by ray jackson, president, indigenous social justice association
in this posting i wish to firstly discuss the qld greens, and others, call for a royal commission and other related issues and then to follow the townsville bulletin article (below) to then make comment on a guardian (uk) article (below) looking at black deaths by police in that country but focusing on the restraints used by the police that caused the victims to die like our brother in townsville a few days ago.
i can quite understand the anger, the grief, the frustration that leads one to call for a tool of the governments and their legal systems to address the travesty of justice that is deaths in custody. all governments set the parameters of any government enquiry of which a royal commission is the apex but may i remind people that back in 1988/89 the hawke government finally agreed to a $40 000 000 royal commission that investigated 99 (+1) deaths in custody only to find 99 (+1) families were more responsible for the deaths of their loved ones rather than the brutal custodial systems and those who operated in it.
even the woods royal commission into child prostitution and child pornography in queensland veered away from its initial focus to then hone in on crooked cops and politicians that queensland was proved to have their fair share of. the rest is history but nothing was done for the children.
i know i have stated many times the wily words of that consummate politician, bob menzies aka pig-iron bob or even ming the merciless, 'never set up an enquiry that you don't already know the outcome of.' the wheat for oil enquiry was another scandal whereby the politicians extricated and excised themselves from before it even started. oh, damn those cunning civil servants!
the long point i am putting is that common-sense and history dictate that as long as we leave the structure and the parameters of any enquiry to the government then we are lost before we begin. i have yet to know any government that is into self-flagellation. hawke came closest to it but that was more personal than party.
we therefore need new systems of enquiry. the most important first move is to disallow police investigating police or other custodial deaths. i also include institutional deaths occurring in hospitals, nursing homes, government and church-run homes, mental hospitals, among others. it must be remembered that police investigations of these deaths are more likely to be covered up, the better to protect the systems. that, after all, is the police role.
people world-wide have been calling for such a change for years. but what to replace it with? people have suggested everything from citizens panels to throwing their collective hands in the air meanwhile mumbling that nothing can be done short of a revolution. we cannot wait that long despite what some of my comrades say.
when the original aboriginal deaths in custody watch committee was operational we were calling on the governments of australia to accept and initiate the following process. that in any atsi death in custody the immediate family to or of the deceased had the legal right to appoint an atsi solicitor or barrister to the investigation done by the police with the full investigatory right of the police being bestowed upon him/her. he/she would make an independent report public and when it came to the coroners court we wanted a similar person, elected by the family, to sit with the coroner as an equal and again to make the independent report public. we of course were given very short shrift. the nsw attorney-general of the time, jeff shaw, thought the proposal had some merit but was honest enough to state that its process was most unlikely. and such it proved.
i believe that application of the proposal still retains merit but i also know that without public support and backing it will fail.
i would now, some 15 years later, extend the proposal for families to have the right to also include a medical/forensic representative and, further, should the family wish to do so, an trusted community representative be also included, in an advisory cultural role similar to rc recommendation 25.
the main argument against such action is that hoary cry that such a process would be akin to apartheid. this from a country that south africa took ideas for their apartheid system is just too much to bear.
we will not get a system that is fair to us until we fight for it.
it's up to you.
i realise that the above will have little bearing on our townsville brother but we must also know but never accept that there will be more of our brothers and sisters, along with our youth, dying in custody with no real justice for the families.
we have been marking time for too long, it is time to move forward, however slowly.
---- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, April 19, 2010 12:53 PM
Subject: The Townsville Bulletin: Family calls for full investigation
The Townsville Bulletin
Family calls for full investigation
LENDL RYAN
April 19th, 2010
Relative and indigenous activist Gracelyn Smallwood fronted media outside the
Townsville Hospital after her nephew Lyji Vaggs died
http://tinyurl.com/y5bbal4
THE mother of a mentally ill man who died after being handcuffed by police and
injected with anti-psychotic drugs at The Townsville Hospital has spoken of the
harrowing ordeal.
Debbie Lampton's son Lyji Vaggs, 27, went to the mental health unit on Wednesday
seeking help, but was told to go home and, after becoming aggressive towards
hospital staff, was restrained and sedated and then stop breathing.
The father of three was revived after 40 minutes and placed in the intensive care
unit in a critical condition until his life support was turned off.
Mrs Lampton told News Limited that she was the last to leave his bedside after
reciting a prayer, holding her son's hand and kissing his forehead, before pushing
the button that turned off the life support system.
Mr Vaggs had been receiving treatment at the hospital for bipolar and schizophrenia
for the past two years but was told that tragic day as well as the Tuesday before that
no beds were available.
* WHY DID THIS MAN DIE?
The Mundingburra man was assessed at home by a hospital medical team on one
occasion and, according to family, the advice was he should be admitted.
Mr Vaggs' wife Stacey dropped him off at the mental health unit and took their three
sons to a cafe waiting for a phone call to say he was finally receiving help but the
strange voice asked her to hurry to the intensive care unit.
The family are awaiting the results of a post-mortem conducted yesterday and will
meet with their lawyers today to assess their options.
Mr Vaggs' aunty and indigenous activist Gracelyn Smallwood supported calls from
the Queensland Greens for a broader investigation into how police and corrective
services deal with indigenous residents.
''There has been more deaths in custody since the Royal Commission into
Aboriginal Youth and there has been a lack of implementation from all government
departments and services to improve outcomes for indigenous Australians across
the board - education, health and social justice,'' she said.
''If the Prime Minister is talking about closing the gap then we need to start fresh.
''The fact a political party has now put their backing behind a Royal Commission
means other politicians across the country will be talking about it and that is great.''
Queensland Greens' spokeswoman Dr Libby Connors said a Royal Commission
was all the more topical since the death in custody of Palm Island man Mulrunji
Doomadgee.
''The Premier says we don't need one because we have the Crime and Misconduct
Commission, but there are so many disturbing cases of failed police-Indigenous
relations across the state that it is time the issue was thoroughly and openly
investigated,'' she said.
Dr Connors said there were other instances that needed investigating including the
death of an 18-year-old indigenous man transferred from the Arthur Gorrie Centre to
the Prince Alexander Hospital in February and the failure of police to lay charges
against three men and a woman implicated in the killing of Aboriginal man, Peter
Duncan, in Toowoomba in January.
http://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au/article/2010/04/19/131515_news.html
*************************************************************************
death in custody is not isolated to just australia, we all know that it is a world-wide phenomenon.
arising from those deaths is the same world-wide phenomenon of governments and their custodial services protecting each other and white-washing themselves out of the scene altogether. this will surprise nobody.
some years ago i was given the right by an english organisation to show their brilliant portrayal of black deaths in custody families in london to the racist and deadly attitude of the cops, especially during arrests. most if not all of the deaths involved restraint tactics that are the same in every country. the documentary is called 'injustice' and i highly reccommend it to all and sundry. i think it goes for 1 1/2 hours as it follows several black families in their search for justice as we do here in australia. it is not for idle viewing as it is very harrowing. contact fero@injusticefilm.co.uk
as i have said before, when police are trained they are trained with one main aim - to protect themselves at all costs and to not treat that protection lightly. to that end the police are as well trained as our armed forces for the war on the streets. on a no holds barred basis.
hurley when he fell on mulrunji acted with both instinct and survival when he kneed him with all the weight of his body. he needed to make sure, for his own protection, that his victim would be so breathless that he was incapable of any resistant force. and so it was.
it takes an extremely fit person to be able to not only take the force applied but to be able to countermand it. the greater majority of us are useless when totally winded. our first priority is to be able to breath once more, not fight back.
when several police pile onto a victim it is to make him breathless and less able to fight back.
as this article explains however such practices can also be very very dangerous to the victim. being forced to lay on your stomach with heavy weights upon you upsets the normal equilibrium of your body systems and puts great strain on it that can lead to death. but at least the coppers are safe.
there is a wonderful quote on what the pathologists and coroners should look for and sadly, unless in the hurley/mulrunji scenario of massive direct force, the other restraints appear to leave little evidence of injury. or at least the injury that a pathologist would want to find, perhaps.
another restraint method that was eventually allegedly banned was the 'sleeper hold' whereby pressure was applied with a thumb or finger normally until the victim collapsed. sometimes dead, sometimes not. but at least the police were safe.
i have been informed by people who study this area more than i that the 'sleeper hold' is still taught but as a matter of last resort. i have no knowledge if during autopsies evidence of such use could/would be found.
strangely the death of an unidentified aboriginal man is mentioned in the report.
it is definitely not my intention to tell aunt gracelyn what to do or how to do it. from my knowledge of her actions and deeds she is more than capable of representing her extended family in this tragedy. i am merely expanding some of the possibilities and wish her and the family well in their struggles.
and thanks heaps peta for posting this report to me.
Why did their loved ones die in custody?
Seven black citizens have died in police custody in the past two years after being 'restrained'. Their families are asking why - but still await answers
Race issues in the UK: special report
Jay Rayner and Burhan Wazir
The Observer, Sunday 9 January 2000
Next Tuesday the family of Roger Sylvester will gather outside Tottenham Police Station for a vigil in his memory. As they light candles and say prayers, they could be forgiven for wondering when their struggle will end. It is a year since the violent arrest that led, eight days later, to the 30-year-old administrative worker's death in hospital. They still do not know what happened that cold January night. 'We're a big family so we can give each other support,' says his brother Bernard. 'I don't know how we'd have got through the ordeal otherwise.'
The Sylvesters are unlikely to take comfort from the fact they are just one of a number of black families fighting for the truth. An Observer investigation has found that black detainees are five times more likely than whites to die in police custody, if subjected to the sort of action experienced by Roger Sylvester during their arrest .
The majority of deaths in police custody are due to suicide or drunkenness. Overall, black deaths represent 9 per cent of the whole, greatly out of proportion considering they make up 1.8 per cent of the population. Police sources have long argued that this is because a disproportionate number of black people pass through police custody.
In a significant number of cases the death is unconnected with suicide or drunkenness, but instead follows arrest procedures by the officers involved, such as physical restraint or the use of CS spray. The Observer's study, which looked at cases covering the years 1997 to 1999, has found that more than 43 per cent of black deaths in custody are in this category. Only 8 per cent of white people die in such circumstances.
The findings will make dismal reading for police forces across Britain which, in the age of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry and the Macpherson Report, are meant to be racially aware. They show no improvement from the dark days of the early and mid-Nineties when the deaths in police custody of Joy Gardner, Wayne Douglas, Brian Douglas (no relation) and Shiji Lapite as a result of suffocation under police restraint drew sharp criticism of police relations with the black community. Britain's ethnic minorities have the right to expect better.
Our study has identified seven black deaths out of 17 between 1997 and 1999 which followed police action. The figures are completely consistent with a Home Office report covering the years 1990 to 1996 which associated nine out of 19 black deaths in police custody with behaviour by the officers involved. In the Home Office report no attempt was made to apportion blame, only to identify cases where actions of police officers appeared to be relevant in the death of a victim. We used the same criteria.
Criminal charges against police officers are pending in one of the cases from our study. The Police Complaints Authority are investigating a further two. In the remaining four, no further investigations are being conducted and no charges have been brought against any officers. That does not mean the families have had all their questions answered, however. All of them want to know what happened. All of them want to know if the deaths could have been avoided.
The most high profile case is Roger Sylvester's. He was arrested outside his home in North London by eight police officers after reports that a naked man had been seen in the dead of night, banging on doors and rolling on the ground. According to one account, he was bundled into a police van and taken to St. Ann's Hospital, a nearby psychiatric unit, where he was placed, still naked, in the custody of five police officers. A doctor came to assess his condition, then left the room to get a sedative. When she returned Roger had gone limp. Attempts were made to revive him but he never regained consciousness. He was eventually transferred to the Whittington Hospital where, on 18 January 1999, his life support machine was turned off and he was pronounced dead.
At one point police sources told journalists that callers to the police that night had described him as 'aggressive'. The police later withdrew the allegation, saying Roger had committed no criminal offence that night, and an apology to the family was issued. Today the case is still the subject of an investigation by the Essex Constabulary on behalf of the Police Complaints Authority and a file has been sent to the Crown Prosecution Service for review.
'It seems to me that there is a pattern to these things,' his brother Bernard now says. 'A person dies during arrest and the police then use the media to blame the victim. Everything goes to an inquest, no prosecution takes place and that's just about it. The process is very time consum ing and we've come to the conclusion that it's designed to wear us down.'
Part of their problem has been gaining access to information and reports held by the investigating officers, despite the issuing of guidelines by the Home Office earlier last year instructing them to co-operate more readily with families of victims.
The Sylvester's pathologist has now been allowed access to the report prepared by the pathologist for Essex Police, but they are determined not to reduce the pressure they are placing on the authorities, hence next week's vigil. 'We want people to know that we're still here,' says Bernard. 'We want people to know that we haven't gone away.'
Part of the problem in establishing exactly what happened to Roger is the medical arguments surrounding the use of restraint by law enforcement officers and whether it can be solely responsible for a death.
Professor Bernard Knight, 68, is a former Professor of Forensic Pathology at the University of Cardiff. Widely regarded as an expert in pathological signs of restraint, Knight says doctors and coroners find indicators of restraint hard to determine.
'You can't say someone died from excessive restraint when there are no witnesses. There have been cases were people were hog-tied and forced face-down onto the ground. That has meant that some people couldn't breathe. In other cases, alcohol is a contributing factor that further obstructs the assessment of doctors examining the victims.
'Most of these cases are hard to pinpoint simply because of the delays in coroner's reports,' he says.
'It's a very slow moving process that understandably aggravates the families of the victims. Yes there are guidelines with restraint: people are not supposed to be held on the ground face-down for any longer than five minutes. But in the heat of the moment, how can that be regulated? And how does a coroner pick up the signs?'
The Sylvester family have some idea of what happened to Roger. The family of Sarah Thomas, a 35-year-old architectural design student at North London University, have almost none. She was arrested using restraint last August in North London for what has been described as a minor public order offence. By the time she reached hospital she was in a coma. She later died there. 'We are still waiting to ascertain exactly what occurred on that night,' says Fiona Murphy, solicitor for Ms Thomas' family, who has wide experience of death in custody cases. 'It's clear to us that the authorities are still failing to grasp the nettle of accountability and transparency in the investigation process.'
Little can be said about the exact details of Christopher Alder's death, as it is the subject of a forthcoming criminal case. He died in Hull police station on 1 April, 1998, where he was taken after being arrested for breach of the peace. On arrival he was found to be unconscious. Nearly two years after his death, he has yet to be buried: a preliminary inquest is set for later this summer.
'I find the attitude of the police incredible,' says his sister, Janet. 'After his death, I spoke to the police who acted like they didn't care. We live in a predominantly white area around here, yet as an act of sympathy they sent out a black liaison officer to speak to us: something I found deeply patronising. And you begin to wonder just how long it will take to get any justice: coming on to two years from his death, his body is being kept in storage.'
Peter San Pedro, 25, of Wood Green in North London, was taken to Kent and Canterbury Hospital in April 1997. He died of injuries sustained when he ran in front of traffic on the A2 motorway in Kent. In his final hours, he was subjected to CS spray by police officers during an arrest though he was later released. His family claim he was disorientated when he crossed the road: at an inquest in December 1997, a police-appointed doctor said he had given San Pedro a visual check-up and pronounced him fit for release.
'CS gas, like the use of restraint, is another factor that needs to be examined,' says Judy Kennish, the San Pedro family's solicitor. 'There hasn't been enough research done into the way it is used, and how victims cope with the effects afterwards.'
Hoosen Aubeeluck, of Mauritian descent, died at Wexham Park Hospital in Slough in September 1998. He had gone to the hospital for an appointment with a consultant who told him he had cancer. He became agitated on learning his diagnosis and began damaging hospital equipment. Police were called and they restrained him during which time he collapsed, and later died. His death was attributed to natural causes.
In April 1997 police officers in Redruth, Cornwall went to interview an unnamed man of Australian Aboriginal descent in connection with theft. The man threatened the officer with a knife. When colleagues arrived to provide support the officers restrained the man, who was later found to have a stab wound to his leg. He died at the scene.
Finally in May 1997 police in Berkshire assisted the medical services in restraining Darren Baverstock, who had taken an overdose of amphetamines. He later collapsed and died. An inquest ruled his death accidental and attrib uted it to amphetamine poisoning.
Acccording to campaigners the real problem for families of victims is that they have little or no access to resources to help them find out exactly what happened. The Macpherson Report following the Lawrence Inquiry recommended that families be granted legal aid to enable them to be represented at coroner's inquests, possibly the only tribunal at which the exact circumstances of a death in custody will ever be established. Shortly after publication of the report the Home Secretary announced that legal aid would be granted to families for such inquests in 'exceptional circumstances' but this, in fact, was no change; the granting of public funds had always been in the gift of the Lord Chancellor.
'In a lot of cases where we don't know what happened we may only find out more if families are allowed legal aid,' says Helen Shaw of Inquest, the organisation which campaigns for the families of people who have died in the custody of the state. 'What we really want is a review of all the procedures surrounding the investigation of deaths in custody. The relationship between the Police Complaints Authority, the Crown Prosecution Service and the Coroner's Court is very unclear.' She also criticises the continuing lack of disclosure of documents to families by police officers investigating suspicious deaths.
There is no central database bringing together the figures for deaths in police custody alongside those in prisons and care units. Establishing the cause of a death inside mental institutions, for example, is particularly hard. The Mental Health Act Commission (MHAC), set up by the Department of Health in 1983, has no figures for deaths by restraint in psychiatric care around the UK. A report covering 1997-98 highlighted 374 deaths, 81 of them attributed to unnatural causes.
A new report is being compiled for May, says MGHAC chief executive William Bingley. 'It's hard to draw conclusions from general numbers. We can pin these down to hanging, patients jumping off buildings or being run over by cars. But the backgrounds to the deaths cannot be conclusive. Anything drawn from the numbers will always be speculative.'
The death of David 'Rocky' Bennett, who was black, is a case in point. He was certified dead in the early hours of Saturday, 31 October 1998. He spent the majority of his adult life in psychiatric care; he was a patient at the Norvic medium secure unit in Norwich at the time of his death. That night he was involved in a violent incident with another patient. His family was told that Bennett had been restrained by a group of nurses. Over a year later, an inquest is still awaiting a police investigation.
His sister, Dr Joanna Bennett, 43, is a clinical psychologist. She blames inadequate nursing for his death; the guidelines that regulate restraint in prisons and police cells aren't as yet applied to institutional care. 'David became very disillusioned because he felt he was being slowly institutionalised, despite all his protests. We watched him turn from someone who was very intelligent and enthusiastic, to someone incredibly frustrated by his treatment. He would only ever be discharged once marked symptom-free - but those symptoms were never diagnosed. All he felt - and we saw - was the prescription of more drugs for his responses.'
She voices a complaint common to those involved with deaths in custody: frustration with waiting for the system to provide answers. 'We're still no clearer on what exactly happened with Rocky,' she says. 'Sometimes it feels as if only the family are interested in finding out the facts. You find yourself having to go around knocking on walls to get the answers yourself. If I left it to the authorities, I'd never get to the bottom of it.'
Families of the victims of deaths in police custody wonder if they will ever succeed in their quest. A spokesman for the Home Office said the Government was committed to dealing with the problem. 'Deaths in custody and any racial imbalance involved is something we take very seriously. It's absolutely crucial that the right kind of restraint techniques are used and to that end training of police officers has been stepped up. There are also checks and balances in place to make sure proper investigations are carried out.'
These are good words. But they do not help the bereft families. They are left with three questions: How did their loved one die? Why did they die? And did the colour of their skin have anything to do with it? They look so simple written down like that, so straightforward. But where deaths in police custody are concerned, nothing ever is.
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