In Memory of TJ : Melbourne Indymedia

"My message to Bob Carr is to show 100% also to this Aboriginal community here, 110% behind us, because we do need a lot of services here for our young people and we don't want to go through this process again in another week or another 6 weeks time or in another year. We don't want no more of our young kids to die. We want to see positive action and not just talk."

Ray Mittagong, Redfern local pastor, Crossroads Church

"Being black and being born in this country puts you behind the eight ball, but for all my life spent living as an Aboriginal girl and an Aboriginal woman I would never ever swap what I am or who I are for anything, because being Aboriginal gives me a depth of understanding about my people and about my country and about the history that's gone on for 215 years that many people don't understand, don't comprehend and certainly have no compassion about."

Jenny Munro, Redfern community activist

WORDS AND STORIES FROM A COMMUNITY UNDER ATTACK

Usually, a tragedy involving a child results in sympathetic media coverage, tearful parents pleading for witnesses to help police with their enquiries, and supportive statements from elected leaders. When 17 year old Aboriginal Thomas Hickey (TJ) was impaled on a fence on Valentine's day, police called for backup before any call was made for an ambulance, the accident scene was cleaned up within hours of his crash. After he was pronounced dead the following morning, police built up in Redfern, Lawson Street was closed and a riot seen by the world was used by State Liberal leader John Brogden to justify calls for Israel-style population management stategies.

All of a sudden, everybody had an opinion on people few ever talk to. Media and government talked about the Block in Redfern as a problem community, rather than listening to a community's problems. Judging by their response, NSW politicians might use a guillotine to fix a headache. A court denied one of TJ's aunts bail to attend his funeral, police arrested his young girlfriend for abusive language at a BBQ put on by the community and South Sydney Council after the weekend of trauma, and a state prison refused his father leave to pay his last respects.

Meanwhile channel 10, the other boys in blue, aired dubious footage of bagsnatches which hadn't even taken place in Redfern as justification for the area's heavy policing. Insult was added to injury as they broadcast security camera footage of TJ threatening a convenience store with a cigarette lighter. Had they investigated, TJ's friends would have told how he'd returned to the store where he'd gone to buy food after being made to leave because he was Aboriginal. Had they asked, family could have told how "he was the little father to all his sisters".

On the day of TJ's funeral in Walgett, February 24, a solemn march against police violence was organised from the Block to Turanga apartments where TJ met with his fate, then on to Redfern police station where Lyall Munro, Kevin Smith, and Marcie Ella delivered a list of 17 demands for the enquiry into the young boy's death. Talking about the list of demands, the new ATSIC Chair for for the Sydney region Marcie Ella said,

"I think they express some key principles that Aboriginal people have been striving for for a long time and that's justice, it's to be treated fairly and it's to participate in those processes so that we can judge for ourselves that it's being dealt with in a fair and transparent way".

The number was a deliberate reminder of his age, and included demands that
- police vehicles involved be independently forensically examined
- officers involved be suspended from active duty in light of new witness testimony
- all enquiries have an independent Aboriginal observer
- Redfern Area Commander be asked who he took instruction from and liaised with in regard to police build up
in Lawson St throughout the Sunday afternoon BEFORE the riot
- enquiries look at the history of prior incidents involving police chases resulting in serious injuries to Aboriginal children
- the state provide the same funding for the enquiry into TJ's death as they plan to provide for the enquiry into the riot.

Speakers also called for a National Royal Commission into the treatment of Aboriginal children by police throughout Australia.

Family of TJ describe him as an agile little jockey on his bike. How a 10 minute round trip to get hot chips ended with his being impaled on a fence where he had no reason to be with broken glass in his fingers is still unclear. If police weren't chasing him, as they announced in a press statement, how were they first, second, third, and fourth on the scene? Witnesses say they watched police search him after the accident while he was still convulsing. Another said "I'm very sorry, I see police but I can't say anything - they deport me".

Even with a Coronial Enquiry justice is uncertain. Another Aboriginal martyr, 29 year old David Gundy's shooting death 15 years ago during an illegal police raid on his home, after an alleged tip from an unreliable informant, was officially put down to a lack of formal NSW police training on how to safely hold guns in confined spaces.

Some of the Block's teenagers stay with family in other parts of the city to avoid victimization. One 17 year old boy talked about being chased on his bike by police over a warrant still outstanding 2 weeks after he'd been released from interrogation at Redfern station, "then when I rode on the paddock, they come up on the paddock to cut me off from the lane. Then when I went to turn, he started ramming me and that...If the window was open they could have just pulled me in...my first instinct is to run from them. I don't want to get taken for something I didn't do." The vehicle ran over his bike after he'd jumped off and started running. The story is more disturbing for the fact that it happened 2 weeks before TJ's "accident".

Strip-searches are used to dehumanise new arrivals to concentration camps and jails, but they're also used at the roadside in Redfern. One 18 yr old male says, "all of us older blokes, over 18, they get strip-searched, y'know, ball-searched in the street", while other regulars to Redfern tell of seeing men and boys made to expose their genitals in public for police, and even of a pregnant Aboriginal strip-searched at the roadside surrounded by 5 police - presumably for the sake of her privacy...

"I think Bob Carr is probably one of the worst Premiers that we've ever had in New South Wales. This state has turned into a police state... What about the fact that this country is still illegal, it's based on terra nullius and today it's terror, and they've been terrorizing our people for over 200 years...it's never going to go away until this country deals with its (own) illegality...until the issue of Aboriginal sovereignty is dealt with it's always going to be like it is...Aboriginal people are treated like refugees in our own country...The only way this country's going to heal itself is when all the truths come out..."
- Isabel Coe, Aboriginal rights activist

Outside of Australia's detention centres and jails, only residents of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra experience the same level of 24-7 video surveillance as the Block, complete with close to 100 police patrols every day. When I visited senior Elder Joyce Ingram a week after the riot the neighborhood was calm, even welcoming. In the 15 minutes that we spent talking a paddy wagon cruised slowly past us maybe eight times with riot shields on clear display in the back window.

"They (activists in the past) fought for this tiny little bit of land here and it was given back to them by the people that owned it, Gough Whitlam passed it back to us, to indigenous Aborigines...Why not allow us indigenous Aborigines to have these two tiny little blocks of land here with decent houses, backyards and clotheslines, and for our children of the future they could say to their mates, 'and that's where we live,' and they'd walk with a little tiny bit of dignity and pride in themselves. And let them (government/ police/ media) give us a fair go. We're not here to bludge. We want to walk shoulder to shoulder with our, as they say, the white brothers...We don't want to be white. We know what colour we are. We wasn't born at 12 o'clock midday, we was born around 10, 10:30, 11 o'clock at night so that's how we've come to be indigenous Aborigines - (to her visitors) isn't that right?!"

The next day police without a warrant burst into and searched her home, apparently looking for someone in relation to the riot.

Despite having planned for years to develop the Block to provide affordable housing for the community, the Aboriginal Housing Commission is dependent on donations and in this way its effectiveness is limited by access to resources, just like the Aboriginal Legal Centre which frequently recommends that clients plea-bargain, rather than fighting charges outright. The recently announced RED plan will involve an outside development team and may yet end up being another real estate deal disguised as progress.
There are many first-hand accounts of under-age Aboriginal children being threatened, bashed, and even locked up with adult jail populations - whether suspects or not, such treatment can't be justified. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy - if you treat somebody like a thief for long enough, threatening to hurt them next time you see them, stepping on them when you get a chance then eventually they're going to run like a bandit or steal to survive. Then you can point the finger and say that you were right about "them" the whole time.

Lyall Munro has been campaigning for better Aboriginal living conditions for years,

"We (people on the Block) come here everyday and watch the procession of police cars, we watch the intimidation and the trauma everyday that our young people are put through in this community in particular...". Community leader Kevin Smith called for wider community (that's you) pressure on elected officials to open doors for youngsters,
"there are programs that do need to be put in place that are positive - not just for Aboriginal children living on the street, but for all street-urchins that aren't given the opportunity, who aren't given the chance to achieve what they need to achieve."

Jenny Munro brought tears to eyes as she spoke of problems facing the Aboriginal nations right across Australia,

'The attitude of the police is what's wrong. They're taught to hate when they put their uniform on, they're taught to hate people who disregard and disobey them. There's something wrong with a system that teaches hate so freely and so easily on the most oppressed section of society - those of us that don't have the resources, don't have the money, don't have the land to be able to mount an effective fightback. We're oppressed because we're poor and they continue to keep us poor for the purpose of oppressing us! It's got to stop! In TJ's name, let it stop!"

Carr is a fascist fucking arsehole as is Jeff Bracks, Beattie, Gallop and the rest The infernal statist activities of the various Alternative Liberal Party Premiers of all the ALP held states make me puke.

And I am disgusted at the silence ( Pariah excepted) by so called activists about this scandal. Even so called ' Left' ALP hacks like Carmen Lawrence have kowtowed to the racist shock jock mafia. The last few years has seen the poor and indigenous in this place sustaining major assaults while all the bleeding hearts rush the barracades for overseas issues while mantaining deafening silence on whats happening right here and now. Is it all too much for youse?

Something bigs gotta happen in this place to turn shit around - WAKE the FUCK UP PEOPLE!

THERE"S A WAR GOING ON!

Yes.

Incarceration rates for Aboriginal people soar here and the 'Left' says nothing. Don't want to offend their paymasters and associates.

Political activists are hammered here -- and far from being supported, face derision and exclusion by these gutless imposters on the 'Left...'

NAP people gave out PARIAH posters on incarceration a while back at a "human rights" assembly at Parliament.

http://www.country-liberal-party.com/pages/NT-Labor-worse-than-CLP-Incarceration.htm

Nice to see Police Prosecutors in there as well -- What a joke.

The main response to the poster, was that -- Aboriginal people commit the most crime -- ergo...

That's the depth of understanding and compassion amongst the Establishment Left here.

And elsewhere I imagine.

NT Labor claim the crime rate has dropped -- but are spending 75 million dollars to increase the NT Police Force.

The lowest paid NT Police are earning up to $100,000 a year with overtime.

We talk to mob that get 'moved on' ten or more times a day.

Harassing Aboriginal people -- Nice work if you can stomach it.

Actually, most police don't hate people, even
violent aborginies. Every day, police risk
their safety to try and help all sorts of people.

Of course, it's easy to blame the police, especially
when the social injustice is so extreme, and imported jihadist's are stirring the pot.

Life might deal each one of us a different set of shitty cards, but everyone is responsible for how they play those cards and what they make of themselves.

Its' time for the aborgininal community to accept some
responsibility for the situation. Difficult as this might be, this is not about whose fault things are. By accepting responsibility, you are empowered to find a solution, rather than the unproductive focus on blaming others.

TJ's death was a trajic accident, however, the events
around it now represent a serious challenge to
the character and ethics of the aboriginal people.

- Are you able to let go of anger and forgive?

- Will you (continue) to choose violence as the means of attaining your goals?

- Do you want to be a part of modern australian society
which respects your culture and way of life, or do you
want Redfern to become an Australian Beruit?

Maybe there is spiritual knowledge within your
culture, the kind that is needed to save the world
from self destruction. Perhaps, if the rest of us
felt a connection to the land, terrorism and polution
would not be such big problems.

- Why don't you encourage your people to join the police force?

Then you will see that the police are not full of
racism, but are ordinary people, frustrated and
angry at the system, just like you. Police are
there, generally trying to help the best way they
know how. This may not always be the best way,
but you have to get over this idea that all police
hate all aborginies or want to hurt them, it is simply
not true.

Does your anger comes from the desperate hopelessness of poverty and ignorance, and the soul destroying cycle of domestic violence. Or does it
come from how you deal with the poverty, ignorance and domestic violence?

No one can change these things but aboriginies.
The government has put a lot of money into "trying"
to help, but we all can see it hasn't worked.

But you could make it work. How ?

- Show others the respect you wish to recieve.
(this includes people like police)

- Make your kids get an education, so they can
earn a decent income.
- Educate the rest of us so we understand what sort of problems you face, and help in a more effective way.

- Don't tolerate crime, drug abuse, domestic violence amongst your people and your community. That
means it is the job of every member of your community,
to do all they can to stop these things from happening.
That means, intervening themselves, or calling the police.

- Develop a vision for the future that offers hope
for people, not conflict. Remember Love is a more powerful force for change than hate.

This Redfern hell-hole is like Christiania (Copenhagen) or Melkweg (Amsterdam) a drugg peddlers hell-hole.

There is nothing that can be done about hell-holes like these because that is their soul, theit essesce etc. Its is like trying to reform hell!

If yoy do it's not hell anymore, right?

Only one thing to do...EXTERMINATE, EXTERMINATE, EXTERMINATE and build something nice instead.

I hear that Christiania is soon to be transformed to a new clean nice area without criminals, drug runners and shoooters..

KP, get to the laundromat your sheets and pointy hat are ready.
Person - I don't think you're an ignorant bigot or you wouldn't try so hard to sound like a hippy, you're more of a sly bigot. What you're basically proposing is:
1. conforming to the dominant paradigm i.e. integration which equals cultural genocide, which is like tell women they can gain respect, equality by becoming men - i.e. the problem is theirs, so they're the ones who need to change
2. cops are tops. I was reluctant to write about the specifics of TJ's accident because while it goes against even basic first aid to remove an item - like a fence - from a puncture wound, maybe the cops weren't incompetent or belligerent. maybe they received instructions over the radio from a paramedic. Maybe they weren't callously searching his convulsing body but checking for breaks and fractures in spite of what at least 2 witnesses allege.
3. "It's time for the Aboriginal community to accept some responsibility for the situation" - sorry, person, but as well as wearing over 200 years of blame most Aboriginals seem to want to take on the full responsibility of their lives - which can't honestly happen while their illegal treatment, harrassment, and being spied on continues. Canada apologized to its indigenous population and took responsibility for unlawful and inhumane history - we need to do the same. We need a government to start to legitimize Australia as a single nation by recognizing that close to 600 nations already existed here before this one was proclaimed.
4. "why don't you stop using violence" - why don't you read some of Australia's real history. Rations allotted to whole generations of Aborigines forced on to missions guaranteed diabetes and heart disease. It wasn't illegal to hunt and shoot the indigenous population of this land anywhere until just after the start of the 20th century, after which the government instituted Eugenics to breed them out of the population instead.
5. "jihadists" - you can't be serious/ taken seriously

Australia is spending 43 million dollars every day on the war in Iraq, if even half of this was put towards a problem that we're yet to accept responsibility for creating perhaps the Aboriginal community could start to make the improvements that they're restricted to talking about and wishing for. There's plenty more to say but there are lots of people who've been saying it for ages. maybe you need to stop reading the Telegraph and the mirror, consider the fact that major media owners in this country are also major landholders and friends of big business - the 2 groups that profit the most from Aboriginal rights being strangled and exploited, and start to listen to what's really being said not just what you've been told.

"Australia is spending 43 million dollars every day on the war in Iraq"

I have read that quote a couple of times, can you please advise us of where that figure comes from.

Publish a link prehaps.

Thanks

Actually, most people don't hate aborigines, even police. they just don't want to acknowledge their existance and would rather they all got away from our yuppie neighbourhoods. Every day, in Redfern people, even white people are intimidated by walking on the Eveliegh st side of the road. shit I was there a few weeks ago.

Of course, it's easy to blame the indigeous peoples, especially
when the social injustice is so extreme, and there is a new ignorance about imported jihadist's which is a new myth created by right wing christians. we've all met them, some are even in our own families.

Life might deal each one of us a different set of shitty cards. Your life might turn shitty or you might be doing fine as it is. therfore it is important to have solidarity and compassion but not that everyone is responsible for how they play those cards just for themselves and unconsciously fuck over other people in the process. this can only equal ignorance.

Its' time for the general community to accept some
responsibility for the situation. Difficult as this might be, this is not about whose fault things are. By accepting responsibility, you are empowered to find a solution, unlike the media who unethically would rather an unproductive focus on blaming others.

TJ's death was a tragic accident, which must NEVER be forgotten. however, the events around it now represent a serious challenge to the character and ethics of the media and general community and especially the police who are supposed to protect and preserve, and not intimidate and suppress.