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the lucky country...
protest
Victoria Police will review the actions of specialist officers who are accused of using heavy-handed tactics during two days of violent clashes with protesters outside an international mining conference.
As anti-mining activists blocked the entrance to PwC's Southbank offices on Thursday evening, police said the force's Professional Standards Command would look at concerns about officers' conduct.
Police have been accused of shoving activists, using pepper spray and batons when the protest escalated on Tuesday and Wednesday outside the Melbourne Convention Centre. One protester was hospitalised after being injured by a police horse.
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“I can’t breathe” were the notorious last words of George Floyd. But, did you know these same words were yelled 12 times by David Dungay Jr, a 26-year-old Dunghutti man from Kempsey, when he died in police custody 5 years ago?
Both men died from ‘positional asphyxia.’ Both men repeatedly screamed, ‘I can’t breathe’ and begged for their lives. Both men had multiple officers aggressively restraining them on the ground and ignoring their pleas for help until they died. Whilst Floyd’s death sparked global protest and the incrimination of the police officers who murdered him, no criminal charges have been brought to those responsible for Dungay’s death. In fact, for the estimated 432 Indigenous deaths in police custody since the royal commission in 1991, no one has ever been convicted.
This disparity begs the question – why don’t we hear about Australian police brutality?
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have raised concerns of First Nations deaths in custody long before today in both social media and the media. However, as Amanda Porter an Indigenous scholar of policing and criminal justice writes in “Riotous or Righteous Behaviour? Representations of Subaltern Resistance in the Australian Mainstream Media" (2015), the difference in public reaction comes down to the difference in media coverage. Porter mentions that the media often repeat the “’dysfunctional’ and ‘lawless’ Aboriginal communities’ narrative which further perpetuates and justifies police violence against black Australians. This harmful narrative is then repeated by politicians such as Pauline Hanson, who diminish public will against police mistreatment of Aboriginal Australians which translates to systemic racism.
Institutional racism targeting Indigenous Australians equally suppresses Aboriginal families from speaking out about police brutality. Legal structures such as non-publication or suppression orders are sought by state parties to prevent identification of NSW police and corrections services staff, effectively preventing the issue from the reaching the public eye. As was the case for the inquest into Dungay’s death wherein the media was ordered not to publish the names, addresses or photographs of the 21 NSW corrections staff members involved. Defamation laws were also used to protect the identity of the officer facing a murder charge for the death of Joyce Clarke, a Yamatji woman in Western Australia.
Several other issues shroud the silence around Australian police brutality: lack of compulsory education about Aboriginal mistreatment, the threat of ‘subjudice contempt’ wherein media coverage poses a threat to a fair trial, whether footage is released to the public etc.
As such, checking your privilege (if you are non-black) and educating yourself with resources about both the US and Australian Black Lives Matter movements is vital to deconstructing the deeply embedded racism in our society and effectively decolonising. Check out some of the foundational educational resources below to get you started!
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- By Gus Leonisky at 16 Mar 2021 - 9:14am
- Gus Leonisky's blog
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bullets...
“It is good and right that so many are able to gather here in this way, whether in our capital or elsewhere, and to do so peacefully to express their concerns and their very genuine and real frustrations,” he said.
“Not far from here, such marches, even now, are being met with bullets, but not here in this country.”
That comment elicited a furious response from Greens leader Adam Bandt and Senator Larissa Waters, who blasted him for an “insulting” message.
“The Prime Minister’s message for women who were demanding justice and change, was ‘be grateful we didn’t shoot you’. This is unbelievably appalling behaviour,” Mr Bandt railed.
“The PM must apologise to the women who organised and attended today’s rally, for his disgraceful statements that display this man has no idea.”
Senator Waters said she “couldn’t believe the response”.
Labor leader Anthony Albanese claimed Mr Morrison had “not so much a tin ear, as a wall of concrete”.
“The Prime Minister needs to listen to what women are saying about what is happening in this building, and outside. They said enough is enough,” he roared, in what several Labor sources claimed was his strongest Parliamentary performance in months.
“They’re crying out that this is a moment that requires leadership. It requires leadership from this Prime Minister, and we are not getting it.”
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https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2021/03/16/morrison-bullets-comment/
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the leadership we DON'T need...
An Australian member of a UN committee about discrimination against women has condemned Prime Minister Scott Morrison for saying it was a triumph that protesters outside Parliament House weren’t “met with bullets”.
But Mr Morrison is continuing to receive the support of Liberal Party politicians, including the Minister for Women.
His comments were in response to thousands of women who rallied outside Parliament House for the March 4 Justice protest on Monday.
“Not far from here, such marches, even now are being met with bullets, but not here in this country,” Mr Morrison told Parliament.
“This is a triumph of democracy when we see these things take place.”
The marches were to protest against gendered violence and to call for the government to respond to a 12-month-old report by the Australian Human Rights Commission, which examined the nature and prevalence of sexual harassment in Australian workplaces.
Natasha Stott Despoja, a former Democrats senator who was appointed to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women last year, said she was “quite stunned” when she heard the Prime Minister’s remark.
“That is not the example that is required to celebrate the notions of liberal democracy,” she told Channel Seven.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg defended Mr Morrison’s comment.
“To be fair to the Prime Minister … he was championing Australia’s democracy, and he was championing the cause of those outside Parliament,” he said.
“I know people have taken pot shots at him, but the reality is he is providing the leadership that we need.”
Read more:
https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/politics/2021/03/16/bullets-comment-stuns-un/
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scomo does not get it...
Labor has dialled up its criticisms of the federal government’s response to the women’s March4Justice, blasting Prime Minister Scott Morrison for suggesting that similar demonstrations in other countries had been “met with bullets”.
An angry Mr Morrison shot back at Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese, accusing Labor of hypocrisy as both sides traded blows over mounting reports of sexual misconduct in Parliament.
“The Leader of the Opposition has engaged, I think, in a very unworthy slur,” Mr Morrison roared, in an ugly Question Time on Tuesday.
“A twisted attempt to try and pervert what has been said … he is proving himself unworthy of the office he even holds now, let alone the one he seeks to take.”
At issue was Mr Morrison’s response to Monday’s March4Justice, on the front lawn of Parliament House.
“It is good and right that so many are able to gather here in this way, whether in our capital or elsewhere, and to do so peacefully to express their concerns and their very genuine and real frustrations,” the PM said on Monday.
“Not far from here, such marches, even now, are being met with bullets, but not here in this country.”
Labor has asked Scott Morrison about that "bullets" comment in QT and whether he had regrets. It wasn't well received. @10NewsFirst#auspol pic.twitter.com/Kxdd9InzvN
— Tegan George (@tegangeorge) March 16, 2021
The comment elicited a furious response from Greens leader Adam Bandt, who called it “unbelievably appalling behaviour”.
Mr Albanese added his criticism on Tuesday, opening Question Time by asking whether Mr Morrison regretted his comments in response to more than 100,000 people joining the march in towns and cities across Australia. He said the PM had suggested that the protesters “were lucky because in other countries they would be met by bullets”.
Mr Morrison slammed Mr Albanese for what he called an “egregious slur”, claiming his comments had been radically misrepresented.
“What issue does the Leader of the Opposition have with celebrating democracy?” the PM said.
Earlier in the day, Minister for Women Marise Payne defended the PM, saying “the observation about the opportunity to protest peacefully and safely in Australia is an important one”.
“Our democracy does provide Australians with that opportunity,” Senator Payne said.
Labor shadow minister for women Tanya Plibersek said Mr Morrison’s comments were “just not good enough”.
“I really think that Scott Morrison just doesn’t get it,” she said.
Original cartoon by Zanetti (2009):
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