonal medication at the police centre or the gaol. sudden withdrawal
from this medication can make one suicidal. why was this not part of the
brief to the coroner? when we were finally able to get our hands on the
brief of evidence there were several parts missing and there were no
medical records available either. all very strange. one could almost
suspect a cover-up. we have now the legal aid file but are awaiting the
2 brothers of paris to sign the authority to get her justice health
records.
justice moves so bloody slowly.
the last case is that of mr. briscoe who died in a alice springs cell in
the nt on 5th january this year. police are in full charge of the
investigation so we know what to expect. because the police have such a
tight grip on the investigation procedures that act as a fully
autonomous force with the other players involved. this grants them powers that do
not exist with other groups. a favoured practice of the police is to have
the autopsy done as soon as possible and without the family knowing. no one
apparently questions their right to do this and the autopsy takes place.
so the police know first how the person died. that makes the cover-up so
easy. find out the cause of death and then come up with an answer that
fits and exonerates the police. they then approach the family and tell
them the outcome of the autopsy and stress that the family should bury
the body as soon as possible. dependant on how the person died some bruising
does not show for 48 hours or more and they urge burial because of this.
this is what happened to mr briscoe. but the family were looking at the
possibility of a second autopsy but this is left to the discretion of
the particular coroner involved. time and costs beat us on this one and mr.
briscoe was buried. like the tj case this one was brought on early and
is planned for 12 june this year when normally from death to inquest
normally takes 18 months or more. why the haste to clear the deck on this one. is
there a problem?
originally the family was represented by the central australian
aboriginal legal service but the family, for various reasons, has now asked isja if
we could find good private legal representation. after a hurried week
dr. hughes, also assisting the family, came up with the firm of boe-williams
to represent the family. yes, the boe part is andrew boe of
hurley/doomadgee and the palm island murder. a damn fine team with other
back-up sources available also. the als offered the family a sydney
barrister to work with them but the family has decided to go the
brisbane team way. the family is in no way able to contribute to any costs so
costs would need to be covered by the generosity of this list and others to
help obtain justice for the family and against the police. isja has already
come up with $500 to allow dr. hughes to travel to brisbane to arrange
the necessary paperwork and other legal requirements including talking to
the family.
of course our task would be so much fairer and easier if the police did
not hold all the strings. our task would be so much fairer and easier if
we had 1% of the police resources on a case by case basis. our task
would be so much fairer and easier if we had our own properly funded legal
teams. the brisbane team will seek legal aid funding to cover at least
some of their costs but it may be required to raise more funds. i know
some people, groups and trade unions assisted in the burial of mr.
briscoe and i and the family thank you and deeply appreciate it but we do not
and cannot feel grief and turn our backs on his grave site. we must finally
show the police that their homicidal days are at an end. we, aborigines
and not, will no longer accept the police crimes as our reality. it is
not mine and i doubt very much if it is yours. i know money is not easy to
raise but this is not greece. we are a very wealthy country thanks to
the resources of the stolen lands. our governments will not help us to stop
these police crimes not only against my mobs but your mobs also. so it
comes down to the one thing the authorities fear and hate and that is
people power. it was used by the pensioners of this country to fight
against a howard government policy and they won. it was used in qld to
force hurley to face charges in a court of law. the first police officer
in australia to do so on homicide related charges. the fact that an
all-white jury in the most racist town in australia, townsville, negated
the evidence detracts not one whit from the power that forced him to
face his law. finally.
a long post i know but i think, and hope, a necessary one.
fkj
ray jackson
president
indigenous social justice association
isja01@internode.on.net
(m) 0450 651 063
(p) 02 9318 0947
address 1303/200 pitt street waterloo 2017
we live and work on the stolen lands of the gadigal people.
sovereignty treaty social justice
New Matilda
20 Feb 2012
Police Deaths Need An Independent Watchdog
By Anna Brown
The Baillieu Government's new anti-corruption commission has the power
to investigate police misconduct - but not deaths in police custody. Why
not, asks Anna Brown
Imagine the outcry if employers were vested with responsibility for
investigating deaths in their workplace.
Or if AFL clubs were left to investigate whether their players should be
suspended for on-field incidents.
The risks of corruption and collusion would be real, the investigations
would lack transparency and legitimacy. There would be a decline in accountability
and, in many cases, justice would not be done.
Yet this is the situation that prevails in relation to the investigation
of police-related deaths.
In 2012, there have been at least four such deaths already, with two car
chase incidents in Victoria and the death in police custody of a young
Aboriginal man in Alice Springs. In the latter case, there are allegations that the man was bashed by police. In all cases, the investigations of deaths which involved the police are being undertaken by police themselves.
The conflict is clear. The investigators charged with responsibility for
the investigation of a serious public matter are members of the same
organisation as those under scrutiny, with the potential for bias in favour of their
fellow officers.
Oversight or audit of this investigation by the ethical standards
division of the police does not cure the lack of independence in this initial investigation.
It is imperative that all police-related deaths - and there are an average
of 16 per year in Victoria alone - are investigated by a body that is fully
independent of police. In Victoria, this could be achieved through the establishment of a new body or the vesting of primary responsibility for investigation of police-related deaths in an independent body such as the Office of Police Integrity or the proposed anti-corruption commission.
There is no question that the work of the members of the police force is
often hard and dangerous, and the tasks we expect them to perform are often
thankless..
Police are criticised for their infrequent mistakes but rarely praised
for their much more common good work. However, when a life is lost there is significant public interest in finding out exactly what happened and for this inquiry to be free from any perception of impropriety.
External investigation of police related deaths not only makes common
sense, but is required by the law. International human rights law and the Victorian
Charter of Human Rights require that deaths in custody or that implicate agents of
the state (such as police) must be investigated by a body that is practically,
hierarchically and institutionally independent of the police. There are other benefits to such an approach. As well as addressing the potential for bias, external
investigation of police would increase public trust and confidence in police. This is likely to lead to an increase in public cooperation with police.
The independent model is already being used in parts of Canada, New
Zealand and the United Kingdom.
In Queensland, in response to the flawed and compromised police
investigation into the tragic death of Doomadgee on Palm Island, the Coroner, assisted by the Queensland Misconduct Commission, has been given primary responsibility for investigation of deaths in custody. To say that non-police investigators would not be equipped with sufficient skills to conduct investigations is belied by these examples of independent models operating successfully in other jurisdictions.
The problems associated with police investigating police are not just
problems of appearance or perception, but in many cases are very real. For example,
the recent coronial inquiry into the police shooting of 15-year-old Tyler Cassidy
in Melbourne in 2008 revealed a number of deficiencies in the conduct of that
investigation by police.
Many of the problems flowed from a tendency by the police investigators
not to treat the police members involved in the death in the same manner as a suspect in any other investigations. This isn't at all surprising given the likelihood for investigators to identify with fellow officers. Curing these deficiencies with an independent investigation model would not only satisfy the public interest in seeing justice done but also assist the police members to be absolved where appropriate by a system regarded as fair and legitimate - not as tarnished and tainted.
Calls for the independent investigation of police-related deaths are not
new.
In 2011, after two police shootings within a week, the Human Rights Law
Centre and the Federation of Community Legal Centres, together with other
leading community legal services, wrote to the Victorian Government to urge the
establishment of an independent body to investigate police related deaths.
The Baillieu Government released the details of its new anti-corruption
commission in late 2011. Under the legislation, allegations of police misconduct -
but not the investigation of police-related deaths - can be investigated by the
commission.
The legislation also establishes an additional body to oversee the
operation of the anti-corruption commission. This new integrity apparatus may satisfy the Coalition's election commitment but, as it currently stands, represents a missed opportunity to address a critical gap in Victoria's accountability framework.
If the fight against corruption is worth establishing and resourcing two
new independent agencies, then surely the sanctity of human life warrants
similar protection.
http://newmatilda.com/2012/02/20/police-deaths-watchdog
Comment:
David Grayling
It's interesting to contrast the police with teachers.
Teachers do not form gangs which they then hide behind to cover their
tracks.
Teachers are professionals who form friendships but who do not try to
cover for colleagues who are doing the wrong thing. Of course, teachers generally
are thought of as being pillars of society.
In the Police Force, things are very different. Whether it derives
from the poor image that the police have that makes them paranoid about the public
knowing what they do I don't know. And why do they have a poor image?
I suppose it has to do with the type of people the Police Force
attracts. Perhaps there are too many dubious types in the Force, people who love violence, who love power, who see the opportunity of bleeding money from the less desirable but wealthy drug barons and those involved in prostitution and money
laundering, etc.
Perhaps the Police Force needs to change its entry requirements.
Perhaps some stringent psychological testing needs to be done to weed out the
troublemakers and the thugs.
I see no reason why the Police Force and Teachers shouldn't have the
same image in society. Both are important.
The existing Police Culture needs to be changed! Allowing independent
bodies to oversee the Force seems a wise move but much more needs to be done.