The horrific death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May presents us with another example of state sanctioned lynching in the United States of America. In 2019, over 1000 people died at the hands of U.S. police. Within a hours, massed demonstrations spread across the country and to date, 100 cities witnessed riots which resulted in 45 million people under police curfew across the country. The national guard and military police have been called in to try and subdue peoples’ protest. Every state has seen people rise up in despair and anger. Peaceful protest has been met with tear-gas, batons and rubber bullets. Two people have died.
Yet we in Australia, should not boast about “How wonderful Australia is” as PM Morrison did.
“I can’t breathe”, the last words of George Floyd were eerily the same as those of David Dungay, a Dunghutti man who had the life crushed out of him by five prison officers in Long Bay Gaol in 2015. Since 1991, over 430 indigenous Australians have died in police “custody”.
The USA’s record of incarceration of people of colour is staggering but is nothing compared to the incarceration of Australia’s First Nations people. Although constituting just 3% of the population, they make up 30% of the prison population. Many are on remand or awaiting trial mostly charged with trival offences like disorderly conduct, driving unlicenced or unpaid fines. Families all have experiences of being targeted and harassed by the police.
In the Northern Territory 97% of of the inmates of youth detention centres are young indigenous youth. Their stories are illustrated like recent video footage of the tear-gassing of children at the Don Dale Detention Centre.
In Australia and the USA, the force of the state is exercised by police forces. In recent times following U.S. fashion, there has been a move to overt miltary style uniforms with raids carried out by khaki-ed, helmeted and masked gangs of police followed by the media. The “Public Order” (riot) squad regularly turns out at rallies for climate or March for Science.
The message from the state is to intimidate. Premiers and PMs never apologise for acts of violence that they sanction. This is to protect this system and attempt to cower the populace. The people of the U.S.A have shown they are not cowered . The people of Australia showed their solidarity and brought abrupt attention to the shameful situation here.
