“Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are dying in police and prison cells for two reasons – discriminatory policies which see us arrested at extraordinary rates, and the discriminatory treatment we are subjected to by police and correctional authorities. Ten years later, there were 87 deaths in custody, with 19 Aboriginal deaths in custody. There are higher incarceration rates of Aboriginal people in terms of proportion of Aboriginal people to total population. They fail to mention it didn’t investigate or compare to non-Aboriginal deaths, and that was a major oversight, essentially dismissing the equal tragedy of any other human life carelessly lost. He died in 1982 from an epileptic seizure in an Echuca police cell after being arrested for an unpaid $10 fine for public drunkenness. Rallies in response have been organised across Australia, including in Melbourne on Saturday. For Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians, nothing has improved. In August, ABC Online said in WA, 68% of incarcerated juveniles were Aboriginal, and 40% of the adult prison population was Aboriginal. “I miss my granddaughter so much. We must invest in services that help those incarcerated from among our poorest classes. The same rates continue. Through my role in both during the past couple of years, I have been stunned by the fact that Australia has one of the world's worst deaths in custody records. Australian War Memorial: from keeper of the flame to hider of shame? The case of Ms Day’s uncle, Harrison Day, was one of 99 deaths in custody investigated in the 1991 inquiry. Aboriginal-led justice coalition Change the Record co-chair Cheryl Axleby said 432 Aboriginal people have died in custody since the royal commission. The families of Tanya Day and Ms Dhu, Indigenous women who died in custody, say Mr Floyd’s death was not just an American problem and urged white Australians to look at their country’s own record of violence against First Nations people. Amnesty International Australia continues to call for independent and transparent investigation of such incidents. For just $5 per month get the Green Left digital edition in your inbox each week. The same rates continue. For $10 per month get the above and the print edition delivered to your door. I am a committee member of the Human Rights Alliance and a trustee of the Deaths in Custody Watch Committee WA. The Victorian government has committed to abolishing the offence of public drunkenness. A Royal Commission into Australian deaths in custody is urgently required. The rate of deaths in custody is increasing. Police lock Djab Wurrung activists out of camp, US capitalism offers nothing but despair and death. The 22-year-old died in police custody after she suffered “unprofessional and inhumane” treatment from police and “deficient” treatment from hospital staff, a coroner found. Two hundred and forty-eight were Aboriginal deaths — 18% of all deaths in custody. I have been educating human rights groups and even the Deaths in Custody Watch Committee, which had not realised the extent of deaths in custody in Australia. Thirteen were Aboriginal. Lives of Australian Communists'. For each Aboriginal death in custody, there are about eight to 10 non-Aboriginal deaths in custody. In fact, they have risen, 20 years after the Royal Commission. Tanya Day, Yorta Yorta mother and grandmother, died in police custody. 1 June 2020. Australia’s shameful record on black deaths in custody In the wake of widespread protests in the United States after the killing of George Floyd by the police, people are now taking to the streets in Australia. The prayer vigil that’s been organised correctly identified that the 1991 royal commission investigated 99 Aboriginal deaths in custody. Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of this land and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging. President Trump must end his violent and discriminatory rhetoric and policies. We acknowledge that this land was and always will be Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander land. Our goal is not only to expose the lies, hypocrisy and bias of the billionaire class and their media: we seek to help the organising efforts of all those actively resisting the increasingly authoritarian rule of the corporate rich, here and overseas. Regarding the death of Mr Floyd and the subsequent protests in the United States, Amnesty International USA National Director of Research Rachel Ward, issued the following statement regarding the police response to nationwide protests: “We call on the federal government and U.S. cities and states to act swiftly and meaningfully to address the root cause of these protests and take immediate measures to stop unlawful killings by police of Black people and others. Refugees and migrants on an inflatable boat arrive in Greece. Families of Aboriginal people who have died in custody say the death of George Floyd in the United States is a stark reminder of Australia’s own shameful record. A coroner has referred police, who didn’t notice her injuries for hours, for criminal investigation. “We stand in solidarity with Mr Floyd’s family and the families of all the other unarmed people of colour who have died in police custody,” Amnesty International Australia National Director, Sam Klintworth, said. “But to think this is a problem ‘over there’ and that Australia is free of the kind of racialised violence making international headlines, is to fundamentally misunderstand the issues in our back yard. We have a scandal-in-waiting. You can also add a donation to your support by choosing the solidarity option of $20 per month. Families of Aboriginal people who have died in custody say the death of George Floyd in the United States is a stark reminder of Australia’s own shameful record. There are more non-Aboriginal deaths in custody than Aboriginal deaths. The time has come for us to have a good look at ourselves and find out what is going on. The death of American George Floyd last week and ensuing protests in the United States are a sobering reminder of Australia’s own shameful record on Indigenous deaths in custody. Mass riots have broken out across the US over the past week in response to Mr Floyd's death after a policeman, now charged with third-degree murder, pinned the unarmed black man down with a knee pressed against his neck. Tammy Mills is the legal affairs reporter for The Age. The 99 Aboriginal deaths in custody from 1980 to May 1989, which led to the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, do not reveal the total numbers of Australian deaths in custody. Thousands gathered in Perth on Tuesday for a Black Lives Matter rally. They do not reveal the bottom-of-the-barrel, sub-standard custodial services of police or prisons. Rates of deaths in custody appear linked to incarceration rates, in terms of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. Our politicians need to oblige their moral duties and not be guided by the polls. This has doubled to 28 per cent even though Aboriginal people make up 3 per cent of the population. We all still love her and we still haven’t got her justice.”. The middle and upper classes are not the majority of prisoners and generally serve less time for similar offences or for their predominantly white-collar crimes. The statistics have worsened. Our side is — and always will be — that of the 99%. At the time of the royal commission, about 14 per cent of people in custody were Aboriginal. How can Australia have more deaths in custody than those at the peak of apartheid South Africa, and one of the world's worst records? Two police are currently facing murder charges over two other deaths: those of Yamatji woman Joyce Clarke – fatally shot in Western Australia – and 19-year-old Kumanjayi Walker in the Northern Territory. We need Australia to ensure that it is a just and civil society. They have failed to educate the Senate and the lower house of the horrific custodial death statistics. But the rate of Aboriginal deaths in custody is higher than in South Africa during the peak of apartheid. “Australia has a shameful record in its treatment of Indigenous people in custody, and has compounded the trauma of dispossession by allowing kids as young as 10 to be locked up, condemning them to the brualising effect of the youth detention system which sees children caught in the quicksand of the justice system, instead of with family in community.”.

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