Police close Aboriginal concert

BY KAREN FREDERICKS

BRISBANE -- Police have been accused of racism after 12 officers raided the Melbourne Hotel in the suburb of West End on July 7, shutting down a National Aboriginal and Islander Day of Celebration (NAIDOC) week concert.

Police claim they were called in by hotel management to end a brawl, but concert organiser John Tracey told Green Left Weekly, “I saw no aggro of an sort, nor did the many people I have asked. It was racism alone that closed the pub.” Hotel management told the Courier-Mail on July 8 that the police told them to close the pub.

The concert was scheduled to feature local artist Theresa Creed and former No Fixed Address band member Bart Willoughby. While the hotel had plenty of security available to deal with any trouble, the predominantly black crowd was “well-behaved and gearing up for a good Friday night”, Tracey said.

The officer in charge of the raid was Richard Symes, named by the Criminal Justice Commission as a key figure in the 1994 arrest and death of Aboriginal dancer Daniel Yock. Tracey says the assignment of Symes to the operation shows “gross insensitivity and stupidity”.

Tracey has issued a public challenge to local Labor MP Anna Bligh to have Symes removed from any further dealings with Aboriginal people.

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