Of tasers and still another qld death in custody

By ray jackson, president, indigenous social justice association

(Commenting on http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/police-chief-ocallaghan-defe...)

two police incidents, one in wa and one in qld,clearly shows the problems
with the police of this country when they refuse to accept the royal
commission recommendations. worse of course is what happens to people,
both black and white, when they come into contact with their particular
force.

no one needs to argue that aborigines have it worse. all the statistics
prove it. the fact that kevin spratt is alive today after two incidents of
multiple taserings, is merely of some lucky happenstance rather than to
the massive assaults on kevin by both police and corrective services.
other detainees have died with far less taserings. what we don't know, of
course, and are unable to predict with any certainty is whether kevin's
life has been shortened or not. some medical authority needs to monitor
his physical and mental wellbeing for some future time.

should kevin die as a result of these taserings, at least we know who to
hold responsible. and the wonderfully named inspector stingmore must be
one of them.

it is interesting to see, perhaps, that the disgusting practice of
promoting those police who breach both the commissioner's instructions (
the police bible) and the royal commission recommendations ( the devil's
handbook according to the police) continues. constable hollingworth
promoted to senior constable; senior sear chris hurley promoted to
inspector; senior constable aaron strahan promoted to seargent. and so the
list goes on of protecting their own. that this is the modus operandi of
police forces nationally merely highlights that criminal conspiracy much
loved by the police, 'the culture.'

the forces are saturated with it but it becomes a binding of social cement
so strong as to keep the police virtually untouchable as we continue to
attack them.

the second report is the death in custody in the townsville lock-up number
400 plus, plus one. another brother we have lost but the why may not be
known for several years. 50 year old hm ( i will not name him in deference
to his family) died.

the only report that i have seen is the sydney morning herald report
below. that it is quite probably based on a police media report. again
this shows the almost incestuous relationship between lazy and compliant
media and the police forces of each state and territory. this relationship
allows the police to get their side of the events out to the public gaze.
a home run in default media allows the police to tell what they done and
how they done it and for the 'explanation' to be given the imprimatur of
their local police union who states that their own have done nothing
untoward and are, of course, are 101% innocent, a la chris hurley.

their report states that hm was affected by alcohol ( did they breath test
him) and violent to boot. well he is/was an aborigine, wasn't he!

it does appear however that the cops have learnt to share the blame by
sharing it with the ambulance drivers. one can only wonder where this
tactic will finish up but i have a suspicion that more and more police
deaths in custody will end up as a health related death and thus
exonerating the police involved. they are, as they argue, not trained to
recognise health or stress problems and that is not their role.

the royal commissioners in their humble opinion begged to differ but as
long as the police are recommendation-free then the deaths will continue
as will the abuse of tasers.