Rally ‘End racist police violence’

Issue 
Sam Watson. Photo: Alex Bainbridge

“Stop Black deaths in custody now! Stop the Tasers now! and Charge and jail criminal cops now!" were the main demands of a rally against racist police violence on November 13.

One hundred people marched to Queensland parliament to present a petition calling for a new inquiry into the death of Mulrunji in police custody on Palm Island in November 2004.

Rally chair Sam Watson said the event also commemorated the murder in police hands of Daniel Yock in November 1993.

Former police officer Peter Pyke condemned the actions of racist police, and called for support for the police who stand up to, and report, illegal activities by fellow officers.

Ewan Saunders, an activist from Socialist Alliance and the Aboriginal Rights Coalition (ARC), said: "Racism is killing people. Systemic racism is built upon the dispossession of Aboriginal land.

"The current rate of black deaths in custody in Australia is higher than occurred in Apartheid South Africa at its peak."

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