Gina-Marie CheesemanNo Justice in Queensland Update
December 20th 2006 13:27
Today saw a national day of action with rallies calling for the sacking of the director of Public prosecutions as well as calls for charges to be laid against Snr sergeant Hurley and also for the Premier and Police Minister to stand down.
Rallies were held in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Townsville as well as Palm Island itself. The rallies were peaceful but the anger of the crowd particularly the Indigenous people was clear.
The Premier Peter Beattie to his credit went to Palm Island and addressed the crowd and restated his view that it would be wrong of him and would interfere in the justice system if he ordered the DPP to seek a second opinion.
he did however say that he would support the DPP if she chose to seek an independent opinion which would probably take the form of a DPP from another state.
The premier was met with many angry interjections from an understandably angry and emotional crowd.
It would seem that the Premiers comments with regard to the DPP was his way of telling her she should do this without being seen to contradict his earlier and continuing statements that he could not interfere in the Justice system and it can only be hoped that the DPP takes heed of this call and responds with the seeking of an independent opinion.
I personally still think the Premier could and should set up an inquiry in to the whole affair. While the death is obviously the most important thing the whole investigation after the incident needs to be examined.
We had friends of the policeman involved investigating him. He dined with them when they arrived to interview him. He failed to tell the relatives of the dead man he was dead when they asked when he would be released. The Criminal Misconduct Commission was not notified as soon as the incident happened.
There are just to many questions that need answers.
Rallies were held in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Townsville as well as Palm Island itself. The rallies were peaceful but the anger of the crowd particularly the Indigenous people was clear.
The Premier Peter Beattie to his credit went to Palm Island and addressed the crowd and restated his view that it would be wrong of him and would interfere in the justice system if he ordered the DPP to seek a second opinion.
he did however say that he would support the DPP if she chose to seek an independent opinion which would probably take the form of a DPP from another state.
The premier was met with many angry interjections from an understandably angry and emotional crowd.
It would seem that the Premiers comments with regard to the DPP was his way of telling her she should do this without being seen to contradict his earlier and continuing statements that he could not interfere in the Justice system and it can only be hoped that the DPP takes heed of this call and responds with the seeking of an independent opinion.
I personally still think the Premier could and should set up an inquiry in to the whole affair. While the death is obviously the most important thing the whole investigation after the incident needs to be examined.
We had friends of the policeman involved investigating him. He dined with them when they arrived to interview him. He failed to tell the relatives of the dead man he was dead when they asked when he would be released. The Criminal Misconduct Commission was not notified as soon as the incident happened.
There are just to many questions that need answers.
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