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Top blokes, totally out of character (Read 9239 times)
cods
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Re: Top blokes, totally out of character
Reply #165 - Mar 20th, 2017 at 9:23pm
 
Aussie wrote on Mar 20th, 2017 at 9:18pm:
Quote:
.did they go in with bats and bottles..


Heavens, no, Cods.  Just a fast moving vehicle running over bodies and beds, their boots and a gun.  Nothing serious like bats and bottles.   You can relax.



oh dear the blank gun you mean.....yeah I am sure rough necks would have used blanks..

ok aussie you win


but you are still the only one to use appalling language when describing these people..

thats is a fact you cannot deny...

even though it is one you try to avoid....in your usual fashion....if I ever see it anywhere else I will always associate it with you..

it sounds like its on a par with the N word in America..

well done aussie for bringing it too our attention. Angry Angry
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Re: Top blokes, totally out of character
Reply #166 - Mar 20th, 2017 at 9:30pm
 
cods wrote on Mar 20th, 2017 at 9:23pm:
Aussie wrote on Mar 20th, 2017 at 9:18pm:
Quote:
.did they go in with bats and bottles..


Heavens, no, Cods.  Just a fast moving vehicle running over bodies and beds, their boots and a gun.  Nothing serious like bats and bottles.   You can relax.



oh dear the blank gun you mean.....yeah I am sure rough necks would have used blanks..

ok aussie you win


but you are still the only one to use appalling language when describing these people..

thats is a fact you cannot deny...

even though it is one you try to avoid....in your usual fashion....if I ever see it anywhere else I will always associate it with you..

it sounds like its on a par with the N word in America..

well done aussie for bringing it too our attention. Angry Angry



No need to thank me cods.  Nappy has educated you far more extensively than I as to why the good white people of Australia, refer to these people as 'dirty boongs.'

It's all meant harmlessly, you know.  That's why 18 - 23 year old arseholes get to terrorise them at their Homes......it's all just jolly good fun, you know.  A dirty boong is killed and they'll all be out in a few short years on probation.

As for karnal and what he writes ~ he is the World Champion at ironic sarcasm.  I'm just a first year apprentice.  You'll work it out one day.
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Re: Top blokes, totally out of character
Reply #167 - Mar 20th, 2017 at 9:33pm
 
cods wrote on Mar 20th, 2017 at 8:48pm:
Aussie wrote on Mar 20th, 2017 at 7:57pm:
Cods, this....

Link.

...and page 9 of the same Thread shows you where these pricks get their attitudes from.....that is, adult people like Nappy and those who think those 'jokes' reflect what we are.  On the other hand, maybe it does show what some of us are...people who regard Aboriginals as just dirty boongs they are at liberty to do with as they please.

Nah.



speaking only for myself..

I gave up living in the past years ago.. it happened when I realised nothing in gods world will change what happened all I can do is try to stop it happening again..

today I sign all sort of petitions that come through my email....I am not in legal or govt and have no way whatever of changing anything other than signing for what I believe in...a fair go for everyone..

as for these young men being brought up to hate no I dont think so...yes they picked on weak victims...and I am more than sorry to read of that....did they go in with bats and bottles... not that I know of...which is the usual weapon of choice when its hate rage..

I asked raven to give me an idea what he meant when talking about injustice.. and he did with links.. which I READ.. with great interest and if you are interested you may have read my reply to him...

for me this isnt about black v white I want us to get over that....I dont want to rubbish this country any more its been very very good to me....yes there are some rough people out there and yes there are many mistakes made.. we a re all human..

I dont believe in calling any 18 yr olds all the names under the sun.....thats all!!! if that makes me a bad person so be it!

dont bring other people into something they have taken no part in whatever....

ask karnal about his form of jokes that try to take every serious thread down to the lowest point,...

if you are taking a dig at myself with that line about page 9.. where I have posted...then I would appreciate you putting it all up so I know what you are POINTING at...thank you...

what people regard aboriginals on here as dirty.filthy boogns.

as I pointed out to you I have never seen that word before you mentioned. it..

and I pretty sure I have never seen it here or PA...

you are the only to talk like that..... Angry

I am not sure fd would put up with it either...



Ahhh.....now I understand your "thanks" comment to me, Cods

I did not realise at the time that the link Raven supplied in response to your request led to the same report Mothra cited a little later.

The comment I made to Mothra was general and in no way directed towards yourself.  I can now however appreciate why you thought it was.  I'm sorry you took offence.......it was never intended.
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Re: Top blokes, totally out of character
Reply #168 - Mar 20th, 2017 at 9:41pm
 
Alinta wrote on Mar 20th, 2017 at 9:33pm:
Ahhh.....now I understand your "thanks" comment to me, Cods

I did not realise at the time that the link Raven supplied in response to your request led to the same report Mothra cited a little later.

The comment I made to Mothra was general and in no way directed towards yourself.  I can now however appreciate why you thought it was.  I'm sorry you took offence.......it was never intended.





I tried reading the other link.. but would need a week to get through it and not sure I would be any the wise...

as you can see I get shot down anyway so not matter no harm done..

in some threads I get the distinct idea some folks dont want positive.. they want to read awful stuff and act as if its still going on.......

I should no better and keep my big mouth shut.
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Re: Top blokes, totally out of character
Reply #169 - Mar 21st, 2017 at 2:05am
 
cods wrote on Mar 20th, 2017 at 4:51pm:
thank you for that raven.....sounds a shocker...

I would love to bang the drum to have the case reopened...no child should die without reason....I am appalled   there is now a program on TV regarding unsolved murders...I would be ringing this station and asking them how do they get the case of this child before the public.. Angry Angry Angry Angry

come on raven its not good enough to talk about this on a small forum like this....

look what happened when Gerard Baden Clay has his charge down graded.. its was NOISE raven   just angry NOISE>.

it doesnt matter to me the boy was aboriginal.. it matters he is dead.. just like Daniel....a wicked crime was done...... did you say a community of  800 people.. Roll Eyes Roll Eyes..



It is just noise and it's not enough to talk about it on small forums, which is why Raven has spent his adult life bringing these issues to people's attention, but the apathy remains.

When white children go missing we rally, when aboriginal children go missing we turn away.

Back in 2014 a red-headed, freckled-faced 11-year-old girl was, thankfully, found safe and sound in a stranger’s house after disappearing from her family home in Bondi.

Michelle Levy had reportedly run away from her family after a fight over a chocolate. In the two days she was missing, her face dominated social media, and found its way into mainstream media as well.

Around 1,000 volunteers mobilised to help search for the girl. People dropped whatever they were doing and joined in. There was something about this case that touched people in a very real way and they reached out to help.

When children go missing, you would hope this is always the sort of response. But the awful truth is that the disappearance of a child doesn’t always garner such attention. We may all be created equal, but in the eyes of the Australian community – and in particular the Australian media – some children are more equal than others, and more worthy of media attention.

The difference is their race, and their financial circumstances.

Three Aboriginal children were murdered from the same mission between 1990 and 1991, and despite there being overwhelming evidence pointing to one person – a non-Indigenous man – he has never been convicted.

In the first crucial days of the kids’ disappearances, they were completely ignored by local police, who told parents that their children had probably gone ‘walkabout’.

In fact, Colleen’s mother, Muriel Craig-Walker, was questioned by police about whether or not she was, in fact, Colleen’s mother, and whether Colleen was even Aboriginal, given her fair complexion.

The only other contact Muriel ever received from police in the original investigation was a phone call weeks after Colleen’s disappearance, to inform her that her daughter had been found on a bus on the way to Brisbane. When Muriel rushed to the police station, she was told it was a case of mistaken identity – the Colleen Walker on the bus was an elderly white nun.

Clinton Speedy-Duroux’s father, Thomas, was told by NSW Attorney General Greg Smith that it was time he got counselling and moved on, but only after Smith first mistakenly called him by the alleged killer’s name.

The families had to protest outside the police station in 1991 simply to get investigators to take notice. Furious about the lack of action, Colleen’s aunty, Elaine Walker asked the local police inspector Bob Moore why he didn’t listen to the community when they gave him information about the killer’s identity.

Inspector Moore’s response was that “you people” had to work with police in solving the crime.

It's this level of apathy that these families have had fight against for 27 years. Raven witnessed one protest in Macquarie Street as people strode through banners with Justice for Bowravill and listening to people yell out "get a job."

So why didn’t Bowraville receive the same level of attention as other cases?

The reason can be found in the testimony of Detective Inspector Gary Jubelin, who headed the second investigation into the case in 1997. Jubelin brought to the case 20 years experience investigating homicides, and he says the Bowraville story can’t be told without mentioning one word: Racism.

He told the parliamentary inquiry in 2014

Quote:
I have been investigating crimes for 20 years and I am still shocked by the lack of interest that has been shown in this matter. We have a serial killer and three children were murdered. It has been heartbreaking to see the families suffering. The only time they seem to get things happening is when they attract the media’s attention or when they publicly protest. That is very unfortunate.

The families know the reason. The families told me the reason when I first met them in 1997. They said ‘it’s because we’re Aboriginal’.

At the time when I met the families I did not believe them. Unfortunately, the truth of the matter is, having worked with the families now for the past 18 years, I think they identified the problem.

It is all very nice for society to say that all victims are treated equally. I do not think that is entirely correct.

I am a homicide detective; I am not a do-gooder or a bleeding heart. However race, and to a lesser degree, socioeconomic factors have impacted on the manner in which these matters have been investigated.
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Quoth the Raven "Nevermore"

Raven would rather ask questions that may never be answered, then accept answers which must never be questioned.
 
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Re: Top blokes, totally out of character
Reply #170 - Mar 21st, 2017 at 2:19am
 
Continued...

Again looking at the case of the Borroloola boy his father asked a valid question:

Quote:
You know when a certain person goes missing somewhere else there’s big articles, there’s big news things about it. There was nothing for him. And you know… that’s what makes me angry. There was nothing… I feel sorry for people that have lost their kids and that, yes okay, but they’ve had that, you know, they’ve had that spotlight.


Why do children like the boy from Borroloola and the kids from Bowraville remain unknown, while Daniel Morcombe is a household name?

Why are his parents afforded one level of attention, while we ignore the cries of Aboriginal parents?

Now Raven doesn't claim that Daniel is not deserving of our attention, he was a young boy taken by evil. But why are aboriginal kids less deserving?

It illustrates the difference in this country, the black and the white. And the sad fact is the onus is always on Aboriginal people to try and bridge the divide.

Aboriginal people are forced to protest for their justice, and they risk the continual demonization of their communities when they do.

They risk their own incarceration.

Look at the death in custody of Mulrunji Doomdagee, who was savagely beaten to death  by a police officer on a watchhouse floor on Palm Island. Mulrunji had his liver cleaved in two, and suffered the sorts of injuries you might expect to see from the victim of a plane crash.

Both the Queensland government, federal government and the media all ignored it. The community were forced to stage an uprisingm and curn down the courthouse, police stations and police barracks before they were afforded any level of attention – media or government – and even then it was negative, and resulted in the incarceration of almost two dozen protestors.

To this day, the only people who have served jail time over the killing of Mulrunji Doomadgee have been Aboriginal people. No cop has lost a cent of pay, let alone seen the inside of a jail cell.

The apathy shown to aboriginal victims is still a blight on our society.
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Quoth the Raven "Nevermore"

Raven would rather ask questions that may never be answered, then accept answers which must never be questioned.
 
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cods
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Re: Top blokes, totally out of character
Reply #171 - Mar 21st, 2017 at 7:29am
 
he reason can be found in the testimony of Detective Inspector Gary Jubelin, who headed the second investigation into the case in 1997. Jubelin brought to the case 20 years experience investigating homicides, and he says the Bowraville story can’t be told without mentioning one word: Racism.

He told the parliamentary inquiry in 2014

Quote:
I have been investigating crimes for 20 years and I am still shocked by the lack of interest that has been shown in this matter. We have a serial killer and three children were murdered. It has been heartbreaking to see the families suffering. The only time they seem to get things happening is when they attract the media’s attention or when they publicly protest. That is very unfortunate.

The families know the reason. The families told me the reason when I first met them in 1997. They said ‘it’s because we’re Aboriginal’.

At the time when I met the families I did not believe them. Unfortunately, the truth of the matter is, having worked with the families now for the past 18 years, I think they identified the problem.

It is all very nice for society to say that all victims are treated equally. I do not think that is entirely correct.

I am a homicide detective; I am not a do-gooder or a bleeding heart. However race, and to a lesser degree, socioeconomic factors have impacted on the manner in which these matters have been investigated

thank you rave..

thats awful stuff to read in this day and age...

I do remember very well the missing 3 children..and I remember the man . as far as I know they have arrested him again...yes yes yes  I can see the apathy if thats what it is...but we can change that rav en....speak up LOUD...write to every media outlet..look at the project    they do more than just talk about Muslims...lets talk about this..its important to get these messages out.....we live in shocking times... so we have to work together to protect all children....they only have us dont they.....

what we mustnt do is get bogged down with past mistakes... what we have to do is they dont keep happening....thats my point.. I want to change things.. I dont want to blast the past....what good does that do..

tell us raven what can we make that I ....do to change this

we can challenge the media......they are the ones keeping this from us??.......
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Re: Top blokes, totally out of character
Reply #172 - Mar 21st, 2017 at 9:12am
 
cods wrote on Mar 20th, 2017 at 9:41pm:
Alinta wrote on Mar 20th, 2017 at 9:33pm:
Ahhh.....now I understand your "thanks" comment to me, Cods

I did not realise at the time that the link Raven supplied in response to your request led to the same report Mothra cited a little later.

The comment I made to Mothra was general and in no way directed towards yourself.  I can now however appreciate why you thought it was.  I'm sorry you took offence.......it was never intended.





I tried reading the other link.. but would need a week to get through it and not sure I would be any the wise...

as you can see I get shot down anyway so not matter no harm done..

in some threads I get the distinct idea some folks dont want positive.. they want to read awful stuff and act as if its still going on.......

I should no better and keep my big mouth shut.



The link of Raven's that you claim to have read is the exact same link that i posted that you claim to have "tried" to read but "would need a week to get through it and not sure I would be any the wiser(r)".

I merely quoted Raven.

Why lie, Cods?
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Re: Top blokes, totally out of character
Reply #173 - Mar 21st, 2017 at 9:23am
 
rhino wrote on Mar 20th, 2017 at 9:14pm:
mothra wrote on Mar 20th, 2017 at 5:48pm:
This is a good report investigating disparity between Indigenous and non-indigenous offenders:

http://www.criminologyresearchcouncil.gov.au/reports/1213/11-0910-FinalReport.pd...


- Raven


Thanks for the link. I've read similar reports but this is an excellent resource.

Good luck getting anyone on here to read it though.
that article backs up my statement that aboriginal offenders are dealt with more leniently by the courts simply because they are aboriginal
Quote:
Second, community and political constraints may place pressure on judges to reduce sentence
severity for Indigenous defendants. In particular, the Royal Commission into Aboriginal
Deaths in Custody (1991) is likely to have sensitised Australian courts to the marginalised
position of Indigenous Australians and the impact of Indigenous over-representation in
imprisonment on Indigenous communities. In particular, the Royal Commission argued that
“the powers and decisions of sentencing courts present considerable opportunity for reducing
the numbers of Aboriginal people in custody” (1991, Chapter 2, recommendation 92). As
noted by Anthony (2010: 1), “when sentencing Indigenous offenders, courts in Australia …
do their work in the knowledge that the rates of Indigenous imprisonment are much higher
than the rates for the community as a whole”.
There have been subsequent developments in sentencing law that suggest Indigeneity could
act as a mitigating factor in sentencing. In at least three Australian jurisdictions (South
Australia, Australian Capital Territory, Queensland), sentencing legislation allows
consideration be given to the cultural background of defendants. Further, recent precedent
exists in case law for factors associated with offenders’ Indigenous status (e.g. associated
disadvantage) and Indigeneity itself (e.g. historical legacy of colonisation) to mitigate
sentencing (see discussions by Edney, 2003; Edney and Bagaric, 2007: 246; Anthony, 2010).
In addition, a number of Australian jurisdictions have developed alternative ways of
sentencing Indigenous offenders (including Indigenous and circle sentencing courts) which
seek to acknowledge the differential needs of Indigenous defendants (Harris, 2006; Jeffries
and Bond, 2009: 54). Therefore, we might expect to find evidence of Indigenous sentencing
leniency (i.e. positive discrimination) because there is likely to be judicial recognition of the
marginalised status of Indigenous defendants, connected to broader societal concerns
regarding the ‘plight’ of Indigenous peoples as a colonised group within the criminal justice
system (Jeffries and Bond, 2009; Jeffries and Bond, 2010a; Bond and Jeffries, 2011a; Bond

Thanks for that.



Talk about confirmation bias!

Tell me Rhino, why did you choose to omit this and rather copy and paste in an hypothesis?:

"In all study jurisdictions, there were three consistent findings:

Indigenous defendants were more likely than non-Indigenous offenders to be
sentenced to prison
. While Indigenous/non-Indigenous disparity was consistently
more pronounced in the baseline statistics, it remained even after accounting for other
influential sentencing determinants. These results support both differential
involvement and negative discrimination hypotheses.

 Indigenous defendants were less likely than non-Indigenous offenders to be sentenced
to a monetary order (compared to other non-imprisonment penalties). The initial
baseline difference was reduced, but did not dissipate completely after controlling for
other important sentencing factors. Although these results support the differential
involvement hypothesis, they do not necessarily suggest negative or positive
discrimination. This is because monetary orders may not always be harsher than other
non-imprisonment orders.

 Indigenous defendants were sentenced to monetary orders of a lesser amount than
non-Indigenous offenders. Adjusting for other important sentencing factors reduced
initial differences, but evidence of a continuing direct effect was found. Thus, the
results support both differential involvement and positive discrimination hypotheses."
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Re: Top blokes, totally out of character
Reply #174 - Mar 21st, 2017 at 9:24am
 
mothra wrote on Mar 21st, 2017 at 9:12am:
The link of Raven's that you claim to have read is the exact same link that i posted that you claim to have "tried" to read but "would need a week to get through it and not sure I would be any the wiser(r)".

I merely quoted Raven.

Why lie, Cods?



you are correct..I am lying..

this is what I took to be a link from mothra...

Re: Top blokes, totally out of character
Reply #146 - Yesterday at 5:48pm Quote
mothra
  This is a good report investigating disparity between Indigenous and non-indigenous offenders:

http://www.criminologyresearchcouncil.gov.au/reports/1213/11-0910-FinalReport.pd...


- Raven


it is what I was replying to alinta about....
posted by mothra but referenced to raven..

my apologese......

I made a mistake...... and should have linked my comment to raven....


this from alinta...... who also got confused..

Quote:
I did not realise at the time that the link Raven supplied in response to your request led to the same report Mothra cited a little later.

The comment I made to Mothra was general and in no way directed towards yourself.  I can now however appreciate why you thought it was.  I'm sorry you took offence.......it was never intended.



I guess I am just not as smart as most... and will be more selective in the threads I join in in future.
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Re: Top blokes, totally out of character
Reply #175 - Mar 21st, 2017 at 9:46am
 
It doesn't matter how smart you are, Cods. Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

Just don't lie whilst taking thinly veiled pot-shots at other posters and you won's be called on it.
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Re: Top blokes, totally out of character
Reply #176 - Mar 21st, 2017 at 10:00am
 
mothra wrote on Mar 21st, 2017 at 9:46am:
It doesn't matter how smart you are, Cods. Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

Just don't lie whilst taking thinly veiled pot-shots at other posters and you won's be called on it.



well if you can tell me where I am SMART   I could reply to that..



thinly veiled threats     Roll Eyes Roll Eyes is that the same as thinly veiled pot-shots?..

its not what I say

its how it is  processed ....

thats important to a conversation..

everything I say is wrong as far as you are concerned mothra...which is of course your absolute right...

you treat a lot of what people say! with contempt..

I agree you are very dedicated to your causes..
but we all have our own special causes  mine happens to be children all children...but those living in todays climate not years ago...

I am sorry for what happened years ago but think its more about seeing we do better in the here and now...

I like serious topics  where the more noise and talking about can inspire change..

but I dont like being bullied for not agreeing with everyone...

and thats how you make me feel...

as you can see we all have opinions about each other...


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Re: Top blokes, totally out of character
Reply #177 - Mar 21st, 2017 at 10:09am
 
cods wrote on Mar 21st, 2017 at 10:00am:
mothra wrote on Mar 21st, 2017 at 9:46am:
It doesn't matter how smart you are, Cods. Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

Just don't lie whilst taking thinly veiled pot-shots at other posters and you won's be called on it.



well if you can tell me where I am SMART   I could reply to that..



thinly veiled threats     Roll Eyes Roll Eyes is that the same as thinly veiled pot-shots?..

its not what I say

its how it is  processed ....

thats important to a conversation..

everything I say is wrong as far as you are concerned mothra...which is of course your absolute right...

you treat a lot of what people say! with contempt..

I agree you are very dedicated to your causes..
but we all have our own special causes  mine happens to be children all children...but those living in todays climate not years ago...

I am sorry for what happened years ago but think its more about seeing we do better in the here and now...

I like serious topics  where the more noise and talking about can inspire change..

but I dont like being bullied for not agreeing with everyone...

and thats how you make me feel...

as you can see we all have opinions about each other...





No Cods, when i agree with you i say so .. just as i commended a post you made the other day.

I don't hold grudges. I tend to fight the ball, not the player. If i agree with i will say so ... if i do not agree with you, i will say so.

Thinly veiled threats? Where? Has that sprung from the same fertile imagination that compelled you to accuse e of hacking you? Twice?

As for bullying, only yesterday you were piling on to a post that wished me dead.

People in glass houses, Cods.
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Re: Top blokes, totally out of character
Reply #178 - Mar 21st, 2017 at 10:25am
 
White Man’s Manslaughter. Black Man’s Murder. White Man’s Riot. Black Man’s Uprising.

By Chris Graham on      August 31, 2016


The violent clashes between police and protestors in Kalgoorlie yesterday followed the charging of a 55-year-old man with manslaughter over the death of a 14-year-old Aboriginal boy, Elijah Doughty. Twelve police officers were injured, dozens of Aboriginal people are expected to be arrested, police vehicles have been damaged, and court house windows were smashed. Media are calling it a riot. But one person’s riot is another person’s uprising, writes Chris Graham.

The smartest thing Palm Islanders ever did was burn the local police station, court house and part of the police barracks to the ground.

That was in Queensland in November 2004, after Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley – the most senior cop on the island, standing six foot six inches tall and weighing 115kg – beat an Aboriginal man to death on the floor of the local watch house.

The victim, Mulrunji Doomadgee, was just over half Hurley’s size.

Mulrunji’s ‘crime’ was to walk past Hurley – who was arresting another Aboriginal man – and swear, while singing, ‘Who let the dogs out’.

Within an hour he was dead.

Mulrunji suffered a ruptured spleen, broken ribs, and his liver was all but cleaved in two, held together by a couple of blood vessels. That’s the sort of fatal injuries you might expect to see in the victim of a plane crash.

Mulrunji Doomadgee, beaten to death by Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley at the Palm Island police station in 2004.

As Mulrunji’s body lay cooling in the morgue, Hurley was drinking beer and sharing a meal with police from the Ethical Standards Command, senior officers who’d been sent to the island specifically to ensure that the police investigation into one of their own was not corrupted.

One of the lead detectives assigned to the case was Hurley’s close friend and neighbour, Senior Constable Darren Robinson.

As tensions grew, and police spread rumours in the media that Mulrunji may have suffered his injuries prior to his arrest, calls for calm from community leaders grew.

And then a forensic pathologist’s report was read out to Palm Islanders at a public meeting six days later. It found that Mulrunji had died after tripping up a single step, and falling onto a flat floor.

Before that report, just one media outlet saw fit to cover the story, another non-descript report about another tragic ‘death in custody’.

Within an hour of the report being read out, the Palm Island police station, court house and Hurley’s home were a smouldering mess.

And suddenly, media were very, very interested in the story. Thousands of stories have been written since. A movie was made. We still read about it today.

History now records the extraordinary attempted cover-up by police, for which, more than a decade later, no-one has ever been held responsible.

We now know that the extent of police injuries during the uprising was a single bruised hip. And we also know that Palm Islanders didn’t fare so well.

Patrick Bramwell, an Aboriginal man who lay next to Mulrunji as he writhed in agony in his cell and comforted him as he died, took his own life two years later.

Mulrunji’s son also suicided, a week before the coronial inquest into his father’s death was to commence.

Dozens of Aboriginal people were arrested and jailed. Most claim to have been assaulted in the process.

Children were held at gunpoint by tactical police dressed in black, wearing masks. They sat scared in their homes with laser targets pointed at their heads.

An entire community of Aboriginal people was terrorised by Queensland’s ‘finest’.

The man who led the uprising, Lex Wotton, spent several years in jail. The morning after his conviction, Queensland Police announced bravery awards for officers who served on the island during the uprising.

Six of the police who received those awards were adversely named in a subsequent Crime and Misconduct Commission report. No real sanctions have ever been imposed against them.

For his part, Hurley went on to defraud Queensland taxpayers of more than $100,000, after being given an ex-gratia payment by the Police Service for property lost in the fire. And that was after he claimed $35,000 from his insurer for the very same property.

After authorities initially decided Hurley had no case to answer, public outrage – driven in large part by outstanding reporting from The Australian newspaper – forced a criminal trial.

Hurley was acquitted. He walked out of court and told media he now accepted responsibility for causing the death of Mulrunji.

Hurley was moved to the Gold Coast, promoted briefly to Acting Inspector, and never lost a cent of pay. Indeed, he took extended leave, on full pay.

The QPS was finally motivated to take action against Hurley when he targeted one of his own. In March this year, Hurley was charged with two counts of assault for pushing a female colleague.

We would almost certainly know none of this if there had been no uprising on Palm Island. The death of Mulrunji Doomadgee would have been yet another quiet cover-up.

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mothra
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Re: Top blokes, totally out of character
Reply #179 - Mar 21st, 2017 at 10:27am
 
Of course, police are not in the frame over the death of 14-year-old Elijah Doughty in Kalgoorlie on Sunday. A 55-year-old man is accused of the crime. Police allege he used his vehicle to strike Elijah, who police say was riding a stolen motorbike. As the man faced court in Kalgoorlie yesterday, tensions boiled over.

He is entitled to his day in court, but there is seething anger in the Kalgoorlie community around the charge the man is facing – manslaughter.

If you know anything about the history of Aboriginal deaths in this country, then you might understand the reaction of Kalgoorlie protestors.

The charge Chris Hurley beat was also manslaughter.

When John Pat, a 16-year-old Aboriginal boy was beaten to death in the streets of Roebourne in WA in 1983, five police officers were tried over the death.

They also faced manslaughter. Like Hurley, they were also acquitted, and returned to active duty.

When Mr Ward, an Aboriginal elder, was cooked to death in the back of a prison transport van on his way to Kalgoorlie – for the crime of drink driving – no-one was charged with anything, despite repeated warnings about the dangers of woefully inadequate prisoner transport.

And that’s just Western Australia.

When five white youths kicked an Aboriginal man – Kwementyaye Ryder – to death next to the Todd River in Alice Springs in 2009, they also faced manslaughter charges.

They bucked the trend and were convicted. Their sentences ranged from 12 months to three and a half years, despite driving up and down the dry river bed targeting homeless Aboriginal people and firing a replica pistol at them.

The judge in that trial – Brian Martin, the man appointed by the Turnbull government recently to lead the Royal Commission into the abuse of Aboriginal children in juvenile detention (he has since resigned) – described the boys as “otherwise of good character”.

The response from those in power to the death of Mulrunji Doomadgee, and John Pat, and Mr Ward, and Kwementyaye Ryder, is precisely what Aboriginal people in Australia expect when one of their own is killed. They expect a manslaughter charge, if they’re lucky.

And while those deaths are amongst the nation’s most infamous, they’re far from the only examples of the spectacular failures of our criminal justice systems when it comes to black lives snuffed out.

There’s the Bowraville murders. Three children – Colleen Walker, 16, Evelyn Greenup, 4, and Clinton Speedie-Duroux, 15 – murdered by a local white man over a six month period in the early 1990s.

The community was investigated for child abuse. Two decades later, the serial killer remains free.

There’s Ms Dhu. She was arrested in August 2014 for outstanding fines and held at the South Hedland police station in WA. She tried repeatedly to convince police she was seriously ill. She died in agony two days later. Video footage of her being dragged around and dropped on the floor by police has been suppressed by the WA coroner.

There’s Eddie Murray. He was found hanging from bars in the Wee Waa police station in 1981. Somehow he managed to smash his own sternum prior to his death.

And Lloyd Boney. In 1987, he was found hanging by a football sock in a police cell in Brewarrina. The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths In Custody was scathing of police conduct. Here was the police response – a video of officers at a costume party in 1992, mocking Boney’s death. And they say Australia has no history of blackface.

And there’s Kwementyaye Briscoe. His crime was to be publicly drunk in Alice Springs in 2012. Taken into ‘protective custody’ he was dragged into a police cell, dumped on the floor and left to die while officers surfed the internet and listened to music.

There are many, many, many more stories like this. David Gundy – an innocent man – gunned down in his own home by police who were looking for someone else.

There’s Jack Sultan Page, an eight-year-old Aboriginal boy, run over and left to die in November 2014 in a hit and run by man who was on bail for drugs charges.

The killer, Matthew Alexander, aged 23, was sentenced to six months home detention, and an 18-month suspended sentence. During the course of Alexander’s committal hearing, Jack’s mother was warned by Magistrate Greg Cavanagh, “You’ll be arrested if you don’t shut up. This is a court of law. Not a pub where people can yell at each other.”

This is just a short roll call of the dead – a tiny proportion of the ever-growing list of Aboriginal people, many of them children, who have been brutally killed, then let down by the system they are told is there to protect them.

So the question now becomes, will Elijah Doughty become the latest victim of a vulgar, corrupt, indifferent system? And the answer, sadly, is that Aboriginal people have no logical reason whatsoever to believe he won’t.

There isn’t an Aboriginal family in this country untouched by state-sanctioned violence.

They know that while black lives do matter, they don’t matter as much. They expect that the deaths of their loved ones will mean less.

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