A day of great shame | Indymedia Australia

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 16/12/2014 - 11:46pm

A DAY OF GREAT SHAME!

today is day of great shame for our police-controlled judicial system!

today is a day were legal fraud has been blatantly put on show in its most arrogant form!

today four nsw police were exonerated of the police-initiated death of the brazilian student, roberto laudisio curti!

the members of isja with honest grief apologise to the family of roberto for the complete and utter lack of justice in this country.

a member of the nsw judiciary after listening to a brief of evidence that was carefully structured by other nsw police, and then that very questionable evidence being used to legally protest any brutality and malfeasance by the original 10 police officers who were highlighted as being seriously involved in the pursuit and the compliance actions taken by them, collectively and individually, against roberto found no evidence to commit any police officer.

at each court appearance the numbers involved were lessened by legal manouveurs during many consultations where both legal teams would meet to argue the personal strength of their points of law. slowly the numbers dropped to only four. six nsw police officers had been squeezed out of the responsibility for the death of roberto. this is what occurs when police are legally allowed to dominate the court system. make no mistake, the police association defends their members with every trick in the book.

the four faced a magistrate today and had isja known we would have been there to witness this terribly unjust decision.

the magistrate acquitted three of those officers who tortured roberto with their multiple taser shots as not guilty of assault on roberto. this is senseless in its totality. the coroner, ms. mary jeram, found a case of extreme overuse of the tasering of roberto but another magistrate begs to differ. ms. jeram sends the case to the police integrity commission who also finds that the police involved, all 10 of them, have a case to answer. but the magistrate begs to differ. unbelievable! there just is no justice here. none.

we all well know, or at least have some idea of, the fragility of hard evidence by well-versed and competent legals on both the prosecution and defence teams. evidence that to a common man seems perfectly reasonable becomes but a ball to be bounced to what ever point each side of their particular objectives is aiming for whereby even truth, especially truth, becomes a matter of relevancy to the particular argument being put.

so those three police will be free to go and continue their careers wherever that may lead them.

the fourth officer was found guilty of assault on roberto because he used up to three cans of capsicum spray on him. 1 cop found guilty of common assault against a young disoriented and frightened youth who was attempting to evade capture by the police. how dare he! full compliance to police instructions must be obeyed at all times or you pay the price of your non-compliance. that is the rule that all of us must be cognisant of when our paths cross theirs.

the sting in the tail, the absolute kick in the guts, not only for the curti family but for all of us seeking to humanise our police forces was the abject legal cowardice to then make a correct charge and sentence of gaol time but he was to provide to this bullyman a good behaivour bond. you can get that for jay-walking or a first charge of a petty crime. roberto died at the involvement of this officer by his recognised overuse of capsicum spray. not only recognised but proven to be so.

for those who may not understand what effect this spray has let me inform you. the first rule to accept is that if it was questionable as to its effects the cops would be using something else to take its place. sprayed at a short distance directly into one's face there are immediately two effects. the first is a very painful burning of the eyes and despite closing your eyelids it still gets in. the second effect and much more dangerous with multiple use of the spray is that it very much affects your breathing so you begin to asphixiate. you lose breath. the smell is also pungently effective so you are being attacked at various levels by this noxious spray. imagine then what the effect of up to three cans of this odious spray would be. i believe it could be likened to being water-boarded.

add to this trauma however the fact that you are being tasered and stun-driven as well. to be the victim of a stun-drive the taser is placed against your body and the taser operated sending violent spasm throughout your body. collectively with the spray the effects would be obvious. but not satisfied that these compliance tools were working properly, a female officer reported that roberto "had half a ton of copper on him and he is still struggling."

the police excuse that they continue to attempt to subdue victims who somehow obtain super-human strength must surely be wearing thin by now even for judicial officers. half a ton of cop, multiple taserings and three cans of pepper-spray? i defy any one to overcome that level of police brutality.

the most venal injustice to the family however must be the last words of the magistrate that there would be no conviction recorded against even this officer. none. all nsw police again exonerated of their killings. as in the case of s/s chris hurly, the qld. cop who knee-dropped on to mulrunji doomadgee on palm island in 2004, who an all white jury found him not guilty as he was, it is reported, "only doing his job."

the message to all of australia's police forces is that you have the legal right to kill. you will have an assurred immunity and impunity from any and all of your actions. even unto death. bullymen indeed! but we plead that these legal gymnastics must not be allowed to dishearten those coroners and other judicial officers who are sick of police lies, fabricated briefs of evidence and manipulation of evidence not to disengage their legal training and conscience from these affairs. you must remain of sound and moral mind and process those who believe themselves to be above the law to be sent to face the full justice of their criminal actions.

today i am shamed to the core at the miserable and unjust outcome on the torture and murder of roberto by not only the 10 officers involved but at a corruption of justice that strongly reminds one of the old rum corps troopers who evolved into the constabulary of this country. they could do no wrong then, they can do no wrong now. of a judicial system that will tie itself into the most convoluted knots in their exoneration of the bullyman. and finally of all the governments of australia that allow such wrongful outcomes to occur. at the very least roberto should have been given the right of white law and not the colonial law used against we aborigines and torres strait islanders.

the outcome would have been the same but the process and the truth would not have been so arrogantly dismissed, so cruelly illogical, so morally wrong.

yes, today i am much shamed and i offer my, and the isja members, great sorrow at what has come to pass and i hope with all my craving for real justice against police murders that the family of roberto appeals this rotten decision all the way to the high court of australia until real justice is found.

roberto is indeed most worthy of that search for a justice we can all be proud of. except for the police and those who continue to protect them. see article below with the four names of the traumatised officers.

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

16 Dec 2014 - 5:12pm

Officer escapes conviction over Curti assault

More than two years after Brazilian student Roberto Curti died after a violent struggle with police, a Sydney police officer has escaped conviction for his assault.
Source:
AAP
16 Dec 2014 - 11:36 AM

A police officer who assaulted Brazilian student Roberto Curti during his fatal arrest in Sydney's CBD has escaped a conviction.

It has been more than two years since Mr Curti died in the early hours of March 18, 2012, after a chase and violent struggle with police in which he was tasered, handcuffed, hit with capsicum spray and knelt on.

Following an inquest into his death and a lengthy local court hearing into the matter, Senior Constable Damian John Ralph was the only officer out of three cops to be found guilty of his assault on Tuesday.

Shortly after handing down this decision, Magistrate Claire Farnan placed him on a two-year good behaviour bond with no conviction recorded.

Ralph's lawyer Roy Hood told the court the serving officer, who has been on restricted duties since December 2013, had been a "troubled soul" since Mr Curti's death.

In finding Ralph guilty of assault on Tuesday, Ms Farnan said the senior constable had used at least two cans of capsicum spray on Mr Curti.

It was deployed within 15cm of the 21-year-old's face, while he was lying stomach down and being knelt on by other officers.

"While I accept in the heat of the moment he may have thought it was appropriate ... it's obvious it was not," she said.

But she found Ralph was a man of good character, who was unlikely to reoffend and suffered from post-traumatic stress as a result of the incident.

Ralph, along with his colleague Chin Aun Lim, were charged with Mr Curti's assault, while fellow officers Scott James Edmondson and Daniel David Barling were charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

The court heard Mr Curti became increasingly afraid after taking the drug LSD before his death.

When he stole two packets of biscuits from a convenience store, it was incorrectly reported as an armed robbery involving two men.

When Mr Curti was later spotted by police, he had no shirt and shoes on.

He was tackled twice by police on Pitt Street before being brought to the ground on the third attempt.

He died at the scene.

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Permalink Submitted by Diet Simon on Tue, 23/12/2014 - 3:02am

"Ray Jackson" isja01@internode.on.net

i have taken the liberty of collecting some of the posts and to make them public here, including 2 from domingos laudisio, the uncle of the young brazilian student, roberto laudisio curti, who was tortured and killed by 10 police officers going beyond the extent of their civil powers to arrest him and to force him to comply with their testosterone-fuelled orders.

when the matter finally arrived at court some years later, and was held in much movement and secrecy to keep the public at bay, the officers involved had dropped to 6. after some more legal machinations on the final day the numbers of police appearing were reduced to 4.

the dpp used a much favoured tactic to help in the exoneration of three of those officers by increasing the charges against them to a point were there would be a guaranteed dismissal of all charges due to a complete lack of any viable evidence to prove the original charge. the 4th officer was found guilty but had no conviction recorded. david porter looks at a different view.

whatever, the fact is a young man died, unnecessarily, whilst all police involved have walked after being exonerated by the court. we must, however, clearly recognise that there are other dark and powerful forces involved here as in other death in custody events.

firstly you have, to my mind, the socially criminal act of police investigating other police. how many times have public arguments been raised against the armed forces, or some other such body, against investigating themselves? we know full well that any result is most questionable in its content and findings. yet we, the public and the media, fully allow the police to continue to investigate their own. of course we get injustice as a result. why do we not take actions against our governments to change this most suspect situation? or are we just so complacent as long as the corrupt act does not include us or our loved ones personally.

there are other bodies that can investigate such events. surely the independant commission against corruption, (icac), is more than able to investigate those police involved in a dic event. such investigation would disallow any police corruption from occurring in the initial stages. the police integrity commission, (pic), could also fill this role but both organisations must be given the appropriate legislation and funding to do the investigations to a satisfactory level. i see no role for the nsw ombudsman in this role as they already have a 'watching brief' on police issues that, perhaps due to a lack of funding, already leaves much to be desired.

the next legal hurdle involves the office of the director of public prosecutions, a position currently held by mr. babb. this man and his office wield enormous legal power. they stand as the gatekeepers to cases going before the criminal courts. mr babb and his legal team have the right granted by the nsw attorney-general, brad hazzard and other a-g's before him, to filter out those cases that, in their opinion, would only waste the courts time and resources. and fair enough, you say, there must be a fair few cases that are labelled mischievous, so weed them out!

let us look at some current history of the decisions of the dpp however. the question must be asked why so many cases against police officers automatically are considered to be not worthy of going to court? this is just a fact of life it seems. let's consider the dic event of young elijah holcombe who was shot dead by a nsw police officer at armidale. elijah was having a mental episode and though armed with a knife, he made no real attempt to use it. it hung by his side, witnesses testified, whilst he was shot dead by the officer. as required, the event went to the nsw coroner who found that the officer did indeed have a case to answer and sent it to the dpp.

the coronial inquest was, naturally, dependant on the brief of evidence supplied after investigation by other police but the coroner described it as a fabrication, a tissue of lies! meanwhile, either before or during the inquest, the police tendered their corrupt brief to the dpp who quickly decided that that officer had no case to answer and, yes, buried it. the holcombe family appealed against this action by the dpp but to my knowledge they are still bashing their heads against the dpp wall. where is justice? where is the attorney-general? maybe in 2015?

another example of the dpp power. some years ago at kings cross nsw police fired most dangerously and haphazardly into a stolen car in which were 6 young aborigines, all but one were teenagers. and again for complete clarification i am not sanctioning the stealing of vehicles by anyone but i am questioning the blind actions taken by those officers who fired 6 shots from their glock pistols into the vehicle. i am questioning the brutality of those officers who dragged the two wounded and profusely bleeding teenagers from the car and proceeded to savagely beat them. electronic evidence of this vicious and inhumane attack was more than abundant yet after police investigation the corrupt brief was sent to the dpp and promptly buried. nothing to see here! move on! the gate-keeper has spoken!

this is not justice. this is a perverted police view of justice and must be changed. the sooner the better. the curti case was one the dpp sat on for months as the police, the police union and their legal teams worked on how to stand justice on its head and allow for exoneration. the same with the corey barker case whereby he was badly assaulted and charged falsely on several matters but it was thrown out by a nsw magistrate as complete manufacture and sent it to the pic who agreed and sent it to the dpp who played the waiting game. the case is on foot until next year. the shooting death of adam salter was also sent to the dpp but the matter was finally settled out of court.

the third arm of power is in the police ability to be able to disrupt the court system by arguing their investigations are continuing, and continuing, and continuing. the longest coronial inquest that i know of took 6 years and, tragically, devastated the family involved. inmates on remand can spend over 12 months in gaol only to have the case thrown out or no-billed. currently i am dealing with a family, at multiple government levels, including the police, whose son has been in gaol since february of this year. police say they will not be able to proceed until may, 2015. 16 months with charges that have been described as being weak at best, bullshit at worst. this young man was one of the kings cross kids who the cops had to do deals with to get the kids not to charge the police for the using of their guns. payback, baby. payback.

these tentacles of power by and from the police must be broken and a true justice rebalance must be brought into play. it is a known and proven fact that all the police forces of this country have an over-abundance of legal powers and this must be redressed as a matter of urgency.

there will never be justice for those in the police web of criminal actions whilst our governments and attorney-generals continue to cowardly abrogate their sworn oaths to serve rightly and with an equality of justice for all and not just some.

both p and margaret show their respectful humanity in the curti event.

i have a need to write on the skulduggery of the wa government and wa corrective services on the alleged suicide of mr. wallam in gaol but that will have to wait. again, my and isja's sincerest sympathies go to his family, his community and his friends. may he walk his land in peace.

fkj

ray jackson
president
indigenous social justice association

prix des droits de l'homme de la republique francaise 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

post 1

Dear Ray:

The family in Brazil has issued its official statement about this outcome. It follows below:

The verdict is terrible and disappointing. It reinforces Australia as country that encourages other police officers and the police as an institution to behave exactly as the prison police instituted by the British when Australia was its criminal colony.

We hope that Brazilian authorities will firmly respond against this brutal crime against one of its citizens.

Sincerely yours,

Domingos A Laudisio

post 2

Dear Ray,
I was horrified at the lack of the verdict and was appalled
at the lack of public concern for a young man when so much concern was shown for those in the tragic events at the hostage scene. Why worry for some and ignore others. The injustice such as today creates mental instability and crazy thoughts ;it divides & causes some who are treated so inhumanely to commit such desperate acts as we saw today..
it is indeed a great SHAME.
Please give our condolences to the Curti family.Those 10 police will not have such healthy consciences as we the caring public feel the shame for them representing our Nation.
Sue

post 3

Thanks, Ray.
The only learning I have come to know about this case, is that the descendants of the British convicts continue to treat aboriginals, the genuine land owners, the same way they did more than 200 years ago when freed from prisons. I am very sorry for your situation in your own country. It's a shame and a crime against humanity.
You have a very tough fight ahead. It may take a long time for a positive outcome but remember Nelson Mandela, who faced 27 years in jail, till he prevailed in South Africa. You are dealing with much worse people than the Apartheid South Africans.
Domingos A Laudisio

post 4

Verdict in Curti Prosecutions

4 NSW Police Force officers involved in the death in custody of Roberto Laudisio Curti have had favourable outcomes to their Local Court prosecutions.

2 officers were charged with common assault, and 2 with assault occasioning actual bodily harm. Three charges were dismissed. One officer was found guilty of common assault.

The assault in question was use of OC spray. No Taser use was found to be criminal, despite the gross breaches of the NSWPF Taser Stand Operating Procedures.

On the issue of sentence, the Local Court imposed only a 2-year good behaviour bond. If successfully completed, this will mean that no criminal conviction will be recorded. In the meantime, that officer does have a conviction for common assault.

In the circumstances, a serving officer has a record that would disqualify him from becoming a police officer.

I would anticipate that the officer would face disciplinary action for this conduct. Arguably, he should face dismissal. Another likely outcome is his resignation.

I also anticipate that a civil claim would now be pursued. Although this claim is highly likely to settle out of court, the lack of accountability that has typified this case could be tempered by the State publicly acknowledging liability and not insisting that the settlement remain confidential.

https://au.news.yahoo.com/a/25786049/cop-escapes-conviction-over-curti-a...

David Porter | Senior Solicitor
Redfern Legal Centre | 73 Pitt St. Redfern NSW 2016

post 5

As per usual the prosecution had gone with charges over & above what
would be likely to succeed, meaning no conviction in 3 & the 1 that
did get through was not recorded. Why was it not negligent homicide?
Or are my legal understandings insufficient?
~May he rest in Peace~
regards,p

http://www.oakleysunglasses

Permalink Submitted by clibin009 on Mon, 21/09/2015 - 10:38am