"Our NSW police are just too deadly!" - Ray Jackson

Mundine: investigate officers for attempted murder
Sydney Morning Herald
<P>Michael Anderson, a founder of the Aboriginal tent embassy in Canberra, attended the protest, as did Greens MPs and Gail Hickey, the mother of T.J. Hickey, who died in 2004 when he was impaled on a fence in Redfern while being chased by police, sparking a riot.</P>

Measures to curb gun violence
The Australian
<P>Aboriginal Tent Embassy activist Michael Anderson called the incident involving Troy "symptomatic of a bigger problem" involving relations between police and the Aboriginal community.</P>

Sign and distribute widely.

http://www.gopetition.com.au/petitions/stop-police-brutality-against-juv...

it just goes on and on

5th July 1990.. life altered. Y police brutality.. tried to be fobbed off as alleged hanging. It seems Police Brutality hasnt changed in 20yrs just got worse..The police investigating the police is a joke.. Cover up is what comes from that.
http://www.furnituremover.com.au/furniture-mover-articles/1992/10/15/han....
There are families who have to live with the outcome of police brutality for life..

The article below is based on a speech by Socialist Alliance national co-convenor Peter Boyle at the April 24 emergency rally called by the Indigenous Social Justice
Association to protest the recent police shooting and bashing of two unarmed
Aboriginal teenagers in Sydney's Kings Cross.

* * *

I read in the newspaper that Assistant Police Commissioner Mark Murdoch said:"We have significant responsibilities in the use of firearms. One of them is not shooting at tyres."

You get that? The police have a responsibility not to shoot at car tyres! But what
about shooting unarmed 14-year-olds? What are your responsibilities there, Assistant Police Commissioner?

What about shooting an unarmed 17-year-old Aboriginal youth in the neck and then
punching him repeatedly in the head while he could have been bleeding to death on
the footpath?

That's what we saw from the film footage captured by a bystander. That's what the
whole world saw. So what are the responsibilities of the police about this sort of
behaviour?

And who is going to investigate this horrible incident? The police? The police
investigating the police yet again?

And what sort of justice can we expect from that?

At the very minimum we need a thorough, independent and public inquiry into this. And the people responsible for this outrage must be held to account.

And in the meantime why do we have to have a society where every policeman and policewoman goes around armed, with guns and tasers that can kill? Guns and tasers that can be, and are, misused because they all have them.

There are countries where most police don't carry guns. They have an armed response group to be deployed only in situations that require armed police.

Why don't we have that sort of system here in Australia? People will be safer if we did.

This is the very least you'd expect from any society that respects justice.

You'd also expect the reaction of the society as a whole to the shooting and
bashing of these Aboriginal teenagers last Sunday to be one of outrage and of anger.

That is the normal response of anyone who saw the shocking footage of the incident.
That is the normal response of anyone with a sense of humanity and human solidarity.

Instead, in this country we are told not to be angry, not to be outraged. "Bad stuff"
can happen if you are in a stolen car, one mainstream media commentator said. Don't blame the police who are only doing their job. And the politicians mostly echo this message.

Well a lot of "bad stuff" happens to Aboriginal people in this country doesn't it?

Bad stuff like:

. Aboriginal people are 14.3 times more likely to be put in prison than non-
indigenous Australians. One in four prisoners are Aboriginal. But they make
up just 2.5% of Australia's population.

Bad stuff like:

. The number of imprisoned young Aboriginal people (between 10 and 17 years of age) increased by more than 20% in 2009-2010 compared to the previous year and the average detention rate of young Aboriginal people is 25 times that of young non-Aborigines.

Bad stuff like:

. There have been more than 400 Aboriginal deaths in custody since 1980 - one death in custody a month, or more than 13 deaths a year. Yet less than a third of the 339 recommendations handed down in 1991 by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody have been implemented.

Bad stuff like:

. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have a life expectancy up to 17 years
less than other people in Australia.

Bad stuff like:

. Babies born to Aboriginal mothers die at twice the rate of other Australian babies
and experience higher rates of preventable illness such as heart disease, kidney
disease and diabetes.

Bad stuff like:

. The Aboriginal unemployment rate is about 18.2% - more than three times that for all Australians.

Bad stuff like:

. Thirty-one percent of young Aboriginal people live in overcrowded housing. In
remote areas, more than half (58%) of Aboriginal children and youth lived in an
overcrowded household.

When such a lot of "bad stuff" keeps happening to Aboriginal people in this country,
year after year, decade after bloody decade, then you know the problem is not just
about "some bad kids" or "their bad parents". It is a problem of the system, a racist
system that needs to be changed.

The politicians tell us they are "closing the gap". We don't see that happening. As
far as Aborginal people being grossly over represented in the prison system the gap
is growing. And it is growing worse for Aboriginal youth. Their future is looking worse and worse.

We desperately need justice. We desperately need change. But if there is one thing experience should have thought us by now it is that if we want any justice we are
going to have to fight for it. So fight for it we must.

http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/50830

So far I have not read one word of concern for the woman who was trapped
under the front of the car and being dragged. She also ended up in hospital... ---
Trudy

it's just got to stop and people help people instead of hurting, but I suppose it has to start from the top end, with government

Indigenous Social Justice Association

MEDIA RELEASE

TWO KINDS OF FACTS

Since the shooting of 6 unarmed Aboriginal occupants of a stolen car by police officers at Kings Cross we have witnessed a major push by the police, the O’Farrell Government and the (mostly right-wing) media to turn our attention away from the dangerous and possible lethal attack by the police to bring to bear upon the Families of the 6 aboriginal youth involved in the event.

Assistant Commissioner Murdoch opined that we should not just focus on the police shooting but we must broaden our view to take in the wider picture. I totally agree with him but he has access to the wider picture whilst we do not. Show it to the Public, please. Let us all be aware of what happened on that morning that 6 of our youth had a near-death experience.

Our successful rally on Tuesday 24 April showed the police and the Government quite clearly where the blame belonged but also where the proper solutions must be found. It is within their jurisdiction that change must be made. Changes at the Social level, whilst undoubtedly helpful, will not stop police violence by itself. We must accept however that we do have fractured Families, along with many other non-Aboriginal Families, and we have fractured youth of all persuasions. Such Families are moulded by circumstances such as poverty, unemployment, broken homes, among other social crises.

That such is the social case merely highlights the complete and abject failure of previous NSW Governments, and the lack of positive social programs by the current Government, to address our social problems but especially our youth problems. Our Aboriginal youth are currently some %60 of the juvenile justice population and still rising. But surely the answer does not lie in the police shooting at our kids in such a cavalier or gung-ho fashion. Should the police continue in this extreme action then it could be your child who is shot at next. And most probably killed.

No amount of white-washing by the police or the Government removes one iota of their responsibility to stop once and for all the brutality of their police force in dealing with those they see as offenders.

Our call remains the same!

We demand that police brutality, including 5 police-related deaths in custody, be stopped immediately and the NSW police be made answerable to the Public by the setting up of Police Citizens Review Boards similar to those of the USA and some European countries. The members of these Boards are to be voted in by the people of NSW.

Our second demand is for the NSW Government and the Police Force to bite the bullet for a fully independent Investigative Unit to be formed of properly qualified professionals who have no connection to any police member past or present. This action will finally give us what we are always told is ours by Right of Law and that is real Justice. A Justice that will stop the criminality and the brutality of the police in this State.

The third demand is for Tasers to be removed from all frontline police and a full and open Public Enquiry be held into their use and who should use them. Such an enquiry would also need to hold an audit and review of the use of Glock hand guns, the requirement for in-depth training, including psychiatric assessment of all officers, of the use the Glock and finally who should be issued with such a deadly weapon.

Tasers were given the Government spin that they were harmless and would save lives. Nothing can be further from the truth. Three days after Roberto Laudisio Curti was tortured and killed by 6 police officers, Premier Barry O’Farrell made the ridiculous and ill-informed statement that Tasers do not kill. Premier, I and so many others totally disagree with you. We know why you made that erroneous statement but we do not agree with your police force either.

The last five days have highlighted that we live in a very split society. We live in a society that allows some few to hoard the Facts to themselves so as to continue to keep themselves in power or powerful. They inform us of what the Facts are but we call this ‘spin.’ The Public are starved of the real Facts for this would be non-advantageous to those in Power. Official Facts are lies and we must fight against them at all times. Then there is the Secret Facts that we must continue to fight for, and so it is with the Kings Cross shooting. We demand the full Facts and not the Government/police/media Facts. We demand that Police Commissioner Scipione open this police investigation to the full view of the Public and the 6 involved Families!

To this end we will be holding another rally on Saturday 12 May 2012 at 2.30 pm outside the Kings Cross police station.

This day is the National Day of Action called for by all Aboriginal groups around Australia, and their supporters, to commememorate the 400+ Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Deaths in Custody since 1 January 1980. Since January this year we have included all deaths in custody to be worthy of inclusion in our demands for real Justice.

Come one, come all.

Our fight is your fight is our fight!
FOR KOORI JUSTICE

Ray Jackson
President

For further information contact Raul Bassi on 0403 037 376 or myself as above.

http://indymedia.org.au/2012/03/13/violence-breeds-violence-police-bruta...

Sad the anger in people, the revenge motive even in the instant. I think readers will learn much from Gerry Georgatos' article on failed prisons and the mentalities that perpetuate them

Gail