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|
email the perth indmedia mob...
ACTION: Deaths in Custody – the silence and complicity must be challenged |
| by Perth Indymedia |
2007-04-11 10:22 AM +0800 |
Deaths in Custody – the silence and complicity must be challenged
(PLEASE NOTE: Images below are of a deceased Indigenous man and may cause offence. They are also graphic and disturbing. Please view with caution.)
Next week marks the first anniversary of the terrible death of Karl Woods in police custody. Karl Woods was arrested at the scene of a home invasion on April 11th, 2006. Police report that he struggled and had to be ‘subdued’. Once arrested he was placed in the back of a police van, but according to their initial reports when he was checked ‘a short time later’ he was dead... |
Aboriginal citizens demand equality before the law and we need YOUR support to achieve it! So get there anyway you can and bring a crowd!
Deaths in Custody – the silence and complicity must be challenged
PLEASE NOTE: Images below are of a deceased Indigenous man and may cause offence. They are also graphic and disturbing. Please view with caution.
----
Mr Woods' family members – and all of us who have seen the photos – are horrified by the obvious physical injuries he appears to have sustained. The police admit no fault, and no police officers have been stood down.
Nearly a year on, and the police have still not finalised their own reports into his death for the Coroners office. Consequently, no Coronial Inquest has been carried out. This has many parallels to the Palm Island case and the silence, inaction and injustice must be challenged.
Deaths such as these must never occur. 99 Indigenous deaths in custody around the 1980’s led to Australia’s most expensive Royal Commission at the time (Royal Commission Into Aboriginal Deaths In Custody). It took nearly four years and handed down 339 recommendations, and makes for sobering reading. Unfortunately it carried no legal weight and instead gathers dust.
We maintain that most of the recommendations have never been properly implemented by the police and prison systems, nor by governments.
In WA where Indigenous people make up around 3% of the general population, our prisoner population is over 40% Indigenous, and a new report indicates that in juvenile detention centres this figure rises to a staggering 74%.
We, the Deaths In Custody Watch Committee, have been working with the Woods family and other community members and are mounting a public campaign including a letter of demand to the Premier and a rally on Black Friday this month (the 13th April, 12 noon, Cnr of St Georges Tce and Barrack St). Please join us to call for justice; for Karl, the Woods’ family, and all those who have died in custody.
We must change the systemic racism and inequality which imprisons so many indigenous people.
We must hold to account all those involved in deaths in custody.
We must stop deaths in custody.
Please join us for the rally:
DEATH IN CUSTODY RALLY – CALL FOR JUSTICE FOR KARL WOODS
BLACK FRIDAY, 13TH APRIL, 12 NOON, CORNER OF ST GEORGES TCE AND BARRACK ST. Rally and speakers, followed by a march on the Premiers office.
Further info:
Marc Newhouse - 0415 074 602
Khristo Newall - 040 895 1375
Please wear black armband, bandanna or something black
---
NOTE THAT THE FLYER BELOW CONTAINS images of a deceased Indigenous man and may cause offence.
They are also graphic and disturbing.
Please view with caution. |
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JUSTICE FOR KARL WOODS FLYER - PDF
JUSTICE FOR KARL WOODS FLYER - WORD DOC
scale pictures
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Link here
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i hope you get the justice you deserve |
| by crystal |
2007-04-14 9:43 AM +0800 |
so sad to see this sort of crime, if we cant trust the law of man ,what have we got to look forward to in the future, overpaid police officers, high crime
Link here
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home invasion is a problem |
| by critical thinker |
2007-04-16 9:12 PM +0800 |
a young couple i know were visciously bashed by a hammer-wielding knucklehead just like this guy. They had just moved into a new home in suburban Perth with their 4 year old boy. As the attackers had no fixed address and were armed, they had to pack up and move to the first available rental --a dingy two-bedroom flat 20kms away.
maybe this guy got a bit of natural justice?
btw, just because he sustains head injuries in this picture, does not mean these were the cause of his death.
Link here
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the other side |
| by critical thinker |
2007-04-16 9:20 PM +0800 |
However, I support direct action to end the terrible circumstances that lead to the spike in aboriginal deaths in custody or anywhere-poverty, dispossession, the culture of violence, structural repression by an alien occupier- is a noble cause.
Will it take an explosion of racial violence directed against battling families before tax-payers wake up to this diabolic social issue?
Link here
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See the endemic nature of racism and prejudice here |
| by Wadjela |
2007-04-17 12:48 AM +0800 |
The whole point of the rally wass to get some real answers from the Police.
Carl died in Police custody. Police report that he struggled and had to be ‘subdued’.
Once arrested he was placed in the back of a police van, but according to their initial reports when he was checked ‘a short time later’ he was dead...
"maybe this guy got a bit of natural justice?"
You can't get more offensive than that statement. Being killed by Police is natural justice? You don't even know his crimes? Do you know the full story? Do you have information that has not yet been presented? What are the facts?
More menacing stuff: "btw, just because he sustains head injuries in this picture, does not mean these were the cause of his death."
According to accounts, he did not look like that before he encountered the Police.
WA Police arrested Carl over an alleged home invasion. It took several officers to apprehend Mr Woods, who'd apparently broken into a home in a Perth suburb. He resisted arrest and was handcuffed and put into a police wagon, where he reportedly suffered the heart attack.
The police inquiry into the death should not have taken a year to complete.
There should've already been an independent inquiry. It's a credit to the Woods family that there has been no retaliation, notwithstanding the way that they have also not had equal access to justice.
Carl's mate Merv took photos of his body lying in the morgue shortly after he died.
Carl's father, Humphrey Woods, said he'd seen the photos and he believed his son was assaulted.
Mr Woods says: "I feel there's no justice has been done properly in this way. I just want justice for my son. That's how I feel, it's not been done."
A spokesman for the coroner's office said on Friday there will be an inquest into the death of Carl Woods, and it's likely there will be an open hearing.
This is a good outcome. Lets see some justice.
Although the Police have told the man's family on Friday that no officer will be charged over the incident.
Link here
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Re: Wadgela |
| by critical thinker |
2007-04-17 5:36 PM +0800 |
I will not pretend to know the full story. I am visiting this website for the same reason as everyone else -to comment upon social, political and environmental issues. I must ask if you know the full story. Crystal above certainly doesn't. In fact she seems to have given it less thought than what I have judging the form and content of her response.
Do you know the police officers involved? The system they obide by? The issues that confront them? Or are you judging them by race and occupation? Judging them from afar? I dont know about these officers or about this unlucky man. What I do know about is everday people and the different walks of life they choose. People who become police officers basically seek to earn a living and uphold the law. People who break into houses while the occupants are inside basically want to earn a living at the expense of others and break the law. Such people are prone to violence, prone to addiction, prone to accidents.
Humphrey woods sounds like an educated family man who knows the legal system and knows how to organise people. With a father like that, why break into peoples homes? The wrong crowd I suspect. and wrong crowds create wrong situations -with or without police.
The people I feel sorry for that are dying in custody are the petty theives, the people from broken homes, and the mentally impaired. I know a guy from a broken home who went to jail for a small crime. He was not mentally prepared for the environment and he was picked on. He consequently hung himself. He was a Mexican man, if that matters to you.
Link here
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Friends |
| by wadjela |
2007-04-17 10:52 PM +0800 |
Carl was under the influence of drugs. He ran into a random house fleeing a percieved threat to his life. The occupant rang the police. When a mob of WA Police arrived it appears the group beat the living shit out of him...
I'd be interested to know what exactly happened.
Hopefully the inquiry will shed some light.
Link here
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Don't hold your breath |
| by Concerned |
2007-04-23 7:55 PM +0800 |
Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan is attempting to take the easy way out by waiting for a Coroner's inquest that will take months or even years to be finalised. He no doubt hopes the matter will be forgotten by the time the Coroner is finished.
Link here
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