#AbolishThePolice: Cannon Lambert, the attorney who represented #SandraBland’s family and helped them negotiate the 2017 reforms, says the proposal, Senate Bill 1896, would undermine a key plank of the #reforms that bear her name. “It’s antithetical to the purpose of the act,” Lambert told me, saying Bland’s family had wanted #systemicchanges that would lead to greater #oversight of jail conditions and #accountability for #DeathsInCustody.
https://boltsmag.org/texas-bill-jail-death-secrecy-sandra-bland/ 

"The Northern Territory police’s second-highest serving officer has told an inquest he is “struggling to find a reason why” there was such a deviation from the “detailed” plan to arrest Warlpiri teenager Kumanjayi Walker on the day he was shot and killed by Constable Zachary Rolfe …

"The deputy commissioner of NT police, Murray Smalpage, was highly critical of the operation to arrest Walker conducted by Rolfe and the other members of the immediate response team …

"Smalpage said it was “not a unique event” for police officers to have to arrest somebody who may have a weapon or presented the risk of absconding.

"He said the obligation in light of that reality was for “members to undertake that task in terms of assessing the risk and working a way through to mitigating it”."

#KumanjayiWalker #DeathsInCustody #Warlpiri #Yuendumu

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/feb/28/deputy-commissioner-highly-critical-of-botched-arrest-of-kumanjayi-walker-inquest-hears

Previous thread:
https://aus.social/@jimrhiz/109356795987901665

"The women first fought in June last year to have the charges withdrawn after their lawyers were notified the case would be dismissed because charges were “fatally flawed”.

"That was incorrect, according to prosecutors, who claimed an email to lawyers was sent by someone who did not have the power to make that decision.

"A second attempt to toss the charges was made in November when prosecutors attempted to change their wording.

"Magistrate Andrew McKenna ruled against the changes and on Tuesday [the prosecutors] applied to withdraw the charges …

"“However, we would like to emphasise that the fight is not over. One death in custody, one death by the state is one too many,” Onus said …

"McKenna himself noted the wording of the charge was mangled in a frightful way and “might as well be made by a Martian”."

#MerikiOnus #CrystalMcKinnon
#BlackLivesMatter #DeathsInCustody
#Naarm #Melbourne #AusPol

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/feb/07/victoria-police-withdraw-charges-against-black-lives-matter-protesters

https://reporterswithoutorders.substack.com/p/coroner-simon-mcgregors-findings

On our inhumane 'corrections' system, the needless incarceration and deaths of indigenous men and women, addicts, and other disadvantaged groups, and the need for reform.

#news #journalism #justice #prisonreform #deathsincustody #indigenousrights

"Coroner describes events leading up to #death of #woman in #custody as '#cruel and #degrading'

In #court this week #Victorian coroner Simon #McGregor #described the #events leading up to the death of #VeronicaNelson in a #prison cell in 2020 as "cruel and degrading". As well as referring some of those #responsible for #possible #criminal #prosecution, he's also calling for #substantial #changes to the #justice #system in #Victoria. Lauren Day and Joseph Dunstan report."
#ausgov #auspol #tasgov #taspol #politas #australia #vicpol #vicgov #tasmania #lutruwita #statism #police #cop #blacklivesmatter #humanrights #fascism #racism #indigenous #aboriginal #fyi #psa #victoriapolice #hatevicpol #vicpolwatch #deathsincustody #jail #prison #abuse #violence #capitalism #fuckthesystem #eatthetich

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-31/veronica-nelson-victoria-aboriginal-death-in-custody/101900156

https://youtu.be/E4Iat7gzOv4

@shoq and it isn't just in the #usa it's all over. #Australia's has been going since 1788. The #longest #war in history which we call the #FrontierWars. Still #executed by police and #prison officers with over 500 #DeathsInCustody in 30 years.

Something has to give or what is our worth to #humanity if we can't live side by side and all grow together.

"Australia's treatment of Indigenous Australians, refugees and climate protesters is harming the government's credibility when promoting human rights abroad, according to Human Rights Watch.

"The US-based organisation's annual World Report — which looks back at global human rights issues in 2022 — identified instances where Australia had fallen short on protecting the rights of children, freedom of expression and taking action on climate change."

#Australia #AusPol
#HumanRightsWatch
#Indigenous #DeathsInCustody #Prisons #RaiseTheAge
#Refugees #ClimateProtest

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-12/human-rights-watch-report-2022-australia-asia/101838412

Between Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, two Aboriginal people died in custody in Western Australia.

[please be respectful. I will report all racist replies]

Note: Aboriginal Sorry Business protocol includes not naming the deceased or sharing images, unless permission is granted by family.

Aboriginal man (45) Narngulu
https://nit.com.au/28-12-2022/4611/45-year-old-aboriginal-man-dies-in-custody-after-collapsing-at#:~:text=An%20Aboriginal%20man%20died%20at,pm%2C%20according%20to%20preliminary%20reports.

Yamatji woman (41, mother of 8) Perth https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-27/wandoo-rehabilitation-prison-death-in-custody/101811264

Deaths in custody of First Nations people occurs too often. Federal government and States/Territory need to urgently take real action, and implement all of the recommendations of the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

#NoJusticeNoPeace #Indigenous #Aboriginal #DeathsInCustody #RCIADIC

More here > https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/dec/30/advocates-call-for-urgent-action-after-two-incredibly-tragic-aboriginal-deaths-in-custody

Earlier in the year #queensland gave more money and power to police to 'reform' their shit #policing of women, and black and brown communities.

Now, they introduce more criminalising laws and 'reforms' to stop youth offending.
All this will do is lead ultimately to more #deathsincustody.

In a year that has seen more than 20 indigenous deaths in custody, this cannot be coincidental.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-29/qld-more-severe-criminal-penalties-emma-lovell-stabbing/101814696

#auspol #AbolishPrisons

Three of four police officers with no activated body cam footage happening during a home visit to a known person, Aboriginal person.
Why?
#DeathsInCustody #BlackLivesMatters #AboriginalLivesMatters #Policing #ChangeTheSystem

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/nov/21/inquest-into-death-of-aboriginal-man-stanley-russell-shown-disturbing-footage-of-moment-he-was-shot-by-police

"Residents in a remote Indigenous community where a Northern Territory police officer shot dead a teenager during an attempted arrest say they are “disgusted” the officer still has a job with the force. ...

"They also called for the NT and federal governments to recognise the Warlpiri community’s cultural authority in Yuendumu – which the group said had been lost during the Howard government’s intervention."

#KumanjayiWalker #DeathsInCustody #Warlpiri #Yuendumu

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/nov/15/how-come-hes-still-in-a-job-indigenous-elders-query-zachary-rolfes-ongoing-police-role-to-coroner

“"We ask that you focus on really listening: this means when you hear us, you do not challenge us in your mind, this is our story to listen to," Warlpiri Elder Robin Granites told the coroner in an opening address.”

#KumanjayiWalker #DeathsInCustody

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-15/coroner-elizabeth-armitage-visits-kumanjayi-walker-home/101652912

Are you in Perth? Tomorrow (Thursday), staunch Nyungar activist Desmond Blurton will lead a rally calling for a ban on all-white juries in cases related to Aboriginal deaths in custody.

I spoke to Des about the rally and you can listen here: https://www.ngaardamedia.com.au/news/interview-desmond-blurton-on-all-white-juries

“We have a lot of respectable people, Nyungar people, down here on our boodja [country], and I’m pretty sure we have a lot of respectable Aboriginal people throughout our land, that could be represented on jury systems, but we are denied this,” Des said.

Rally is 1 pm at Forrest Place

#AllWhiteJuries #DeathsInCustody

Currently reading Out of the Silence: the history and memory of South Australia's Frontier Wars by Robert Foster and Amanda Nettelbeck.

And I'm reflecting on how police (the State, colonisers) and settlers (colonisers) both used/didn't use British laws to be violent towards Aboriginal people. And how a version of those same laws are still being used/not used to excuse settler & State violence towards Aboriginal people.

#FrontierWars #RacialisedViolence #DeathsInCustody #TheFightContinues #SovereigntyNeverCeded