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A personal plea

By Dr Louis Peachey

Dear Friends, Colleagues and Countrymen,

I am most concerned about the recent decision by the DPP not to press charges against the Police officer who was named by the Deputy Coroner Christine Clements as the person causing the death of Mulrunji Doomadgee.

As an Aboriginal Queenslander, I have long been of the opinion that there is no consequence to a white Queensland Police Officer who takes it upon themselves to snuff out the life of one of my kind.

This decision by the Queensland Director of Public Prosecutions, Leanne Clare, only confirms my fears. For many of you, it may be difficult if not impossible for you to understand the world of the Aboriginal Child of Queensland.

My mother taught me to be wary of the 'Bullyman', never to look directly at him, never to speak unless spoken to. The 'Bullyman' will attack anything which he sees as a challenge to his authority, therefore the only reasonable defence against the ever present threat of the 'Bullyman' is to be invisible.

If you read the Deputy Coroner's findings http://www.justice.qld.gov.au/courts/coroner/findings/mulrunji270906.doc,
you will see in the events of the day, whilst Sgt Hurley and a Police Liaison Officer (PLO) was dealing with another matter, Mulrunji was walking past, and expressed an opinion to the PLO that he shouldn't be working for the Police.

This was out of ear shot of Sgt Hurley, but when Sgt Hurley asked the PLO about the exchange, Sgt Hurley decided to pursue Mulrunji, who by this time had moved on. Mulrunji was NOT known to Sgt Hurley, which is evidence that this man was not a troublemaker.

And although you might argue that Mulrunji should not have been expressing an opinion to the PLO that he should not be working for the police, considering that the senior officer on Palm Island (Sgt Hurley) then arrested him and soon after beat Mulrunji to death, because Mulrunji thought the police were inappropriate company for the PLO to be in, this just seems to prove the very point that Mulrunji was making.

I have been left with a number of questions following the finding of the DPP that there is insufficient evidence to charge Sergent Hurley for the death of Mulrunji.

Premier Beattie repeatedly said that he wanted people to accept the Umpire's Decision. When did the DPP become the Umpire? What part of my school education (in Queensland) was deficient, that I have always believed that our legal umpire is the judiciary, not the head coach of the prosecution team?

I have always believed (obviously erroneously) that people would want to 'have their day in court' to seek a judgement from the accepted umpire.

For that matter Mr Beattie, given the behaviour I have witnessed by Australians of all ages, creeds and codes, at football games and other sporting fixtures, it would almost seem to be 'Un-Australian' to actually accept the umpires decision without some protest, but I digress.

As an Aborigine, it might be a little easier to accept the umpires decision, if the game didn't always end 'Police 100 and Aborigines nil'.

In such circumstances one might think that the umpire was not in the habit of calling a fair game.
This is one of those interesting distinctions I have never quite understood, when Australians want to be angry at the Japanese, it would seem to be acceptable for the memory to cast back 60yrs to WWII, but when the issue is the treatment by Australia of her Indigenous Peoples, we are always hearing the catch-cry of 'We can't dwell in the past, we have to move on'. It is much easier to move on from the unfair call, if the unfair call is always in your favour.

Can anybody explain to me how come the Deputy State Coroner (A Magistrate) can find that the police officer in question caused the death of Mulrunji, and the DPP manages to know better? And yes I do already understand that as of the new Coroners Act of 2003, an Inquest is no longer part of criminal law, but I still don't understand how the DPP can just dismiss the Coroner's findings.

In any other circumstance, if a Magistrate was to find that there was a Prima Facie case, one would expect that it was a fait à complit, that this matter would then be referred for a hearing.

As an Aboriginal Man, I have lived my whole life in fear of the 'Bullyman', that at any moment he might decide to drag me from my car and beat me to death. Now whilst I am confident that many of my colleagues would voice some kind of protest if this ever happened, I personally would prefer if my colleagues actually voiced an opinion now, rather than waiting for me to beaten to death before they took any action.

I am reasonably confident that my two daughters would also like the Good People of my fraternity to act now, rather than waiting for it to become personal.

We already know that Mulrunji's son has committed suicide since his father was beaten to death. Now I don't pretend to have the inside scoop on just why this young man took his own life, but I can't see that the prospect of suffering the same fait as his father, without consequence to the perpetrator, would have given him reason to have faith in the innate fairness of the system.

For a child already born into a less than friendly world to face this level of injustice, can we be shocked at this young man's actions.

So 'What is your point?', I hear you ask. Please start writing letters to the Premier of Queensland, and/or local members of Parliament
http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/view/legislativeAssembly/documents/MEMLIST.pdf
I have no doubt that after the 'Bullyman' drags me from the car one day, and beats me to death, that my friends and colleagues will undoubtedly express their outrage.

What I would prefer though, is that my colleagues express outrage NOW, given that the Premier of Queensland, and other Queensland Authorities in 2006 are still happy that an Aboriginal Man, may be beaten to death by a serving Police Officer, and there is NO call to account. I ask this for the most selfish of reasons, so that maybe I won't suffer the same end as Mulrunji.

For those of you who live in other states, I would ask that if you think it is wrong, that a man should be beaten to death for simply expressing the opinion that the PLO should not be hanging around people like the man who soon after beat him to death, then I would ask you to also let your outrage about this be known.
Even though it is a different state, it still matters.

As Martin Luther King Jnr wrote in his letter from the Birmingham Jail (Alabama), "Injustice Anywhere is a Threat to Justice Everywhere".

For those of you who might think this is not your business, I would remind you of the words of Rev Martin Niemöller, Protestant Pastor imprisoned from 1937 to 1945 first in Sachsenhausen then Dachau concentration camps for his opposition to Hitler's regime. "In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up".

And in closing I will leave you with the immortal words of Edmund Burke, Irish Statesman. "All the is necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing"

Yours truly,
Dr. Louis Peachey
Medical Educator
Mount Isa Centre for Rural and Remote Health
100 Joan St, PO Box 2572
Mount Isa QLD 4825

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