WA Today: Lock-up victim handed a 'death sentence': uncle
by ray jackson, president of the indigenous social justice association
i wish to offer another critique of the police force of wa on their operational issues and their lack of duty of care to their victims. their care for their fellow officers goes without saying.
[on saturday 8 January] mr. phillips died in the kalgoorlie lock-up of causes unknown at this time. perhaps the wa coroner may find that he died of that blessing in disguise for police, gaol officers and custodial health officers, "natural causes".
indeed, mr. phillips may have died of just such a diagnosis but we must ask, as must the coroner, what were the underlying causes of his death? was any contribution made to his death by and from other sources? absolutely i would say!
mr. phillips is described as an alcoholic and was also stated to be inebriated when arrested by the kalgoorlie cops. he also had other health and mobility problems due to being badly burnt with acid some years earlier.
arresting police gave him a 'move-on order' with which mr. phillips either couldn't or wouldn't comply, to the officer's displeasure. he was then arrested and taken to the kalgoorlie lock-up.
he was placed in a cell and died there.
marc newhouse, deputy-chair of the deaths in custody watch committee, wa, stated that mr. phillips should have been considered by a doctor or nurse on his arrival at the police station. this was not done, why will be found out by the coroner. we hope.
marc makes the point that he should also have been considered for the sobering-up centre that is only a couple of streets from the station, i believe.
the bega garnbirringu health services runs the 24/7 sobering-up centre and has done for some years. the centre provides overnight services for intoxicated persons referred to them by welfare agencies, families or friends and by the local coppers.
why mr. phillips was not seen to be a proper client for the sobering-up centre is another of the many questions that the coroner will need to ask and obtain satisfactory answers for.
the greater tragedy, perhaps, is an identical death in custody situation occurred a few years ago in kalgoorlie whereby police at that time failed to take an inebriated aborigine to the sobering-up centre.
he too died in the police cells of the kalgoorlie lock-up.
my much respected friend and colleague, carl hughes, a forensic consultant i had the great pleasure working with during my watch committee days back in the 90's, attended this death on behalf of the family of the deceased. carl had visited the sobering-up centre at that time and was most impressed with its professionalism. it's a pity the kalgoorlie cops did not have the level of professionalism required to save two aboriginal lives.
carl has offered his services to the family of mr. phillips or, failing that, is willing to offer his report of that time. in my opinion, both would be invaluable to the current situation.
when the royal commission recommendations were handed down in 1991 to the federal parliament, the hawke government, they numbered 339. hawke knocked one back at the behest of the federal public service leaving 338.
recommendations 80,81 and 85 state that police should not lock up intoxicated persons when other alternative programmes and non-custodial facilities are available for treatment and care of such individuals. twice the kalgoorlie police failed to put these, and the following recommendations, into practice. laziness perhaps. lack of duty of care, most definitely. perhaps even racism.
a further recommendation of some import is 87a that states 'that all police services should adopt and apply the principle of arrest being the sanction of last resort in dealing with offenders.' especially when the only offence is drunkenness.
recommendation 127 clauses a to f, sub-clauses 1 to 9 states that, inter alia, police must work with health groups relative to the care of their detainees. this was not done in either of the deaths noted above.
recommendation 129 calls for inebriated detainees be breathalysed at the time of reception. whether this was done in either death is not known.
recommendation 133 states that police officers at all service levels receive training in identifying persons in distress or risk of death. especially with intoxicated aborigines. status unknown.
these recommendations are the more important ones relative to both deaths in custody. there are, of course, many others that also apply to both events.
police nationally have never accepted the royal commission recommendations pertaining to their areas of responsibility. without some leverage being applied to them by state and territory governments, preferably with the compliance of all coroners, nothing will change and police copy-deaths will continue. and until someone is found to be responsible for a death in custody they will continue. death in custody families want the person(s) responsible for the death of their loved one, not blood money that means nothing to the families or the source of payment. not compensation. real justice.
it is my opinion that all coroners make themselves known to the recommendations for police activity and recommend that they be adopted immediately, either one or all, when handing down their inquest reports. they may as well know the gaol recommendations also.
waiting for custodial staff, at all levels, to change and become cognisant of their collective duty of care will just take too bloody long and too many more of my brothers and sisters will die.
already their criminal custodial systems are responsible for over 400 plus aboriginal and torres strait islanders since 1/1/1980.
how many more before real justice is done???????
Comments
Crime held to be less of a problem than the police
In the early 1980's NSW abandoned The Summary Offences Act that allowed police to arrest drunks and jail them until sober because many died in the cells and it was expensive. Drunks get very sick and can appear drunk from illness. Many have died by being mistakenly arrested for intoxication when they were really ill. Drunk Tanks were set up by the Sallies and other church organisations to provide cheap detox and a safe overnight haven. BUT this approach is being wound back now.
There are two ways to police a community. One is by cooperation for example in England or Vietnam. The police in those countries befriend the populace, assist people and keep the peace. They mostly do not carry firearms using instead cunning and martial arts to control violent persons. In those countries you can safely walk up to a cop and have a conversation.
The other way to police a community is through fear. Australia and the USA are two examples of this approach. In Australia the cops are weighted down with over 6 kilos of weapons to shoot, electroshock and chemically blind anyone they perceive to be a threat. They are so weighed down with weapons on their belts they cannot run and they suffer hip injuries.
Only a tourist would walk up to a police officer in Australia to have a conversation. In many suburbs the police are so feared no-one wants to have anything to do with them and as a result the police find it difficult to investigate crime. The police have to resort to advertising for witnesses in crimes affecting the community. They are so hated in parts of Sydney that communities will put up with crime believing it to be less of a problem than the police. Merrylands is a good example.
The fear style of policing has serious ramifications for the welfare of communities and various groups within society. Several decades ago medical science agreed that drug dependence is an illness. Government disagreed and started a war on drug addicts and ignored alcoholism for their own addiction - taxes from alcohol. But this is another story.
Billions of dollars are lost in the economy every year from illnesses attributable to alcohol. The drug ethanol is disguised as beer, wine and spirits and sold contrary to the food acts. Ethanol is a dangerous brain and liver toxin. It causes a huge variety of illnesses and drives people mad but is tolerated by government because of its addictive properties and ethanol addicts pour billions of dollars into government treasuries.
Government and police practice in Australia appears to based on a conflict model. Them and us. The attitudes stemming from conflict lead to people fearing and hating each other to the extent that they are neglectful of human rights.
As Ray Jackson points out, there is no care in policing. Those people attracted to controlling others tend to be afraid of the community and want to correct what they perceive as evil. Their attitudes are easily swayed towards cruelty and neglect evident in the case of the bloke dessicated to death in a corrections truck and the neglect of drunks.
Until the police gain the respect of the community individuals will always want to square off against them, verbally abuse them, ignore and avoid them, be uncooperative and cover up crime. The police themselves will continue to be abraisve, violent and intolerant. People die needlessly in this climate of distrust.
England disarmed magistrates and the police in the nineteenth century.
Australia didn't because the cops had to shoot snakes, or some other excuse.
Government math: drug busts = success statistics
But medical science should acknowledge that unrestricted drugs can tame each other.