DENIS BURKE PLAYS THE PREDICTABLE PRE

People Against Repressing Itinerants Around Here

Caption reads: Lord Mayor Brown near some itinerants
at the Fanny Bay shops yesterday (11 February, 2001)

Click on Article to view full-size

George Brown is probably Darwin's most notorious drunk. His claim that he could still drive safely after a bottle of red wine, was publicly challenged by the NT Police.

The reason public drunkenness is no longer illegal is because it impacted upon the victims of poverty, social displacement and constant imprisonment, and only made matters worse.

This call to imprison victims is racist and regressive. Obviously the offenses George mentions are already covered by law.

I do not have much respect for my elders George. They are a pack of racist, drunken hypocrites.

Click on Article to view full-size

I have lived in the Northern Territory for ten years and have never been asked for a buck. I am always asked for dollars. "Breakfasting on Egg McMuffins?" It is as though this article was written by a visiting American with a TV worldview. An indictment of the consumerist bias in these racist articles.

Your world is not that of the poor and the hungry is it Ms Billias? Nowhere in these 'reports' is the murder and displacement of Aboriginal people (by cleancut, men-in-uniform with short hair) mentioned.

Many of the itinerants I know or have met, are stuck in Darwin with no accommodation, because they are visiting family in hospital or prison. Why should Aboriginal people remain on Communities described as dysfunctional by ex-Country Liberal Party Chief Minister, Shane Stone?

Tourists are itinerants too. I do not hear any complaints about their incessant drunkenness and fighting. (Not to mention the odd mass murder.)

Let us hope the $100,000 study includes the real reasons for alcoholism and the poor health outcomes of Aboriginal people.

Minding their own business
(prior to be being 'moved on' by NT Police)

Click on images to view full-size

MAIN MENU
Recent Articles		East Timor		History		Incarceration		Radiation		Hotels
	Contact		Links		Feedback		Photo's		HOME