attached is a letter to the nt police commissioner, john mcroberts, that calls on him to charge the officers on duty at the alice springs police station on the night that kwementyaye briscoe was picked up for protective custody only, having committed no criminal act.
he was badly assaulted but recieved no first aid for his injuries. instead he was dragged to a cell and carelessly thrown in half-on a mattress on his stomach thus restricting his breathing. he remained that way until he died in full view of the attendant police.
nt coroner, greg cavanagh, during his decision was highly critical of the police and their continued ignorance of their duty of care to those they detain. he did not, however, find any officer to be indictable for the death of mr briscoe.
ongoing calls for action to seek justice have been made by ms. patricia morton-thomas representing the family. her call is pasted below. i have also repasted the family petition below calling for the police to stand trial for the death of kwementyaye briscoe.
the nt has a criminal code that sets out the laws of the nt. laws that the police are also expected to uphold. we do not want or expect the rule of discipline, nor the rule of apology but only the rule of law. absolutely no one must be above the law.
i thank daniel for his most valuable input.
the letter is self-explanatory in its push for justice and your message of support to the police commissioner with copies to isja would be greatly appreciated.
fkj
ray jackson
president
indigenous social justice association
isja01@internode.on.net
(m) 0450 651 063
(p) 02 9318 0947
address 1303/200 pitt street waterloo 2017
www.isja.org.au
we live and work on the stolen lands of the gadigal people.
sovereignty treaty social justice
New Matilda
indigenous affairs
6 Dec 2012
'My Family Is Calling For Justice'
By Patricia Morton-Thomas
You'll see Patricia Morton-Thomas in an episode of Redfern Now dealing with Aboriginal deaths in
custody on ABC TV tonight. Her nephew died in custody eight weeks before she took on the role
http://newmatilda.com/files/imagecache/article_feature/images/morton---pic.jpg
The episode of Redfern Now on ABC TV tonight deals with the issue of Aboriginal deaths in
custody.
I was asked by my long time friend Rachel Perkins, who directed the episode, to come on board
and play the character of Mona, who has lost her son to a death in custody.
My own nephew Kwementyaye Briscoe had died in the Alice Springs lock-up just eight weeks
prior.
I went away and thought about whether I was emotionally capable of carrying this character.
Whether I could draw that line between myself and this character. I decided to go ahead with it,
and figured playing the part could be quite therapeutic.
At that stage I hadn't seen the horrific CCTV footage of my own nephew's death. There's no way
in the world that I would have agreed to play the character if I had seen the footage. I would not
have been able to contain the anger I felt and continue to feel.
I would not have been able to carry her dignity. The lovingness and forgivingness of Mona. It
would have only been rage coming through.
On the night my nephew was picked up he committed no crime. He was taken into "protective
custody". It was the 31st time he had been arrested like this.
He had been drinking with some friends in a public park in Alice Springs. The police came along
and they all ran. I believe my nephew was scared. He had had his eye cut open by police just a
fortnight earlier.
My nephew was chased down by police. They threw him in the paddy wagon. There were two or
three other men who had not been searched properly and one had a bottle of rum with him.
On the way to the police station my nephew and those men drank almost the whole bottle, with
my nephew drinking the bulk of it. I would do this myself if I was looking to face another night in
the lock up bored out of my brain.
When he was picked up he was moderately drunk. But by the time they put him in the holding cell
he was extremely drunk.
He was then dragged out of his cell and assaulted in the reception room.
The coroner used words like "flung and slung across the floor". But if he was being honest he
would use the word "assault". My nephew was thrown head first into a counter and cut his head.
He lost consciousness. He was dragged and then carried to the cell. He was placed in the cell
face down on a mattress in a very awkward position. He couldn't breathe in this position and died
from positional asphyxia.
No police officer ever gave him a medical assessment or any first aid. They checked off an
assessment form saying he was fit for the cells.
Other prisoners were calling and screaming for them to come down and pay some attention to
him because they believed there was something seriously wrong with him. They were first
chastised and then ignored.
Police spoke to each other a number of times about his deteriorating condition and his need for
medical attention. But they decided not to take him to hospital because "he might run away".
While he slowly died police sat on Facebook and listened to their iPods.
The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody was concluded 20 years ago. Millions of
dollars were spent.
We were given reassurances by government after government that things would change - but
the situation is getting worse.
In 2009, Kwementyaye Trigger died in very similar circumstances in the Alice Springs lock up.
The police at that time assured the coroner that changes would be made and that it wouldn't
happen again.
My family is calling for justice, we are not calling for revenge. We are not calling for anything other
than what a court of law owes my family and my nephew.
We want these police charged with negligent manslaughter. They owed my nephew a duty of
care. He is dead because of their callous disregard for his life.
We've been assured police have faced "internal discipline".
I am starting to firmly believe that there's no such thing as justice in Australia, especially for
deaths in custody.
I truly hate to think that Australia is the kind of country that will turn a blind eye to this kind of
treatment of it's citizens. But so far this seems to be the case where our politicians and where our
legal system is concerned.
My nephew was treated as subhuman.
But official policy treats Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory as subhuman.
We are still living under the Intervention, renamed "Stronger Futures", which strips away our
fundamental rights.
I am on the BasicsCard like thousands of my people. I am capable of acting in an
internationally-acclaimed drama for our national broadcaster, but because I'm black and from the
NT, the government says I'm incapable of managing a Centrelink payment.
Aboriginal people are fourth class people in a first world country and I don't understand how that
can happen.
We are not seen as human beings, we are unwanted fauna on the landscape.
Dave Tollner, the Health Minister for the Northern Territory, recently said he wants to criminalise
public drunkeness so Aboriginal people will be forced "back into the scrub" if they want to drink.
The approach of our Health Minister to such a serious problem is to push people where no
tourists can see them - and if that's the attitude at the top, imagine what it's like further down the
scale. It's that attitude that killed my nephew.
I walk among a great many filmmakers and film producers and people who are very capable and
open-minded. They are well-educated about what goes on in Australia. But when I start to talk
about the Intervention they have no idea what is really happening here.
When even the most informed people in the country are not informed, then you have very serious
situation.
On 10 December, Human Rights Day, we will be holding a rally in Alice Springs to bring some
light onto issues of deaths in custody and to call on the Northern Territory Government and the
DPP to lay charges for the officers responsible for my nephew's death.
Alice Springs is really not such a large town. But in the last four years there have been four
deaths with the involvement of the Alice Springs Police or Corrections Service.
That body count is way too high.
I am hoping people join us at the rally to say: "we are not going to accept this in our town anymore
and we are not going to accept this in our Territory anymore, and things have to change."
Poor non-Aboriginal families, the African community and other members of minority groups in
Alice Springs are also being constantly harassed by police. This treatment has to stop and the
police force has to made accountable.
I would like to personally put all this aside and rest. My family have had a hell of a year.
But we must speak up.
It is so important that we all start speaking up.
Even if you are doing something as simple as adding your signature to a petition or boosting the
numbers at a rally, it makes a huge difference to change in our country.
And change has to come. It is extremely important that every single Australian stand up and be
counted on these incredibly important issues, social issues that will shape the future of our
country.
The time to do that is now.
Patricia's started a petition on Change.org that we thought you might be interested in signing -- read on for a moving message in her own words.
Patricia's nephew died in custody because of “completely inadequate” care by police. She’s asking for justice. 
Sign Patricia's Petition
George -
On 4 January 2012, my nephew T. Daniels Briscoe died in police custody.
He was dragged, shoved and slung about the Alice Springs lock up, resulting in a head injury that the police completely ignored. They ignored other detainees who yelled for help when they heard my nephew choking. They listened to music and surfed the net while he lay dying.
My nephew was taken into custody supposedly for his own protection. The coroner found his treatment was “completely inadequate”, and the police were “utterly derelict” in their duty of care.
Yet not one of the officers involved has been sanctioned. So I’ve started a petition to seek justice. I know this will not bring my nephew back to me, but maybe it will save another life in the future.
My nephew was a soft hearted, funny and humble man. He was generous to a fault and would give his last dollar to anybody in need. He kept my family connected and reminded us that money and wealth would not mourn for us when we passed, only those we love and love us.
Since 2009, four Aboriginal people in Alice Springs alone have died in the hands of authorities. They have promised changes, but my nephew’s death is proof those promises were not kept.
The current CLP government came to power thanks to the support of the indigenous community, and it says it hasn’t ruled out taking further action. We have a chance to make sure justice is done, but I worry that if we don’t act now, it will be like every other time -- he will be forgotten.
Please sign, and encourage everyone you know to help and lend their support. We need people to pay attention and speak out. My nephew, other victims and our community have been ignored for too long.
Thank you,
Patricia Morton-Thomas
Sovereignty
Treaty
Social Justice
1303/200 Pitt Street
WaterlooNSW 2017
Phone: (02) 9318 0947
Mobile: 0450 651 063
Email: isja01@internode.on.net
Indigenous Social Justice Association
John McRoberts
Commissioner of Police
Northern TerritoryPolice Force
PO Box39764
WinnellieNT0821
7 December 2012
Re: Death in custody of Kwementyaye Briscoe
Commissioner,
We refer to our letter to the NT Attorney-General, John Elferink, of 11th November and the reply from the Attorney-General dated 25th November 2012 and note that you have been asked to report to the Attorney-General pursuant to the Coroner’s Act. We also refer to the letter of Chief Minister Terry Mills to Daniel Taylor dated 14th November 2012.
We require you to enforce the laws of the Territory in vindication of the rights of Kwementyaye Briscoe. The Coroner identified three technical causes of death of Kwementyaye Briscoe, being acute alcohol poisoning, positional asphyxia, and aspiration. However the agents of those causes were identified Northern Territory Police officers. We note that there was agency from certain police officers in causing or contributing to each of these technical factors of death for Kwementyaye Briscoe.
These agency factors are;
- placement of Kwementyaye Briscoe in a face down position while subconscious and subsequently unconscious and leaving him in this position. This was aggravated by the knowledge of officers involved that this position was likely to cause or carried an extreme risk of positional asphyxia given the observed subconsciousness and subsequent unconsciousness of Kwementyaye Briscoe.
- callous failure to provide help, first aid, and medical care, i.e. failure to place Kwementyaye Briscoe in a safe basic first aid recovery position,
- callous refusal to allow medical care which would have been available had Kwementyaye Briscoe not been subject to protective custody.
- Callous refusal to help, provide first aid, and medical care in respect of subconsciousness and unconsciousness due to either acute alcohol poisoning and or the blow to the head which Kwementyaye Briscoe was known to have suffered whilst in police custody.
Death was in fact caused by callous placement in a face down position and callous refusal to allow medical care, as a result of which Kwementyaye Briscoe died. In consequence we consider that there have been two provisions of the Criminal Code which have been breached by NT Police officers, being the callous failure to provide help, first aid, and medical care, which endangered the life of Kwementyaye Briscoe, and such failure causing or significantly contributing to the death of Kwementyaye Briscoe, being the offence of manslaughter.
By way of background we believe that in the first instance Kwementyaye Briscoe was arrested, not for his own safety, but to clear the streets of drunken Aborigines. Such approaches and actions are normal day-to-day procedures not only for the NT police but is common practice in well-attended tourist towns.
We note, further, that the Coroner in his Decision found that there was a distinct and obvious failure to provide a sufficient level of individual assistance or medical care to Kwementyaye Briscoe. Should that failure be found to be callous, as we believe it would be, then such would constitute a criminal act against Kwementyaye Briscoe under s.155 of the NT Criminal Code (failure to provide help, rescue, first aid, or medical care, etc.). We also believe that it would be a total abrogation of your own Commissioner’s Instructions.
The Coroner did not halt the Inquest and refer the offending police with indictable information to the NT Director of Public Prosecutions, as we strongly believe he should have, regarding this offence under s.155. The Coroner found that the technical causes of death, as described by him, involved acute alcohol poisoning, positional asphyxia, and aspiration. Whilst it is undeniable that Kwementyaye Briscoe contributed to his own death by drinking, there have been several egregious intervening factors but for which Kwementyaye Briscoe would not have died. That Kwementyaye Briscoe was a practicing alcoholic was well known to the NT police, his Family and his Community. Whilst he was arrested at least 31 times for drunkenness/protective custody over the preceding years it appears that that action alone, in the opinion of the police, was insufficient to assist him in any way to rehabilitate himself from his problem. Police are slowly becoming aware that their responsibility does not end when the person involved is discharged. It must continue beyond that point to assist in either reducing or eradicating the ongoing problem.
The involvement of police in schools, churches, community meetings, youth groups, especially PCYC clubs and camps, and other such avenues shows that a police force is not just for arresting people or to take them into protective custody. Whilst gaols have a rehabilitive responsibility to those incarcerated we argue that police can also be of great assistance arising from interaction between themselves and those with whom they come into contact with.
Sadly during operational shift times the absolute need for police to recognise their Duty of Care is totally ignored and is replaced with a pack mentality, a corrosive addendum to what is best described as a toxic police culture, that does not allow for assistance to be performed or given to those in their care unless and until a Senior Officer directs them to do so. Any minor sign of concern or humanity is to be frowned upon and exterminated. Criminally this did not happen for Kwementyaye Briscoe and thus, in full pornographic view, he was allowed to die by those responsible for his care. This is quite clearly exampled by the action and lack of action by the police officers present on the night of Kwementyaye Briscoe cruel and tragic death. A death that can easily be posited as, in its inhumane action, to be an act of torture and nothing less.
The additional two causes of death were themselves caused by the officers putting Kwementyaye Briscoe in a fatally dangerous face down position, in breach of known basic first aid principals, and their indifferent refusal to assist him in his attempts to escape from this position. The first cause of death was itself only a cause of death because he was also denied medical care for his acute alcohol poisoning, and moreover was prevented, by way of incarceration and the lack of decisions of senior officers on duty, from receiving such help from the police themselves or members of the medical profession.
There is in Alice Springs, as you would be aware, Commissioner, a sobering-up centre but Kwementyaye was not taken there for full medical and care respite but rather treated cruelly by the police at the Alice Springs watchouse whilst he died. Of the 31 known instances of him being picked up by the police for being drunk, how many times, if any, was he taken to the Centre for proper and caring assistance?
As such we believe there has been, on the face of it, a crime or several crimes committed, being the callous indifference and failure to help, provide first aid, or to provide other medical care to Kwementyaye Briscoe, and which had significantly contributed to or caused his death. Moreover the disposal method used upon the unconscious Kwementyaye Briscoe face down onto a roughly strewn floor mattress significantly compromised Kwementyaye Briscoe’s safety and contributed by way of positional asphyxia to his death.
To officers trained in first aid procedures, this was an obviously fatal risk arising from the position into which he had been dropped. The fact that certain officers watched him on CCTV futilely trying to escape this position, and laughingly commented that he was unable to move, and was “fucking annihilated”, to their collective amusement, shows that they were callously aware of and recklessly indifferent to the risk to Kwementyaye Briscoe’s safety and life. Effectively they watched Kwementyaye Briscoe die and offered not a finger to help.
So much for your police culture, Commissioner.
There is a Civil Law in theNorthern Territory, the purpose of which is to hold accountable all those, without exception, who callously watch but fail to help a person in danger, a person needing first aid, and a person needing medical care.
All of the above examples are a consequent responsibility and social liability to the police forces ofAustraliaand not only to members of the general public when, and if, in the above situations. There is no Law, to our knowledge, that suggests, however slightly, that those coming under the direct control of the police somehow lose their Human Rights and/or their International Rights. Our innate Civil and Human Rights do not diminish at the watchouse door or at a gaol cell door. Acts of violence or torture within a watchouse or gaol cell are, and must be, held accountable as those same acts outside of a watchouse or gaol cell.
Those wearing either a police uniform or gaol uniform have never been expected by the general public to be treated differently from themselves or that such crimes can be absolved merely by the wearing of a State-sanctioned uniform. Criminal acts, even by the standards of war, are treated very seriously by War Crime Tribunals. All crimes must be treated with equal seriousness regardless of the uniform, or not, of the perpetrator.
So too here, Commissioner.
It is all the more consequential when the person in need dies because of this heartless and corrupt failure. Without any risk or inconvenience to the officers involved, the life of Kwementyaye Briscoe could have been protected by placing him, subconscious or unconscious as he was, into the recovery position. This is the minimum standard of care required of any custodial officer trained in minimal first aid techniques.
What would it have taken for Kwementyaye Briscoe to receive the protection he needed to preserve his life? First and foremost it is notable, and admirable perhaps, that Kwementyaye Briscoe did receive some medical aid, after he was found to be dead. Obviously these actions do not bear any relevance on the previous failure of all concerned to provide succour, first aid, and medical care to Kwementyaye Briscoe before he died. Is the reckless indifference of your NT police officers so high as to require that death on the part of an Aboriginal person must occur before help will be offered to him? This is a gross violation of the standard of care of a reasonable police officer holding a person in protective custody.
We ask you Commissioner, is that an acceptable act of civilisation?
We further ask you to consider that the Rule of Law must be blind not only to the Race, but also the profession and circumstances of those it alleges to protect. The fact that Kwementyaye Briscoe was an Aboriginal man, unemployed, and drunk, is no excuse for anyone to deny him the protection of human concern. We are sure that if Kwementyaye Briscoe had been a white businessman or a white employed person then he would have received a greater amount of the help he needed to live. We know the racial history of the NT and its police force and know also that even the NT Coroner, Greg Cavanagh, is absolutely exasperated at the racial and nonchalant attitudes by the NT police and the continuing ignorance to his, perhaps, life-saving Recommendations. Death after death after death. Nothing but an ignorant resistance from the Police Executive and the officers under their command.
Those who denied him help; those who threw him face down and watched him struggle impotently to escape that position, those who merely looked to see if he was still alive, they failed the test of human decency. Our police are not recruited, nor employed. to play computer games whilst on duty. We pay for a police force that is both professional and has a modicum of human ethics. Such officers, if and when found guilty as we are sure they will be when judged by their peers, are not wanted serving within our police forces. Senior police who deny their role of responsibility must also be removed from such senior positions. The Law looks to the consequences of those actions, which was death for Kwementyaye Briscoe, and demands an examination of those responsible by a jury.
Can one watch a person unconscious or dying in the street without offering help? Much less can it be tolerated for anyone to watch on video link a person in visual and obvious distress, subconscious, unconscious, dying, in a solitary cell.
Kwementyaye Briscoe died because he was dropped face down and left to die in a position which killed him. Where there has been an egregious breach of the protections of civilised society, causing the death of Kwementyaye Briscoe, the Rule of Law must be applied to vindicate the victim, his Family and Community.
Not the Rule of Discipline, not the Rule of Apology, but only the Rule of Law.
The Rule of Discipline is merely the Law of aFascistState. We note that unspecified officers have received unspecified disciplinary actions for unspecified breaches of discipline. In terms of public justice these actions are irrelevant and show no real attempt at Justice being sought nor found. Your officers on that night, Commissioner, sunk themselves and their uniforms to a new social low. They have, maybe, shown their allegiance to their collective culture but that detracts not one whit from their individual responsibility in causing the death of another human being.
The fact that Kwementyaye Briscoe was an Aboriginal man, an identified alcoholic to whom no assistance had ever been proffered and he did not have the perceived white attributes, whatever they be, somehow exonerated those police involved from seeing him only as some strange lost specimen of the Flora and Fauna regime that is still identified and practiced in the NT.
Insofar as he was callously denied succour, first aid, and medical attention which endangered his life, to charge those responsible under s.155 of the Criminal Code, noting that the offences are aggravated by the fact that Kwementyaye Briscoe died.
Insofar as the death of Kwementyaye Briscoe was caused by the placement of him in a position carrying a grave risk of asphyxiation, and the unlawful denial of first aid and medical attention, to charge those who have caused the death of Kwementyaye Briscoe with negligent homicide - manslaughter.
We ask you therefore to investigate and legally charge all those whose actions caused and significantly contributed to Kwementyaye Briscoe’s death by unlawful denial of succour, first aid, and medical care, and that they must be made to answer before a jury for those actions. Such actions need, and must lead to, a real justice outcome. The better to protect those who will come to be involved with your police in the future.
FOR KOORI JUSTICE
Ray Jackson Daniel Taylor
President Committeeman
Cc Terry Mills, Minister for Police
John Elferink, Attorney-General