Chipping away at trust in the policeTerry Sweetman. The Sunday Mail, October 08, 2006 12:00am.
TWO days after the explosive coroner's report into the death of Mulrunji on Palm Island, Brisbane was awash with recruits handing out ribbons for National Police Remembrance Day.
It was a serious occasion, remembering the 135 officers killed on duty in Queensland since 1861, but it was difficult not to wonder how the police service might change these bright young men and women. Would their idealistic enthusiasm for the service survive the clash with reality?
This is not meant as a criticism, more an acknowledgment of the facts of life. After all, I've seen fresh-faced newspaper cadets turn into heartless cynics; I've seen caring, cuddly nurses turn into no-nonsense harridans. Such character transformations happen, and they happen more frequently when people are confronted with human frailty on a daily basis.
Despite post-Fitzgerald recruitment and training reforms, it is impossible for a largely white-bread, conservative and conformist police force to confront drunkenness, hopelessness, helplessness, stupidity, greed, callousness and plain evil without undergoing some kind of change.
Throw in the responsible exercise of great power, a strict code of conduct, an onerous disciplinary regime and a degree of oversight largely unknown in other trades, and it's a tough call.
Little wonder cops become, well, different to the rest of us and, if we're not careful, alienated from the wider community. And some might have reached that point of alienation if Police Union president Gary Wilkinson's intemperate, ill-considered, possibly contemptuous spray against Acting State Coroner Christine Clements reflects opinion throughout the force.
Some of her findings might seem a bit thin, but according to him, she ignored "mountains of evidence" supporting Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley, who was blamed for the death of Mulrunji. "She has conducted a witch-hunt, from the start it's been designed to pander to the residents of Palm Island rather than establishing the facts," he said.
Whatever his intent, he has chipped away at whatever residual trust there is between the cops and the courts. And, at least one senior-ish cop tells me he has detected something of a breakdown in trust between the police and the institutions (our courts and our machinery of inquiry), and that some officers are approaching the levels of paranoia that prevailed before the Fitzgerald Report in 1989.
Some knuckle-draggers are scathing of anti-corruption commissioner Tony Fitzgerald, but his observations on alienation are as pertinent today as they were almost two decades ago.
In his report, he wrote: "The natural tension which exists between the community and any powerful group or institution is exacerbated by the nature of police work. It is also aggravated by the unacceptable aspects of police culture, which at the same time are magnified by negative community attitudes…". Later, he said: ". . . police are frustrated at the inability of the police force to enforce the law effectively, which they attribute to inadequate police powers and resources and defects in the criminal justice system."
Police still feel they are hindered by inadequate powers, they still think they are under-resourced, and they certainly resent what they see as defects in the criminal justice system (and the coronial inquiry process). And they feel they are unfairly subject to complaint and investigation.
They are little different to many ordinary citizens who feel that the justice system is illogical, sentences are inadequate, and civil liberties take precedence over the protection of citizens. The difference is that police are taught to know better, to accept when their role in the criminal justice system ends, and to accept the decisions of the courts without demur. And that includes coronial inquiries, even when they come out with findings devastatingly damaging to an officer and a union member.
Their acceptance of those limitations on their roles is not helped by the likes of Mr Wilkinson but, sadly, any sort of contempt action is only likely to add to their sense of alienation.
Conversely, some very public criticism from a union heavy followed by the extraordinary decision to leave Sen-Sgt Hurley to patrol an office desk has given rise to "negative community attitudes", the obverse of the alienation process noted by Fitzgerald.
Given the evidentiary rules, there are some doubts Sen-Sgt Hurley will ever face any substantial criminal charges. However, the leniency shown to him so far has been contrasted with the suspensions handed out to so many other public servants on much less serious allegations.
Equally, I have no doubt that had it been Sen-Sgt Hurley gasping his life out on a cell floor, somebody would be doing chokey right now. The Palm Island affair began badly, was handled badly and has ended badly.
But something could be retrieved if a few police spoke up to reject the destructive knee-jerk nonsense from Mr Wilkinson.
If he does represent mainstream police thought, we could be in a spot of bother.
Terry Sweetman. The Sunday Mail, October 08, 2006 12:00am.
TWO days after the explosive coroner's report into the death of Mulrunji on Palm Island, Brisbane was awash with recruits handing out ribbons for National Police Remembrance Day.
It was a serious occasion, remembering the 135 officers killed on duty in Queensland since 1861, but it was difficult not to wonder how the police service might change these bright young men and women. Would their idealistic enthusiasm for the service survive the clash with reality?
This is not meant as a criticism, more an acknowledgment of the facts of life. After all, I've seen fresh-faced newspaper cadets turn into heartless cynics; I've seen caring, cuddly nurses turn into no-nonsense harridans. Such character transformations happen, and they happen more frequently when people are confronted with human frailty on a daily basis.
Despite post-Fitzgerald recruitment and training reforms, it is impossible for a largely white-bread, conservative and conformist police force to confront drunkenness, hopelessness, helplessness, stupidity, greed, callousness and plain evil without undergoing some kind of change.
Throw in the responsible exercise of great power, a strict code of conduct, an onerous disciplinary regime and a degree of oversight largely unknown in other trades, and it's a tough call.
Little wonder cops become, well, different to the rest of us and, if we're not careful, alienated from the wider community. And some might have reached that point of alienation if Police Union president Gary Wilkinson's intemperate, ill-considered, possibly contemptuous spray against Acting State Coroner Christine Clements reflects opinion throughout the force.
Some of her findings might seem a bit thin, but according to him, she ignored "mountains of evidence" supporting Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley, who was blamed for the death of Mulrunji. "She has conducted a witch-hunt, from the start it's been designed to pander to the residents of Palm Island rather than establishing the facts," he said.
Whatever his intent, he has chipped away at whatever residual trust there is between the cops and the courts. And, at least one senior-ish cop tells me he has detected something of a breakdown in trust between the police and the institutions (our courts and our machinery of inquiry), and that some officers are approaching the levels of paranoia that prevailed before the Fitzgerald Report in 1989.
Some knuckle-draggers are scathing of anti-corruption commissioner Tony Fitzgerald, but his observations on alienation are as pertinent today as they were almost two decades ago.
In his report, he wrote: "The natural tension which exists between the community and any powerful group or institution is exacerbated by the nature of police work. It is also aggravated by the unacceptable aspects of police culture, which at the same time are magnified by negative community attitudes…". Later, he said: ". . . police are frustrated at the inability of the police force to enforce the law effectively, which they attribute to inadequate police powers and resources and defects in the criminal justice system."
Police still feel they are hindered by inadequate powers, they still think they are under-resourced, and they certainly resent what they see as defects in the criminal justice system (and the coronial inquiry process). And they feel they are unfairly subject to complaint and investigation.
They are little different to many ordinary citizens who feel that the justice system is illogical, sentences are inadequate, and civil liberties take precedence over the protection of citizens. The difference is that police are taught to know better, to accept when their role in the criminal justice system ends, and to accept the decisions of the courts without demur. And that includes coronial inquiries, even when they come out with findings devastatingly damaging to an officer and a union member.
Their acceptance of those limitations on their roles is not helped by the likes of Mr Wilkinson but, sadly, any sort of contempt action is only likely to add to their sense of alienation.
Conversely, some very public criticism from a union heavy followed by the extraordinary decision to leave Sen-Sgt Hurley to patrol an office desk has given rise to "negative community attitudes", the obverse of the alienation process noted by Fitzgerald.
Given the evidentiary rules, there are some doubts Sen-Sgt Hurley will ever face any substantial criminal charges. However, the leniency shown to him so far has been contrasted with the suspensions handed out to so many other public servants on much less serious allegations.
Equally, I have no doubt that had it been Sen-Sgt Hurley gasping his life out on a cell floor, somebody would be doing chokey right now. The Palm Island affair began badly, was handled badly and has ended badly.
But something could be retrieved if a few police spoke up to reject the destructive knee-jerk nonsense from Mr Wilkinson.
If he does represent mainstream police thought, we could be in a spot of bother.
Deceased Palm Island man's family speaks out
Saturday November 27, 07:36 AM
ABC News via Yahoo! Australia & NZ News
Relatives of the north Queensland man who died in police custody on Palm Island last week say the local Indigenous community is desperate for justice.
The death of 36-year-old Mulrunji Cameron Doomagee sparked a riot on the island yesterday, with the police station set alight and other buildings damaged.
An autopsy showed 36-year-old Doomagee had broken ribs and a punctured lung. Palm Island Council chairwoman Erykah Kyle told Lateline that the broken ribs caused a rupture in Mr Doomagee's liver, causing internal bleeding.
Mr Doomagee's cousin, Murrandoo Doomagee, says the riots were a last resort.
"We've had enough mate, this is ridiculous," he said.
"If the system works we'll respect it. The system not only is not working for us, it has never ever worked for us or delivered justice.
"What is going on on Palm Island is a genuine reflection of how all Aboriginal people are feeling at this stage across Aboriginal Australia."
Police have said that Mr Doomagee's death was the result of a scuffle in which an officer and Mr Doomagee fell down concrete steps.
Aboriginal leader Sam Watson says the healing process on Palm Island will be long and painful.
He says the Aboriginal community must be consulted and involved in any investigations into Mr Doomagee's death.
"If criminal charges can be supported then the people responsible must be charged, the same as any other member of the community," Mr Watson said.
"Queensland police, Australian police do no have an open licence to terrorise, bash and murder Aboriginal people. That blue uniform is not an open licence to do that."
Meanwhile, some Palm Island locals are concerned they could lose teaching and medical staff as a result of the riots.
Resident Nikki Bull says the experience may frighten away non-Indigenous support workers.
"At this particular point in time who could really blame them if they want to get off the island as soon as possible," she said.
"There's a great lot of fear here and not only with non-Indigenous staff but with some Indigenous people here as well.
"They just feel that there are other ways to handle a situation like this."
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Posted by Cops equal Colonialism on Friday, November 26th at 1:31 PM
About 1,000 residents of the Aboriginal community of Palm Island, Australia, burned down the local police station, court house and the home of the police officer-in-charge on November 26, after a coroner's report revealed that Mulrunji Cameron Doomadgee, a 36-year-old Aboriginal and Palm Island resident, had suffered four broken ribs, a ruptured liver and a ruptured portal vein, during an arrest for public drunkenness last Friday. Doomadgee died about an hour later in police custody.
Indigenous insurrection in Australia over death in police custody
November 26, 2004
About 1,000 residents of the Aboriginal community of Palm Island, Australia, burned down the local police station, court house and the home of the police officer-in-charge on November 26, after a coroner's report revealed that Mulrunji Cameron Doomadgee, a 36-year-old Aboriginal and Palm Island resident, had suffered four broken ribs, a ruptured liver and a ruptured portal vein, during an arrest for public drunkenness last Friday. Doomadgee died about an hour later in police custody. Witnesses reported seeing Doomadgee being bashed.
The coroner's report was read to a community meeting yesterday after it had been given to Doomadgee's family late on Thursday.
Within hours, hundreds of residents were lobbing firebombs at the police barracks and other government buildings.
"This is cold-blooded murder," one person yelled at the crowd, "I am not going to accept it and I know a lot of you other people won't".
Local police officers were forced to hide out in a hospital and then flee the island, while outside police were flown in by an army Chinook helicopter from Townsville and a plane from Cairns. Authorities declared an "emergency situation" under the Public Safety Preservation Act, allowing police to close the airport, take control of resources and buildings and close roads. Some contractors, public servants, teachers and other residents have been evacuated. About 80 police are on the island presently, with more expected tomorrow.
Tensions had been rising in the community since Monday, when 200 angry residents marched on the police station.
On Tuesday, a police car was assaulted by rock throwers after officers on patrol stopped to take down a road block. The police officer who arrested Doomadgee, Senior-Sergeant Chris Hurley, left the island that same day "for his own safety".
The following day, a group of teenagers attacked the police barracks and the police station, breaking windows and damaging officers' cars parked in front of the building.
The conflict on Palm Island is a reminder of the February 15 riot in the Aboriginal neighborhood of Redfern in Sydney, sparked by the police murder of a 17-year-old Aboriginal named Thomas Hickey.
"It is very much a white, black issue," said Palm Island resident Nicky Willis. "The young people of Redfern were full of anger and now the young people here are full of anger."
