Another black death in custody

An Indigenous man died in custody in Queensland on June 26. The death came a week after police officer Chris Hurley was found not guilty of the assault and manslaughter of Indigenous man Mulrunji on Palm Island in 2004.

The man died in a police van as he was being taken from Dimbulah to Mareeba, near Cairns, for questioning in relation to a theft. The June 28 Cairns Post reported an autopsy found a heart attack caused the death. This finding is subject to coronial investigation. The police and the Crime and Misconduct Commission are also investigating the death.

Local Indigenous activist and former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Commission member Terry O'Shane said someone from the local community justice organisation should monitor the investigation "all the way from start to finish", according to an June 26 ABC radio report.

Sam Watson, the Socialist Alliance's Indigenous spokesperson and prominent campaigner for justice in the Mulrunji case, echoed these remarks. He extended his sympathy to the family of the deceased and the broader community and urged that they "have their rights respected. They should be fully involved in the investigation and findings surrounding this latest Aboriginal death in police custody."

O'Shane suggested that "people should not be stirring up public comment" until what happened is fully known. This is the context of remarks made on the day of the death by senior police officers. Although they allowed that the death would be treated as suspicious until proved otherwise, they publicly proposed a version of the events leading to the death that suggested the police bore no responsibility for it.

Watson told Green Left Weekly: "The investigation into this and every Aboriginal death in custody should be totally independent of the police. The family and community must be assured this is not a 1960s vintage 'police investigating police' scenario."

From GLW issue 716