Rally: DOWN WITH RACIST POLICE ATTACKS! DROP ALL CHARGES AGAINST THOSE ARRESTED AT TISHA’S 21ST

DROP ALL CHARGES AGAINST THOSE ARRESTED AT TISHA’S 21ST
STOP PERSECUTING THE ABORIGINAL HICKEY FAMILY!
DOWN WITH RACIST POLICE ATTACKS!

WOULD YOU ACCEPT COPS DOING THIS TO YOU FOR NO GOOD REASON?

… AND THEN AFTERWARDS SLAPPING SERIOUS CHARGES ON YOU AND SIX OF YOUR CLOSE FRIENDS AND RELATIVES?

If your answer to the above question is “No” then you ought to join the campaign to defend Tisha and her friends - especially if you yourself are a possible target for a police force well known for serving the big end of town only.

The above photo documents part of what happened to Tisha at her very own twenty-first party. After raiding her home in Western Sydney under the bogus pretext that the music was too loud, police dragged her across the road, crushed her, tore off her belly button ring, lifted up her skirt and inappropriately touched her. She was left with bruises on her stomach, arms and legs. Moreover, after all this, they arrested Tisha, her younger brother, aunt, two cousins and two close friends and slapped them all with serious but utterly false riot charges.

The real reason for the police raid is that Tisha and her family are both Aboriginal and poor. Australian police are often hostile to the poor and are notorious for downright racist brutality towards Aboriginal people. Furthermore, NSW police have a special hatred for Tisha’s family for they are Hickeys: close relatives of TJ Hickey, the 17 year-old boy who was killed by racist police in February 2004 after police chased him through the streets of Redfern when he was riding his bicycle. As a result of their defiant refusal to abandon the quest for justice for their beloved TJ, the Hickeys, from Redfern to Riverstone, have faced police harassment over the last seven years.

However, on the eve of the resumption of the trial in Parramatta of Tisha and the other adults who were arrested at her party, her family’s supporters, trade unionists and all who hate injustice are going to be rallying to demand the dropping of all charges against those arrested. We will also make clear our opposition to police violence – violence that is especially aimed against Aboriginal people but which also targets other non-white communities, anti-racist activists, the poor and striking workers manning picket lines.

For background on this campaign go to this site for the full story: background_on_indymedia