Indigenous camp raided over toy gun
Blog Post
Monday 13th October 2008, 5:26pm
by TimNorton in
Last Thursday (Oct 9th), a large number of police participated in a raid of the Kunoth town camp in Alice Springs. Officers jumped over fences to enter the camp, displayed rifles, pushed and abused residents and trained a laser on the chest of one man.
Police claimed they were looking for weapons, following a tip off from the fire brigade that there were guns in a car that drove back to the camp. A miniature toy gun was later found on the dashboard of the car.
Under the NT Intervention, police have been given new powers to enter "prescribed areas" without warrants, and many police have been brought into towns who have no experience dealing with local communities.
Donald Kunoth, vice-president of Kunoth town camp:
"Apparently there were guns stolen in Alice Springs earlier in the week. And they just assumed it was our Aboriginal kids."
"Its so scary to see your kids get harassed like that. At gun-point. One of them could have been shot by accident. They even had bullet proof vests on. Lights were shining into the camp from outside and that blinded us. What if someone came walking out with a stick? They could of been shot"
Josephine Thompson from Kunoth town camp:
"We need human rights you know. That's why we feel sad. Its been just like we been chained up again, like our ancestors did in the past. They were chained up and dragged like animals. We don't want that to happen again, for our children, and their children you know. We gotta stand for our rights."
NT Police Duty Superintendent Jamie Chalker said the police attendance was an appropriate reaction to reports of an armed person in a public place. He encouraged any people who were concerned about the police
actions to make a formal complaint which will be investigated by the
Ethical and Professional Standards Command.
For further information, check out www.rollbacktheintervention.wordpress.com
PDF version
Bookmark, email and share
Comments
Flawed!
I think this article really highlights how many flaws this policy has which was so obvious at the time. I think its disgusting to have first Australians treated like this. The conditions they are living in is appalling. We should be helping them increase their living standards not treating them like this and accusing them with no evidence.This policy needs to be repealed. What are the Greens doing about this?
NT Intervention
Daniel, you're absolutely right - from the outset, this legislation has been racially motivated in a horrible way.
We've been pushing for a range of measures. Short of pulling the legislation altogether, which would most likely result in a severe downturn in funding for the NT Indigenous communities, we would rather see funds applied effectively in areas that are in great need.
The recently released NTER 12 month review actually contains a lot of our recommendations:
More community involvement - the whole NT Intervention has been based on a top-down approach, with Federal Government dictating over individuals. A better approach would be to get various Indigenous community organisations, elders and community leaders involved in policy development. Rachel has toured through Indigenous communities in the NT and spoken at great length with community leaders, who all say that they have been left out of discussions and decisions that affect their people directly.
Racial Discrimination - when originally implemented by Brough and Howard, they knew full well that the legislation was racist, which is why it required a suspension of the racial discrimination act (both in the NT and Federally). The Greens have introduced amendments to the NTER Act to restore the RDA, and elimate the racist elements of the policy.
The NT Intervention is a hangover from the Howard years, and with the NTER Review report showing so clearly the failure of the overall plan, Rudd has the perfect opportunity to right this horrible stain on Australia's history. We can move forward, not by overreacting and pulling much needed resources out of Indigenous communities, but by involving the very members of those communities.
Correct!
Tim,
Your dead right mate. Its Interesting to see the ALP hasnt removed the Intervention though. I feel the ALP had the same policy but they were just waiting for Howard to implement it instead of them. I think its going to stay and get tinkered with round the edges. I can see your point though TIm about extra funding. Its a double edge sword I think. I hope the Greens keep pushing hard on this one.
Camp Raid
I partially agree with the comments above, but believe that there should be no reason why any Aboriginal Community should be treated any differently to any "White" mans community. Police should be required to obtain a warrant from a Magistrate the same as they would require to enter any property to search for illegal items.
We must remember that Aboriginal Communities must abide by the laws of this country / state, be treated as equal citizens under the law, and they also must abide by current laws.
Unfortunately due to the Aboriginal belief that there was a Stolen Generation (obviously never proven in a court of law as general policy of any Government), the State and Federal Governments need to be sympathetic to the feelings of Aboriginal Communities where ever possbile.
Guns and Racism
I am not sure it was Racism,but it certainly was,if this is the end of the story,a bad case of description by the Fire Brigade.So who are the racists,The Police,who have to act according to Law,or the Fire Brigade,wether or not new ways since intervention has taken place?.My brother,had someone see him,enter his abode with what seemed to be a gun in a cover.The end result of that,was the closing down of the street and Police entering the abode,and him being wrestled to the ground.Seeing he couldn't get any legal aid, he repeated that story every month for 18 months,last time I spoke to him.I felt the coppers were also on my tail,so being a mental patient,I tried to keep away,in case someone noticed me around and thought something suspicious.He didn't hear at the time,that there was a change in the law.Ignorance is no excuse..blah blah.Whereas The Police could do the young Aboriginals at that community a favour,by taking them to a sporting shooters club,and teach them the the issues as they are about gun use and ownership.Whilst The Greens are anti-Gun,which is fair enough,the experience of Aboriginal communities like this experience needs something other than just moral outrage,implying racism.If the community had registered gun owners,that would of meant a theft had taken place,and the Police activity would of been acceptable.I hope The Greens can also find a way to look at Martin Bryant and discover that racism wasn't implied,but long haired dangerous weirdoes.But seeing,The Greens like being TV stars,I doubt they are of the capacity to give gravity against a TV frame job!? And finally if the Fire Brigade members aren't racist,why did their visual acuity slip, in terms of their ability to pickthe size of the gun!?Was it light conditions,their mental state,or,something interfering with their mental processes!?I suspect the latter,but operating law,in Australia, cannot even protect Police from it!
Re: Guns and Racism
Philip,
I agree - both the Fire Brigade and the Police have an obligation to be alerted and alarmed if they see a gun lying on a car's dashboard. The problem lies with the action taken by the police with that information.
There is also the issue surrounding the Fire Brigade spotting the gun. Based on the picture above, I find it highly suspicious that anyone would assume the small plastic gun with a bright orange tip was a proper working rifle. Maybe you are right, and it was down to a slip in visual acuity. I don't blame the Fire Brigade - they alerted the police. But it is down to the police to approach the situation with an appropriate response. I wouldn't count a forced entry and raid 'appropriate' in this situation.
The Intervention gives unprecedented power to the police to act in whatever way they deem necessary. The question of racism is a simple one - without the racially administered NT Intervention, the police would not have so easily been able to carry out the raid. The Intervention gives justification to most police activity on the basis of 'helping' the Aboriginal population.
Our concerns surround the 'help' that is being administered with absolutely no community involvement. The best way to help is to have those people involved. Whilst I don't agree with your suggestion of police training young Indigneous people in responsible gun ownership, if there was adequate consultation and co-operation between community leaders and the police, and that was decided as a good course of action, then it should go ahead.
Ultimately it is not the Indigenous communities that need work, but the police members who are culturally, socially and ethically unaware of their actions.
No!
Tim,
I disagree with you on that point. Noone should be trained up to use firearms in any capacity especially where alcohol is involved it would be s recipie for disaster in my view.
Daniel, I was not condoning
Daniel, I was not condoning the use of firearms alongside alcohol. I was making the point that no-one but the community leaders and elders of the Indigenous communities should be making these decisions.
police response
Agree that the offence is in the police response, which from reports was massively out of proportion and executed with a brownshirts regard for basic decency. Of course the NT Police Association can't see a problem, which is one corner of the problem:
ABC - "Intervention incidents not heavy handed: police
Posted Wed Oct 15, 2008 11:03am AEDT
The Northern Territory Police Association has rejected criticism that officers have been heavy handed in two recent incidents. ..
The Police Association's president Vince Kelly has defended the actions of police, and says their approach hasn't changed under the federal intervention. ..
"And to suggest that police officers can simply ignore sexual offences or offences involving firearms is completely ridiculous.""
Investigating a possible offence, Vince, does not demand sending a mob of your bully boys, in the dark, with all their painful toys. I didn't see any S&M squads around Theo Theophanous' office this week, nor at the ASX where a little (actually a whole lot of) grand larceny is being perpetrated. Surely the NT Police Association isn't as corrupt and one-eyed as Victoria's, show us some common sense Vince and start giving what you might then one day earn (respect).
police response
I think many people here is just a bit too anxious to blame the authorities and tag them as racists.
Australia is fast becoming a gun free zone be that for good or ill. Our response to unauthorised uses of firearms is becoming proportionately more intense.
The assumption being made here is that the toy gun found was the "gun" spotted by the fire brigade. What if it wasn't?
People are anxious to cry "racist" - but the reality is, if one of the Koori (a term of respect we use in Sydney) community did possess a firearm in such circumstances, it is more likely than not that any unsafe use or criminal use of the firearm would result in a Koori death not that of a white person. For the police not to jump into action would be racist because it would display the attitude of "who cares it's just the A___". Now that is racist! Police need to act swiftly and forthrightly in such circumstances to lower the unacceptably high rate of indigenous death due to indigenous violent crime.
I would also add that comments linking the police treatment to Kooris in chains are not helpful at all. If you keep telling a person over and over again that they are disadvantaged, oppressed, akin to a slave, given a hard lot in life etc., you engender negative feeling and take away that person's hope. If we did it to children it would be regarded as child abuse. Such a thing is well intentioned, but nevertheless a form of racism designed to make the person feel dominated. The Koori person who expressed these ideas has unfortunately been the victim of such well intended but harmful racist propaganda that will hold her people back.
Post new comment