several members/supporters have asked about the rally outside
the ombudsman's office on 28/6 and on other matters also so i
shall take this opportunity to make comment on the questions
asked along with other matters of relevance.
on 6/6 i attended a bail forum at the teachers federation that
was strongly supporting the proposed changes to the nsw bail
laws being put forward by our attorney-general,greg smith, but
being opposed by premier barry o'farrell. i shall have more to
say on this matter in an upcoming post as i need to get some
documents scanned.
my most excellent comrade, anne duffy-lindsay, had a serious
fall that led to her hospitalisation and subsequent passing over
at age 90. anne died on sunday 17/6 that was also the nominated
national day of ireland. i had had the distinct privilege of
knowing anne for at least 25 years of her life we having met at
a meeting to construct the aboriginal deaths in custody watch
committee back in 1987. i was proud and thankful that i was able
to share her life and thoughts.
anne was born in 1922 in an area of pro-ira sentiments and she
remained a staunch supporter all her days. at the age of 14
anne, with some other youth, incinerated a british sentry box
and that spirit of commitment remained with her throughout her
life, whatever her cause. after becoming a registered nurse she
then offered her talents, and life, to the war against fascism
in spain.
eventually anne's travels brought her to australia and instantly
she recognised the appalling social and racist situation of
aborigines when she landed in west australia. her work, both
political and in social justice issues, was never-ending and
clearly focussed and many hours was spent with her and i solving
the faults of capitalism and other matters of social import.
i absolutely consider myself the better for knowing anne and she
will be seriously missed by so many. early on in our great
friendship i named her, in the sense of working class solidarity
and much respect, comrade mother, and to me she will remain so
to the end of my days.
at the chapel i stated that it is my belief that when true
comrades of stature die then their strength and wisdom is shared
by those remaining. i am proud to know that i will continue to
carry a small part of anne within me.
on saturday i attended the rally at belmore park that was put on
by get-up and others, (perhaps young labor also), the ' walk
together for refugees'. i left the walk from plt. house to
belmore park to others but i had been invited to speak based, i
presumed, on my 2 visits to villawood and the tamil/afghanistan
asylum seekers. i was to follow ms. linda burney but someone
thought that this would not be, perhaps, wise so i was pushed
back and back until i became the last speaker on the advertised
list. before i had even got into the reason of why i was there i
was being waved off stage by those in charge and when i
successfully ignored them they actually came on to the stage to
shut me up and move me on.
i have no idea who was behind this action that i felt was an
insult to myself and to the small crowd remaining to the end of
the event but i will now need to be more careful where and for
whom i attend and speak.
on 26/6 i attended a group discussion with activists and other
concerned citizens relative to the powers of the police
especially when interacting with youth regardless of ethnicity.
the nsw police already, in my opinion, have enough powers to
properly police the community without adding even more draconian
laws to their arsenal. most of their powers are abused on a
daily basis anyway as will be highlighted later in this report.
the proposed changes, or not, to the bail laws i have mentioned
but another totally unnecessary change that is being discussed
by the nsw government is to reduce the numbers required to enact
a 'move-on direction' from 5 people to 2 people! amazing,
absolutely amazing. such a backward step will be abused every
day by coppers bored to frustration and looking to push their
authority into everyone's face.
greg smith is legitimately concerned about the very high
incarceration rates for adult men and women and, more so
perhaps, with youth and especially aboriginal youth and yet here
is the o'farrell government handing to the nsw police force a
method of arresting still more youth. the scenarios of abuse
that this will lead to i leave to your knowledge and imagination
but it is a weapon that will be used and abused every day in
shopping malls, street corners and other public places.
back in the 90's i believe it was the good people of warringa
baiya, a women's legal service based in marrickville led by ms.
cleonie quayle, became extremely alarmed upon the attacks on
aboriginal youth and others by security guards and police
against those youth gathering in public places. over time the
battle was ceased but not by the police and security guards who
seemingly still hunger for these powers to continue. young
people of whatever ethnicity do gather in groups for many and
varied reasons but one reason being that they have the innate
right to do so. such practices are eternal and will continue to
be so.
as long as there is no criminal activity going on then they have
that right to gather as we have all done during our own youth.
shopping malls and strips are concerned by the supposed loss of
profits from shoppers fearful of gatherings of youth and the
security guards are pressured into having the youth removed,
some of course volunteer in delight. i am well aware of the
tragic death of the security guard at the broadway shopping mall
in sydney who intervened with two young children playing to
which the parents objected strongly and following a scuffle the
security guard fell to his death. such acts though are truly
isolated events but it does bring home to us the so-human things
that can go wrong. and the changes to the 'move-on direction'
laws could very well exacerbate these sorts of events. what it
most certainly will do is exacerbate the arrest rates of
juveniles by testosterone-pumped young men and, similarly, the
police.
we know that police everywhere discriminate against certain
youth and adults as is shown quite clearly by the police use of
warnings, court-attendance-notices (cans) and arrest patterns.
statistics show without argument that some receive by far better
preferential treatment for their misdemeanours than do people of
colour. of course this racist phenomenon is not restricted to
either nsw or australia, it is a world-wide thing. our societies
still have a long long way to go to eradicate racism and
discrimination into oblivion.
now to the rally outside the ombudsman's office to enforce the
call for the nsw government to become active in stopping, or at
least seriously reducing, police brutality in all its forms. we
also called for the removal of tasers from all front-line police
after the torture and tasering death of roberto laudisio curti
by 6 police officers and for the criminal practice of police
investigating police.
whenever we raised these concerns with the nsw government or the
police we were always directed to the office of the nsw
ombudsman, bruce balfour, as being the answer to all our
concerns as it was his office that did oversee the police
investigation and practices to better reflect the public
interest. so it was to bruce we turned to seeking clarification
of his role and alleged powers.
a perusal of his website showed that in fact as well as in
theory his powers as suggested were quite limited to him
supplying witnesses from his office to sit-in as observers to
the taking of any witness statements by police. and i am quite
sure those are the only powers the police would allow him to
have. they still maintain absolute and full control of all
investigations appertaining to their own regardless of the
thoughts of government members or those working for the
ombudsman.
i will state here quite publically that this in no fashion can
be construed as a personal attack on bruce or any of his staff.
it is not as they can only operate within the severe
restrictions placed upon them by legislation within the
ombudsman's act. legally, i believe, they have very limited
wriggle room within their investigations. the office also can
take complaints from inmates but generally these complaints are
handed back to the perpetrators of the complaint for a just
resolution from police or corrective services. there is much
dissatisfaction as to the limited powers of the ombudsman's
office due to the complete under-resourcing of his office and
teams.
the day was inclement with showers and a cold wind yet some 40
to 50 comrades and passer-bys stopped to hear the speakers. we
had been given a letter of reply to our list of 30 questions in
which we were thanked for our interest and that all questions
would be seriously considered by him and his teams and answers
duly given when available. he was unable to attend our rally due
to prior commitments. several speakers from several groups
raised their voices in strong support to our three-pronged
demands and a wonderful banner was made for isja by bernie and
others. we thank all concerned muchly.
we now await bruce's reply with great interest.
on saturday 30/6 i spent some 8 to 9 wonderful hours at the
sydney conservatorium of music listening to a full team of
aboriginal and torres strait talent in song, choir, dance and
language that just overwhelmed those who were in attendance.
rarely do i attend such events but i'm so glad i did not miss
this event. the musical items covered pop, jazz, classical, old
and young. just a great great day. participants included ms.
donna ingram giving a welcome to country and an interpretation
of identification to cadigal country that i found somewhat
questionable to the ethics of identity to country. after other
welcomes we were presented with some historic chants in dharug
language (i think) by matt doyle, ms. karen smith,clarence
slockee (who has guided tours at the botanical gardens and works
there also), richard green (language man, teacher, actor among
other talents) and kevin hunt on piano. this was followed by the
young team of matt fergo and rapper coby duncan. (they had also
appeared at government house during the chat on justice
reinvestment). the black turtles band of redfern also performed
as did peter mckenzie and a classical composition by chris
sainsbury.
this gives but a taste of those incredible artists involved and
their offerings but i would be remiss to not mention my old
friend, ms. marlene cummins, who shines as brilliantly as ever
as she sang 'pemulwuy'. and yes i admit to much bias in her
case. another act of great note was that of the students of the
menindee central school accompanied by the menindee ladies'
choir. truly, just a fabulously great day. i am of the
understanding that this is to become a yearly event so keep your
eyes and ears open for the next one.
on monday 2/7 i had a very interesting meeting with senator for
south australia, ms penny wright and her legal affairs adviser,
ms shen dycer as we discussed the perceived pluses and cons of
justice reinvestment (jr) and how it may change things for the
betterment of society and those who are locked up, both adult
and youth.
penny showed some enthusiasm for the yet-to-be introduced
practice whilst i believe it could work but there would first
need to be change brought to the big blue elephant in the room
that governments just refuse to see and recognise. yes, the nsw
police must be changed in their day to day practices involving
youth especially.
it is difficult to assess what the nsw government really has in
mind until such time that they produce an issues paper for
comment or the legislation in full. i know that attorney-general
greg smith has been quite a fan of this project dating back to
when he was in opposition but when queried by myself or others
as to its practicalities we are not given any answers. i am of
the opinion that greg could quite well be having a hard time
with him pushing for this to be introduced knowing the negative
attitudes to law and order arguments from premier barry
o'farrell.
until we are given the bones of the scheme to read it is of
little use for us to second guess its contents. we therefore
need to concentrate on what changes are required to make the
police more for than against the operation of jr. i do not see
the current mooted changes to the 'move-on directions' law as
being in any way helpful to any jr change. that the police
practices require urgent attention is well known but it will
need the full backing of the government and the opposition to
bring that to a successful conclusion. we wait with interest the
introduction of such changes.
apropos to the above on jr i have been accepted by criterion
conferences who will be holding a conference called,
Reducing Indigenous Youth Incarceration
Exploring justice reinvestment & police partnerships to break
the cycle 26th & 27th September 2012, Bayview Boulevard, Sydney
Indigenous juveniles are 28 times more likely than
non-Indigenous juveniles to be incarcerated. Despite increased
investment to reduce this, the problem continues to worsen.
Reducing Indigenous Youth Incarceration will explore new methods
for reducing incarceration rates through innovative community
partnerships and increasing Indigenous youth aspirations.
they have offered to give a $200 discount to isja members and
supporters if they sign up to the conference. my contribution to
the event will be based on the ideas put above.
should you wish to know more about the conference then please
contact me at the contacts listed below.
that about sums up what isja has done last month so now to what
is on the horizon or just matters of interest.
this month we have our usual meeting at the community centre at
the block at redfern. this will begin at 7pm in the downstairs
meeting room on thursday 19/7 and we welcome all to attend.
next month on the 11/8, the third quarterly national day of
action, we will be holding our event from 11am at the redfern
community centre.
we have called our event 'welcome to aboriginal country' where
we will be issuing aboriginal passports to all non-aborigines
(we don't need them) who agree with the statement that
recognises aborigines as the true owners of the stolen lands and
who want to further recognise the colonisation of the aboriginal
nations by the invaders. more on this later in a couple of weeks
when we launch the day with a comprehensive media release. we
welcome all people of sound and moral mind to that event also.
in september we are attempting to hold a forum on the police use
of tasers and other police brutality. more later.
some items of interest that have been brought to my attention.
the first item on the 7.30 report tonight showed 6 so-called
"ticket inspectors" of the train service in melbourne ganging up
and causing much physical harm to their victim. it is more than
obvious that these 6 would-be could-be coppers were spoiling for
a cowardly 6 to 1 punch-up obviously to show their authority.
they looked like a motley group of thugs in their civvies but
this was no show of force to a recalcitrant traveller as the
victim spent 12 days in hospital and was offered $225 000 to
shut up but the victim wanted justice and his human rights
declared in a court of law. and more strength to him. when the
victim was marched off the train by all 6 he was then dealt with
in a method that would have made every copper proud of the
arrest techniques used.
firstly he was thrown to the concrete, rolled on his stomach and
then had his face ground into the concrete whilst one or more
sat on him thus constricting his breathing even more. this of
course is standard practice for the police which makes me
believe that it was the cops who trained them. it seems we need
to add transit cops/ticket inspectors to the list of those
needing public attention. it is pleasing to see that witnesses
are willing to come forward to refute these thugs and their
lies. these 6 thugs must be sacked as we do not want their type
to make further problems. and this lad is a greek-australian so
please do not think it could not happen to you.
the second item (thanks cb) is an article in sunday's sun-herald
that reported on more thuggery from transit cops and police from
nsw. the victim, michael lindsay, was slow in showing his ticket
to the transit cops who took umbrage to his sarcasm and when one
of the transit cops objected michael then apologised. this mea
culpa proved to be of little acceptability however and the force
was called to intervene. 3 cops attended initially to the bus
and told michael to get off the bus even though he had found his
ticket for the journey. the cops remained true to form when as
michael proceeded to walk away constable ryan godfrey drew his
taser and shot 50 000 volts into the lower back of michael. the
lower back is now considered to be the less lethal area to fire
the taser at according to taser inc.,usa.
an ambulance was called and michael was charged with offensive
language,resisting arrest and assaulting police! i don't believe
it.....the trifecta lives! still. but the whole thing crumbled
into a dung heap of lies when the dpp foolishly took it to
court. the concoction of falsehoods, all backed up by the three
cops and the 4 transit cops involved to the letter, quickly fell
to pieces in the full light of the law and a magistrate who upon
seeing the evidence from another bus passenger then implored the
dpp not to continue the plethora of lies and ineptitude from
those prosecuting the case. the dpp quickly decided that no case
was to be found against michael. a form of justice i suppose but
more justice is required and miachael is seeking this from the
district court to his counter-charges against the transit cops
and cops involved for wrongful arrest,false imprisonment,
assault and malicious prosecution. and more strength to him.
very few of the readers of this report will be surprised as we
have known of such criminal actions by those who are expected to
uphold the law but who invariably continue to break it in an
effort to show their alleged authority. it would also not
surprise that the abuse of tasers by the police also continues
even though the death of roberto laudisio curti is still fresh
in our minds, as are the questions to bruce barbour, our
ombudsman. more to look at i would suggest, bruce.
i am sure that many would agree that the 4 transit cops and all
the police involved in this assault on the human rights of
michael must be sacked, as soon as possible. and please, do not
think that what happened to michael could not happen to you
because michael is white caucasian. it can and it may and that
is why police brutality and lies must be stopped and thugs must
be removed from the force and on public transport.
two reports of the very large number of inmates in gaol, and
qld. specifically, who have identifiable mental health problems
have been sent to me (thanks lf and gn) but i will need to leave
these to another post. another friend has posted a report on the
tragedy that was the death of kwementyaye briscoe (thanks mo)
but that too must wait for the next post.
we do have a post from bruce campbell of the death in custody
watch committee (wa) on women inmates in the wa gaol system.
Deaths In Custody Watch Committee (WA) Inc
02/07/12 MEDIA CONTACT FOR DICWC PAUL KAPLAN: 0438 949 898
deathsincustody.org.au
MEDIA STATEMENT - NATIONAL
WA CONTINUES TO MISTREAT PRISONERS BANDYUP WOMEN
THE DICWC (WA) Inc condemns the Western Australian State
Government over its ongoing mistreatment of persons in custody.
Nearly every week a new outrage is revealed to the public.
Unfortunately the most recent issue that of 46 women
prisoners sleeping on the floor at Bandyup Prison during the
peak of Winter - is the latest in a long line of recent history
person in custody abuse issues in Western Australia.
The DICWC acknowledges that society needs to be protected from
individuals who pose a serious risk to the safety of the
community. But the reality is that our prisons are overcrowded
because they are filling up with people who default on fines or
who have committed petty crimes due to poverty or drug
addiction, so that the WA Government can claim to be "tough on
crime".
Contrary to current calls to build new prisons to house those
who commit minor crime or who cant afford to pay their fines,
we, the DICWC call for the WA Government to get smart about
custodial sentencing, particularly for women who may lose
custody of their children as a consequence of a short period of
imprisonment.
Surely, WA politicians do not want to see families broken up and
children taken from their mothers due to incarceration in cases
where the mother lacks money to pay a fine. The answer is not to
build more prisons. The answer is to move from a
punishment-and-detention focus for non-violent women offenders
to community-based management of non-violent offenders
particularly mothers who would otherwise be with their children
in the community.
Link to original article by Natasha Boddy in the 02/07/12 The
West Australian -
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/breaking/14100065/women-pri
soners-sleep-on-the-floor/
Bruce Campbell, DICWC (WA) Inc Secretary
mailto:coronation74%40hotmail.com
thanks bruce for the information as i suspect the situation in
all gaols for women in this sad country full of human rights
abuses is not much different. please write to the wa government
in support of what bruce is calling for.
i know this post is long but please remember some did request
portions of it.
should it be seen as long or turgid or otherwise, or worse, of
no interest to you then please contact me to remove you from the
list.
fkj
ray jackson
president
indigenous social justice association
mailto:isja01%40internode.on.net
(m) 0450 651 063
(p) 02 9318 0947
address 1303/200 pitt street waterloo 2017
we live and work on the stolen lands of the gadigal people.
sovereignty treaty social justice