Black Lives Matter in Australia
Kumanjayi Walker
An NT cop shot Walker (19yo Walpiri man) in his grandmother’s house in Nov 2019. Walker was dragged away hurt, then died in the cop station that night. It took hours for an ambulance to get to him. It was too late. NT police claim Walker stabbed the cop before the shooting. Witnesses refute this. The cop has been charged with murder (he’s pleading not guilty).
The cop didn’t have a warrant or permission to enter. ‘NT Intervention’ laws, however, allow cops to go into Black ppl’s homes easily. Black people in NT have less rights that the rest of us to keep police out of their homes.
Tanya Day
Day (55yo Yorta Yorta woman) fell asleep, drunk on a train. She wasn’t aggressive or anything, she was sleepy. But “public drunkenness” was a crime. She was put in police custody. She fell and hit her head in custody. It took 3+ hours before the cops noticed the severity and called an ambulance. She died in hospital 17 days later, in Dec 2017.
I’ve been drunk and sleepy on a train before. So have you. Did you get put in custody? I didn’t. Public drunkenness laws are used very selectively. On Black people and also homeless people. Also, if it was a rich white lady in their ‘care’, would they have been so meh about her injury? The Victorian govt has now abolished public drunkenness laws after Day’s case. Good. But they exist elsewhere, and it won’t bring Day back.
In Apr 2020, the coroner concluded that the cops might have been criminally negligent in their treatment of Day. She's referred it to the DPP to investigate.
That’s just two names. I’m a bit shit with knowing exactly what’s going on with how the cops treat Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in this country. I’m a Greek-Australian guy and it’s not something I’ve ever had any intimate experience with.
But Black Lives Matter, this stuff isn’t just an American thing. We should all do more. And all Australians should know these names – and others like Mulrunji Doomadgee, Mrs Dhu and Kwementyaye Langdon.
If I got anything wrong with these details, sorry let me know. If you want to know more, here’s some good articles to start here (by Amy McQuire) and here (by Thalia Anthony).