this post will report on 4 deaths, 3 of those were of the death in custody type whilst the 4th was that of a good and true friend.
ms. wanda irihia bidios is a maori elder who at the time of her death on the 7th of august this year was 82 years old. she preferred to be known as irihia.
i first met her some 10 years ago, maybe even more, through my other good and true friend, anne duffy-lyndsay, known to me as 'comrade mother.' anne was 92 at the time of her death.
irihia was a dynamo. she walked everywhere. she was super-active. she was of sound mind and was interested in what was happening around her, her friends and her world. her one frustration was in attempting to teach me some few words of maori. my pronunciation was just lousy.
every year she would return to aotearoa to her island to fight against the take-over of her land from other forces, including the maori land trust.
she was an avid isja supporter and would stand in the background at rallies and marched strongly with us. her interest in the issues that isja was involved in remained constant up to the time, a few months ago, that she returned to her country knowingly for the last time.
she had had a fall that forced her into hospital and thence a nursing home for convalescence. we spoke quietly of her need to return to her ancestral home and to those family members remaining in atearoa.
the cause of her demise eeriely mirrored that of comrade mother as both had suffered from bad, bad falls that they could not recover from. anne died in 2012 and irihia in 2014.
these two dear warriors for social justice have left a space that will never again be filled but that is how it should be. my love and respect for both of them continues.
be at peace, irihia, and walk your lands forever more.
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the first of the deaths in custody reports is the death of 24 year old dylan maher resulting from a high speed police pursuit in wollongong on 27 june, 2014. we have not reported on this death earlier at the request of dylan's family. the family continues to make the point that no public calls for justice be held whilst they await a promised report. we accept their advice without question.
police have stated that dylan was found driving a stolen car when a pursuit started that came to an end when dylan crashed into a telegraph pole which allegedly snapped in two. this gives some indication of the speeds that both dylan and the police must have reached. the crash happened close by to a school as the young students were on their way home.
an eye-witness stated that she saw dylan leave the car and collapse on the roadway but when the police arrived he was declared dead.
deaths arising from high speed police pursuits are always problematic as the police generally attempt to argue that they had ceased the pursuit virtually nano-seconds before the chased vehicle crashes. some then try to argue that as they were not officially in pursuit then the victim was not a designated death in custody. this attempt to protect themselves from investigation fails badly as once a police pursuit is started then regardless of when the police retire from that pursuit and that person dies by crashing the car it still remains a death in custody.
police are excellently trained to four levels of pursuit speeds but how strictly this is adhered to is known only to the police who do the investigations it seems remarkable that all police pursuits never seem to exceed their authorised speed limits. it is also well known that most young police officers are greatly attracted to the 'sport' that high speed pursuits bring to a mostly boring job.
the family have called for an independant enquiry and have asked for the names of the police officers involved in the chase. as stated earlier the family is waiting for a report to be given to them before they decide their next move. it is not known to isja from whom the report they are waiting for is sourced. it may be from the p96 that reports a death to the coroners office or a copy of the interim autopsy report or even the final autopsy and toxicology report. all these three documents are to be supplied to the family as a right.
the family will be given no reports from the police as they will be given to the coroner only as a part of the brief of evidence for the coroner to investigate the how, why and where of dylan's death. the family will only be able to access this when they find legal representation for dylan's inquest and it is very important for the family to do this as soon as possible to allow their legals to investigate the facts of the event, gather forensic evidence if possible and to talk to witnesses of the crash and its aftermath and not just allow the police to gather this information. the decision of the coroner could very well be two or more years away.
we publicly offer our condolences to dylan's family, his community and his friends. we know he walks his land in peace.
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the second death worthy of our attention is the death in custody of another asylum seeker held in the detention camp on manus island.
hamid kehazaei, also 24 years old but he was an iranian asylum seeker who died on xxxxxxxx arising from a cut on his foot that had become septic and a total lack of medical health care allowed him to die of septicaemia.
regardless of how he entered this country he has every right to expect that he will be treated humanely by his gaoler, the dept. of immigration. hamid cut his foot but because of his location, manus island, and the criminally wilful attitude against legitimate asylum seekers by the government of the foul abbott, proper medical treatment has been denied. this is a direct policy move against all asylum seekers, here and abroad, that sends the very clear statement 'do not come to this country as we , the government and labor opposition, do not want you. better you die in your own country than die here!'
any one hearing, seeing and reading even our own cowardly media knows full well that even the federal government speaks out, mostly parrotting us voices, that iran is not a safe place to be. the ruling theocracy is most certainly not adverse to killing those they see as the enemy yet iranian asylum seekers are denied a refugee status and continually told to return there. once on a plane the dept. of immigration does a pontius pilate and cares not of the outcome of that return. there is blood on the hands of all our federal governments going back to the hawke government.
morrison and the foul abbott then appear publically and gloat that their tactics of off-shore processing and detention is working because the boats have slowed but this is at a cost that all australians should be denying that such inhumanity is being done in their name. two young asylum seekers have now died due to their incarceration there. one was murdered whilst the other died due to medical neglect. both arising from the heartless actions and instructions of the foul abbott government who have only been in office for one year. how many more must die a tragic and miserable death at the hands of our federal governments? two a year? perhaps 5 per year? how many is too many?
and what of the everyday terror perpetrated against the asylum seeker children? do we wait for them to take that one small step from self-harm to suicide? and would the good white christian government really care should the children take their lives? we good people of sound and moral mind must care and continue to fight against these racist and exonophobic practices. i roundly say not in my name! refugees are welcome here!
if it is possible for our sorrow and respect to be conveyed to hamid's family then we sincerely offer our sympathies to them and his community and friends. may he now be at peace from the tortures perpetrated against him by the australian government and opposition for no crime committed.
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the 4th death, the 3rd in custody is the continuing analysis from the indefatigable gerry georgatos whose article appears below and which is deserving of a wider coverage.
ms. julieka dhu, as we know by now, was picked up for unpaid fines so too was her boyfriend, dion ruffin, also for fines. she died, he did not.
julieka died because of the incompetence of the port hedland police and the nurse or nurses who declared her to be fit enough to return to the police cells. on the third day, she died in an agony that we will never know. nor will the medical centre or the port hedland police. it most certainly will not be felt by the governments of west australia whose criminal intransigence at not properly implementing recs. 120 and 121. let us also make reference to rec. 87 that calls for arrest only as a matter of last resort. then there are the health recommendations that has also been ignored. and, of course we must ask why these life-saving recommendations have not been put in place.
or does the wa governments not particularly care about deaths in their custodial institutions? do they consider that their police force and gaols are that good that such recommendations are not necessary? or is their a more sinister racial reason for their attitudes of ignorance?
i am quite sure that those questions are not applicable to the aboriginal politicians in wa but there certainly needs to be a much more public profile on these issues from those aboriginal politicians. perhaps they need to liase with our, now, three aboriginal representatives to put pressure on both the federal politicians and those in wa. it is more than required that our brothers and sisters in all state and territory governments and their oppositions.
but, as we are only so well aware, we cannot leave this fight just to the politicians. they need to be constantly reminded that unnecessary deaths in custody must cease forthwith. ms. dhu's death came about because of the complete non-implimentation of the royal commission recommendations. they are not there to be ignored nor disabused. yjey are there to save lives, it's that simple.
time for a real concerted effort by our politicians in all the parliaments to force change once and for all. how many people, black, white, whatever must continue to die before our governments are made to get serious. it is estimated by authorative sources that had the governments and their custodial organisations properly implimented all of the royal commission recommendations appertaining to the custodial areas, then some 100, possibly more, aboriginal and torres strait islanders, and others that are not really publicly counted, would be alive today shows a most callous concern for the citizens of this country.
but should we be amazed or surprised at or by this attitude from our politicians when gerry reported on the 996 aborigines. men, women and children, who have committed suicide over a ten year period without any interest seemingly from our politicians. no royal commission, nothing of any suitability or substance. just silence. why?
fkj
ray jackson
president
indigenous social justice association
prix des droits de l'homme de la republique fraincaise 2013
(french human rights medal 2013)
1303/200 pitt street, waterloo. 2017
isja01@internode.on.net
61 2 9318 0947
0450 651 063
we live and work on the stolen lands of the gadigal people
Unpaid fines destroy lives with jail time
by Gerry Georgatos
August26th,2014
Hundreds of Australians endure the ordeal of jail because of unpaid fines, their poverty a burden. Disproportionately First Nations people are incarcerated ‘to pay off’ their fines. According to the president of the Indigenous Social Justice Association, Ray Jackson this “draconian practice criminalises people and destroys families and futures.”
Recently, ‘unpaid fines’ cost the life of a 22-year-old Yamatji woman, Juliecka Dhu. On Saturday, August 2, Ms Dhu was arrested along with her boyfriend, Dion Ruffin, and both were detained by Western Australia’s South Hedland police. They were to be released on Tuesday, August 5 but Ms Dhu died on the Monday, 48 hours into her detention in the South Hedland police lock up. Around noon on the Monday Ms Dhu was transferred from the police lock up to the South Hedland campus where soon after she was pronounced dead.
It is believed that Ms Dhu had several hundred dollars in unpaid fines, though a source said that it may have been up to a couple of thousand dollars but in any case this does not matter. No-one should be incarcerated for anything as minor as unpaid fines. The human rights award winning laureate, Mr Jackson said if recommendations from the Royal Commission Deaths in Custody had been implemented by Western Australia, Ms Dhu would not have been detained. Hundreds of people are jailed each year and criminalised for unpaid fines.
“The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody recommendation 120 states that unpaid fines be waived if over five years old and recommendation 121 states that instead of imprisonment other alternatives should be sought,” said Mr Jackson.
“NSW has implemented aspects of these recommendations but Western Australia has failed to reason the common sense within these recommendations. Had they reasoned the value in these recommendations Ms Dhu may well still be alive today.”
“Detainment in a police lockup for me is the equivalent of jail as far as I am concerned in these unpaid fines matters.”
“It is no secret that Aboriginal people in Western Australia endure the nation’s highest arrest rate and the nation’s highest imprisonment rate.”
“The Western Australian Government continues to ignore lessons that should have long ago been learned.”
Mr Jackson said the myriad social ills First Nations people face in Western Australia should always be taken into account – “the social problems of homelessness, alcohol, mental ill-health, the effects of institutionalisation and so much more.”
“Implementing simple recommendations born two decades ago will help people and relieve so much unnecessary burden.”
Recently, a Cairns grandmother who had called police to report a break-in to her home was instead arrested for a two-decade old unpaid fine – a parking fine of $20! The Manunda woman, Dorothy Deshong was humiliated. She said she had been unaware of a warrant for her arrest over the fine. Instead of police investigating the break-in, Ms Deshong was forced into the back of a paddy wagon and held in police custody until the 22-year-old debt was ‘paid off’. The Queensland Police Commissioner has apologised for this incident.
Ms Deshong should never have been carted off over a $20 parking fine. The unwell Ms Dhu should never have been detained in a lockup to ‘pay off’ fines. Hundreds of people each year should not be criminalised over unpaid fines. Most of them are just poor