Who is Committing the Crimes?

issues that have come up in the last week. This is twenty eighteen. And yet imagine what was happening in nineteen ninety one in Queensland, not in a city, in a rural regional area, just after the Fitzgerald inquiry. And keep that in mind as you hear about what's been going on around the country just this week. Earlier this week we learnt about the trouble facing the cousin of

Miss Jew. As you'll remember, Miss Jew tragically died in Western Australia after being locked up for unpaid fines and being treated despicably by both the police and the health services. She was left to die in excruciating pain. She was dragged and pulled around by her arms and legs, and the fact there's never been criminal charges laid in her

death is an utter disgrace. Despite that, the Western Australian government has been forced to pay more than a million dollars to her family in compensation, but that's never enough to bring her back and undo the damage that they've done to the jew family and those from her extended family and her loved ones. This week we learn that

her cousin is also facing imprisonment for unpaid fines. Her cousin, also living in WA, is a qualified youth worker and has been working at the Banksier Hill Youth Detention Center as a liaison officer. And as you've heard in this podcast, Banksier Hill is a place where it's almost exclusively Indigenous prisoners and where the young people suffering almost exclusively have

a significant number of brain injuries. And you can go back to the podcast and I'll link to that where you can hear the scientific evidence from the medical journals that examined these children about the significant issues they faced. And so Misdew's cousin is doing very important work with these young people to get them back on track and help them with the care they need, because quite frankly,

they shouldn't be in detention. Sadly, her contract was not continued at Banksier Hill, so taking due diligence, she notified center link of the payments that she was no longer going to be receiving as an employed person. She made all the right notifications and then on Monday this week, she received a new job offer and so very quickly got back on the phone to center Link to update

her information and her details. As she tried to explain to the Centrelink officer about her situation, the finishing of one contract, the fact that she'd advised and a Link that that had finished and now that she'd received a new job, she was stopped in her tracks and she was told that and I quote, I need to let you know that we cannot do you any more favors.

We have a warrant out for your arrest and we cannot give you any other option other than to go to jail and serve your time or pay three thousand, seven hundred and forty four dollars. Now, I also want to add that Misdew's cousin is a mother, and now she is facing the very real prospect of being sent to prison the place where her own cousin died for the same absurd and ridiculous reason of unpaid fines find

she is trying to pay off FIND. She was in the process in that phone conversation of trying to discuss this is a working woman, a working mother, a working mother who is assisting Aboriginal children who, as medical professionals have said, need the highest of care, and yet despite what the State of Queensland have done to the family, they're seeking to do it again. Imagine the fear that

the family are facing this week. There's also a gofund me page and you'll find that on Curtain Podcast's Twitter page where you can support the family to help them avoid these tragic circumstances playing out again. But quite clearly, the WA government's practice of jailing people for small findes not relating to criminal matters is killing Aboriginal people and it has to stop. This is absurd and it wouldn't be allowed to be accepted for anyone else in this country.

Also this week, and also in WA, a senior sergeant has been stood down after an incident in which a teenager was run down by a police vehicle in the Perth suburb of Thornley on Sunday afternoon. Now it might sound like it must be serious for a senior sergeant to be stood down, but based on what occurred, this sergeant should have lost his job and should be facing

criminal charges. Two lots of footage have emerged of an unmarked police car swerving across the road and deliberately striking an eighteen year old Aboriginal man and knocking him to the ground where he had a seizure on the ground. He was then restrained and placed in handcuffs while he was having the seizure. The footage is shocking and confronting.

The young man was taken to found A Stanley hospital for treatment and we believe he is doing better, but we can't be sure of his condition at this stage and it's impossible to know what the long term consequences for his health could be. This is a young man of just eighteen years old, really just a boy, and a police officer has used a vehicle like a deadly weapon to deliberately strike this young man. Again. We will show the footage on our Twitter page Curtain Podcast, and

we'll post it to our Facebook page as well. There is now footage from multiple bystanders who captured the full event, and the footage is from two angles and you will clearly see the young man walking with his back turned, the vehicle accelerating towards him, swerving and deliberately striking him to knock him onto the road. The West Australian Government has only stood this police officer down. This is not some young constable. This is a senior sergeant, a person

of high rank in charge of many other officers. If this is the example they set, imagine what else they're doing to Aboriginal people that, in broad daylight on a Sunday afternoon, with cars and pedestrians around, this officer had no compunction about swerving towards and striking a child. This

is despicable action and criminal charges should be laid. Before I move on to the next story, I want you to remember about Rockhampton in nineteen ninety one when police were rounding up Aboriginal people like they were cattle over the murder of Linda. And we know these people they were chasing, many of whom had absolutely nothing to do with what had happened, and yet they too were treated in this way, abused, beaten and threatened, just like Kevin

Henry was. And these are stories we've heard from many other people Aboriginal people from Rockhampton at the time. And if you can't believe it, all you have to do is watch the footage twenty eighteen Western Australia Broad Daylight and a senior sergeant is willing to simply run down

an individual, an eighteen year old boy. That should leave you with no doubt and no doubt as to the fear that all those who were questioned in relation to the death of Linda were experiencing when they were taken without lawyers to the watchhouse in Rockhampton, a place we know at the time was overcrowded and where debts in custody had taken place, A place where, as we've revealed before, corrupt police were allowing a criminal, a known abuser and

drug trafficker, to store his possessions in a locker so that he could leave prison on the weekends to go out to nightclubs. Again, you can hear about that more in a full episode on that issue in Curtain the podcast. Also this week comes a decision about what happened on Palm Island all those years ago. As you remember, Moronji was killed by a police officer, although that would never

be accepted by the police. On parm Island, more than a decade ago, a supposed riot broke out, but I don't think you can call it a riot when a community was standing up in fear to protect their loved ones, their family, their little ones after one of their own family members had been so violently assaulted by police his liver had split in two. What were they supposed to do, simply stand there and let another person be killed. Remember, no officer went to jail over Mulrunji's death. However, Lex

Wotton went to prison for protecting his community. And in addition to him going to prison, he was also silenced upon release and not able to tell his story for a number of years. Now, why would they do that unless the police were clearly in the rle Well, this week a federal court has found that the police were

in the wrong and breached the Racial Discrimination Act. We should not be surprised that Queensland police were acting in a racial manner when they attacked Mulrunji and arrested and beat many of the people involved in the uprising to protect their community. The Police union, of course, are throwing what can only be described as a tantrum over the findings of the federal court. These are law enforcement officers who now will not accept the findings of a court.

A federal court, no doubt that found quite clearly they were in breach of the Racial Discrimination Act. Now there's already been some money paid out previously as to police actions over the Palm Island incident, the treatment of Lex Wotten and much more. But here we have again the police being found in the wrong. This time the payment is for thirty million dollars a settlement that was reached

with the Palm Island community and the Queensland Government. It's quite clear that if that settlement had not been reached and things had dragged on longer, that the Palm Island community would have won more money. Thirty million dollars shows you just how repulsive, repugnant and criminal the actions of the Queensland Police Service were in the killing of Mulrunji and the treatment of the Palm Island community after that

horrific and tragic event. With heard from many people in Queensland who feel that the Queensland Government should not pay this amount of money. Once again we see Indigenous people, First Nations people treated as less than anyone else, just the way Kevin Henry has been for more than twenty years, Just the way Linda was by the same Queensland Police Service who didn't care to solve the crime, who didn't care to deliver justice for Linda and justice for her

family and deliver closure for all those involved. In their own words, as they said to a solicitor, all they wanted was a black for a black. As we continue in the coming weeks, we'll finally be able to reveal more about Kevin Henry's case and what is going on at the moment and why amy has been a way

for a number of weeks. But just remember this is what's happened just this week, the cousin of Miss dw facing imprisonment just like her murdered cousin in a West Australian cell for unpaid fines, an absurd state of affairs, criminal targeting of Aboriginal people. You've also heard in Western Australia how a senior sergeant, in broad daylight, in front of pedestrians and motorists deliberately struck a young man, knocking him to the ground and causing him to have seizures

and then placing him in handcuffs. And finally you've heard that this week again, a federal court has found the Queensland Police Service, the Queensland Police Service that imprisoned Kevin Henry, the Queensland Police Service responsible for so many debts in custody the Queensland Police Service that failed to catch Linda's

real killer. The Queensland Police Service that was subject to the Fitzgerald inquiry that saw officers and the commissioner go to prison for their actions, has been found to be in breach of the Racial Discrimination Act that tells you everything about the way they see Aboriginal people, and the Queensland Government as a result, are being forced to hand over thirty million dollars to the people of Palm Island, and so they should. For those who say they don't

want their tax dollars to be used this way. Your beef is not with the Aboriginal community. It is not with the people of Palm Island. It should be with the Queensland Police Service who continue to commit these criminal acts. If the Queensland Police Service did their job, this money would not be needed to be paid out, the people of Palm Island would not have been put through what they have been for so long, and Mulrunji would still

be alive. So if you want to write with anger, write with passion and call for political change, don't target the people of Palm Island. Don't target the jew family, don't target a young man simply walking down the street, Focus on the police services that continue to commit these crimes, and call on your politicians to make the changes, to start sacking each and every officer all the way to

the top until this behavior changes. We cannot have in one week a young man being struck down and nearly killed by police, a young mother, a qualified and working youth worker, being threatened with imprisonment for unpaid fines in a place where her own cousin died. And we should not have a community still in trauma and grief over what was done to them more than a decade ago,

only now finally getting some justice. All of this not because of the actions of Aboriginal and torrestrate Islander people, but because of the actions of the police service, the very people you've heard in this podcast who pressured Kevin Henry into confessing to a crime he did not commit. His innocence, he has maintained throughout and has always denied, that he gave that confession voluntarily, something agreed to by the judge at his trial, and why he should be

released immediately that was curtin the podcast. Please consider going to our Facebook page Curtain the Podcast. We also have a Twitter account and a website www. Dot curtinthepodcast dot com, and you can also support our work in uncovering all these issues and bringing justice for Kevin and Linda and continuing to work behind the scenes on what's happening with police and Aboriginal people by going to our Patreon account, which you can find at our website, facebook page, and Twitter.

From as little as a dollar a month, you can support our work. Thank you.