No one ever wishes to witness a 17-year-old boy impaled on an iron fence. “A freak accident,” the coroner declared, exempting NSW police who denied chasing TJ Hickey in 2004.
1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody
Young Aboriginal man David Dungay jnr died on December 29, 2015 after pleading for his life in the mental health wing of Sydney’s Long Bay jail.
The 26-year-old Dunghutti man from Kempsey, a known diabetic, suffered a cardiac arrest when he was pinned down by four members of the prison’s Immediate Action Team (IAT) for refusing to stop eating biscuits and injected with two strong sedatives. He was due to be released three weeks later.
Family and supporters of the Whittaker family gathered outside NSW Parliament on December 6 to demand justice for Eric Whittaker who died in custody in July.
Eric died, shackled to a hospital bed. The horrific nature of his treatment in custody has only come to light because a photo of him lying manacled and unconscious was only recently given to the media.
Diane Whittaker, one of Eric’s aunts, told protesters that there had been a failure in duty of care and that people had to be held responsible for the cruelty shown her nephew.
@ Sydney Town Hall, 483 George St Sydney
It took years of grassroots campaigning in the 1980s to force the Hawke government to acknowledge the appalling rate at which Aboriginal people were being killed by police and prisons.That government ignored almost all the 339 recommendations made by that Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. We urge all peoples of this land to unite in solidarity and call for real justice that will end the killings in custody. Hosted by FIRE Fighting In Resistance Equally. Ken Canning 0423 732 094







