Around the country this weekend, thousands of people are attending vigils and rallies over the death of 24-year-old Warlpiri man Kumanjayi White. He was in the lollies aisle at a Coles in Alice Springs and got into an argument with a security guard when two off-duty NT police officers intervened. They restrained White, he stopped breathing* and was pronounced dead at Alice Springs hospital one hour later.

*As NT police has not released the body cam and CCTV footage of the incident to the family, the language we can use right now about what killed White is legally limited. Know that I don’t take the use of passive language here lightly.

For a more context around what happened, this piece by Lorena Allam at Guardian Australia and this article by Andrew Boe in The Saturday Paper are helpful. But this piece on Amy McQuire’s substack is an essential read to put the police statements and media reporting in their proper context. She writes:

“Although journalists will claim that journalistic practice, and due diligence, requires them to first run authoritative accounts, we have a large body of evidence - from the landmark Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, to numerous reports, to coronial inquiries, to the lived experience of black families - that clearly demonstrate that police use the media to bypass their own accountability and deny wrongdoing prior to any investigation. This has happened time and time again…

The police, and the media, through their repetition of police propaganda, or copaganda, have begun not just constructing, but also fortifying a framing that aligns the man, who lives with a disability, with criminality, even when he is the one who has died; even when he is the one who is a victim.”

Here are some essential details you need to know about this:

• White had disabilities and was under state guardianship, living in “supported accommodation” (away from his community).

• The NT police officers were off duty and not in uniform.

• One of the officers involved is reportedly Steve Haig, the NT police prosecutor – i.e.: the person who presents information to the court in criminal cases. 

• NT police have refused an independent investigation, and will instead investigate themselves.

And the number that looms large above the specifics of White’s death: Since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody report was delivered in 1991, 597 Aboriginal people have died or been killed while in state custody.

In the five years since the global Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, a further 165 Indigenous people have died while under the responsibility of police, in prison or detention.

At the same time, Australia is going backwards in its efforts to “close the gap” between First Nations and non-Indigenous people. The rates of Indigenous incarceration are going up, rates of Indigenous suicides are going up, and the rates of Indigenous children in out-of-home-care – a continuation of the Stolen Generations legacy – are going up.

In the coming week, the coroner was set to hand down her findings into the death of another Warlpiri man, Kumanjayi Walker, who was shot dead by NT police officer Zachary Rolfe in 2019. Role was controversially acquitted of murder, manslaughter and engaging in a violent act causing death in 2022, despite the inquiry finding evidence of Rolfe’s racism and prior use of excessive force. The coronial inquest has also revealed widespread, systemic racism within the NT police. But with the death of Kumanjayi White, the final report will be delayed for a month to allow for the community to conduct sorry business – Walker and White are family and come from the same community. 

The police are not supposed to kill people, point blank period. And they cannot be trusted to investigate themselves on these matters. Independent investigations on Indigenous deaths in custody have been demanded for years by the overpoliced First Nations communities themselves, advocacy groups, human rights organisations, legal professionals and thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people across the country.

The 1991 Royal Commission made 339 recommendations. A 2018 assessment by Deloitte states that, at that time, 64% of the recommendations had been fully implemented, 30% partially implemented, and 6% not implemented at all. But that assessment has been questioned for being overly generous, most notably by ANU’s Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research in 2021.

There’s a detail in the Saturday Paper piece that’s particularly disturbing, and I’ll be thinking about it for a long time. In the trial of NT police officer Zachary Rolfe, the judge gave the jury the following instruction:

“It would be contrary to the public interest if police officers were deterred from making these often crucial decisions by the threat of criminal prosecution. For this reason they are provided with a measure of legal protection when acting in the course of their duties as police officers.”

Galling when you see it written down like that, isn’t it?

– Crystal
Founder & Chief of Everything at Zee Feed
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Smart stuff on the Internet 💭

All the stuff I found on the web that made me think, smile, or have an ‘aha!’ moment. Spend your Sunday reading them – you'll be better off for it:

Scott Morrison is getting Australia’s highest honour despite a laundry list of scandals and embarrassments on Crikey
“Morrison will receive the Companion of the Order of Australia for ‘eminent service to the people and Parliament of Australia, particularly as prime minister, to notable contributions to global engagement, to leadership of the national COVID-19 response, to economic initiatives, and to national security enhancements, especially through leadership of Australia’s contribution to AUKUS’ … We hope this draws attention to the ridiculous convention of patting the backs of the most congratulated people.”

Climate litigation isn’t ‘activist lawfare’, it’s democracy at work on Crikey
Sorry for the double Crikey recc, but we had a great week and this piece by the formidable Isabelle Reinecke, is too good not to share. “Last week, Australia’s top oil and gas executives gathered at the Australian Energy Producers conference to sound the alarm on the rise of so-called “activist lawfare”. Speaking at a session titled “From Placards to Plaintiffs” — of which Crikey obtained a recording — panellists including Santos’ Kevin Gallagher and Woodside’s Meg O’Neill rattled off a list of reasons why public-interest climate litigation is a scandalous threat … But it is for a court to decide if a case has merit, not senior executives of gas companies.”

Even Netflix Is Jealous of YouTube on Vulture
Spicy! “In each of the past five Netflix earnings calls, investors have pressed the company not about its opinions on Amazon or Apple but about how it plans to respond to YouTube … There have been signs of late that Netflix and other streamers recognize the threat posed by YouTube: namely, that YouTube could be to Netflix (and other big subscription streamers) what Netflix was to linear TV.”

‘These are traps set for the people’: the story of a mother shot dead searching for food in Gaza on the Guardian
“‘These are not aid distribution points. These are traps set for the people. When the shooting begins, you stay down. Someone next to you might get shot or killed, and you can’t even look at them or help them. And when they’re done with their ‘fun’ they open the gates at 6am, and chaos erupts. The soldiers film people fighting over the aid, and once it’s finished, they throw teargas to disperse the crowd. I saw displaced people who couldn’t get any aid picking pasta from the sand.’”

This snippet from Pod Save America about why the Elon v Trump spat is a “classic reality star move” and this one from Jamelle Bouie about why it’s a good reminder of Trump’s unique power. I found the segment that Pod Save America did on this helpful, so if you want to listen it’s here from around 15:25 to about 32:45.

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