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Former
Royal Commissioner
Calls Denis Burke
"Racist and cowardly"
In a stinging
letter to the Herald, the former royal commissioner into police corruption,
the NSW Appeal Court judge Justice James Wood, was joined by three colleagues
on the appeal Bench, Justices Tony Fitzgerald, Margaret Beazley and
Paul Stein, in accusing some politicians of "exploiting
popular prejudice to trample powerless minorities."
"Racism and injustice
are evil particularly when they have popular support. It is unjust
to imprison offenders without regard to their personal circumstances,
life experience, prospects of rehabilitation or other, more suitable,
sentences."
"It is racist (and cowardly)
to enact and implement laws which apply most harshly to a disempowered
minority. It might be thought to be clever politics but it is not leadership
topander to ignorance and prejudice.
| -media
release-- P.A.R.I.A.H. --media release-
19th
February 2000 OPEN
LETTER TO CHIEF MINISTER
DENIS BURKE
COUNTRY LIBERAL PARTY LEADER DEAR
DENIS, That
you preside over a racist and corrupt government is a fact tragically underlined
by the recent death of a frightened and isolated Aboriginal child in custody. You
believe this tragedy is merely an awkward, political embarassment that will eventually
be smoothed over by time, money and lies in the traditional Country Liberal
Party manner. You
are mistaken Mr Burke. The story of the NT's original
victims of crime, the
Aboriginal people, will be heard. Your
Country Liberal Party is directly linked- historically and philosophically- to
the punitive killings of Aboriginal people in the 1870's, described by Inspector
Paul Foelsche, (the first Police Chief of the NT) as "Nigger Hunts". In
1898, Mounted Constable R.C. Thorpe, had this to say about the treatment of Aboriginal
people: "It is one word, fear all through. No matter what these
poor creatures have to submit to it is simply through fear." So
where was mandatory sentencing then Denis, when land theft, rape, abduction, violence
and the punitive killings of Aboriginal people by the NT Police were out of control?
"(Your)...belief
that the racist injustice of mandatory sentencing will somehow
solve the problems caused by racist injustice cannot be argued
seriously."- PARIAH
Senate Submission On Mandatory Sentencing Laws, 1999
Authorised
by Mick Lambe, Co-Ordinator PARIAH |
PARIAH's poster campaign attracted attention and threats of action by
the Darwin City Council. It was pointed out to Council employees that
PARIAH's posters are signed, that people have recourse to defamation
laws if aggrieved and that the NT NEWS does not publish PARIAH's letters.
PARIAH will not tolerate political censorship.
Shane Stone, ex-Country
Liberal Party Leader and authour of the mandatory sentencing regime,
blamed this death on the boy's "dysfunctional community".
Which begs the question, why are Aboriginal people living in communities
considered "dysfunctional" by the NT Government?
Stone's statement is a clear
admission of responsibility by the Country Liberal Party for the causes
that universally lead to crime and incarceration amongst powerless,
marginalised people.
In the Northern Territory, powerlessness
and marginalization are 'racially' related.
The Territory's Aboriginal people are being punished
for surviving.
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