Justice denied in Queensland
December 14th 2006 13:51
Another Aboriginal dies in police custody and despite a coroner’s report which places the blame squarely at the feet of the arresting officer the Queensland Director of Public prosecutions chooses to not prosecute the officer.
Welcomes to Queensland where justice appears to go missing for members of the indigenous community.
The Queensland DPP today announced that she believed there was not enough evidence to lead to any chance of a conviction and in fact went further and stated that this was a tragic accident. Read her transcript here.
Queensland Acting Coroner had delivered a report in September of this year detailing her findings and laying the blame at the Police officer Hurley. I urge all those who what to know more to read the report.
The decision by the DPP has as would be expected been received with outrage and incredulous from members of both the Palm Island and Queensland Indigenous communities with outrage.
Indigenous people in Queensland have been for to long treated with injustice and out and out racism and the deputy Coroners report had given them some faith in the criminal Justice system.
This faith has been rewarded with a snubbing by the DPP.
A double blow was meted out to Indigenous people with the Criminal Justice Commission announcing that they would be pursuing no disciplinary charges against Hurley in relation to the death in custody. They have left any further disciplinary matters to the Queensland Police service to deal with.
So once again we will have police investigating police and if you want to see how that works I suggest you read the coroners findings into how this was dealt with in the case of Senior Sergeant Hurley following the death in custody.
Even if his death was accidental surely he should not have been allowed to die on the floor of a watch-house on Palm Island.
Justice has not been served to the people of Queensland today? An oft used phrase that seems to fit very appropriately today is that Justice should not only be done it should be seen to be done.
Welcomes to Queensland where justice appears to go missing for members of the indigenous community.
The Queensland DPP today announced that she believed there was not enough evidence to lead to any chance of a conviction and in fact went further and stated that this was a tragic accident. Read her transcript here.
Queensland Acting Coroner had delivered a report in September of this year detailing her findings and laying the blame at the Police officer Hurley. I urge all those who what to know more to read the report.
The decision by the DPP has as would be expected been received with outrage and incredulous from members of both the Palm Island and Queensland Indigenous communities with outrage.
Indigenous people in Queensland have been for to long treated with injustice and out and out racism and the deputy Coroners report had given them some faith in the criminal Justice system.
This faith has been rewarded with a snubbing by the DPP.
A double blow was meted out to Indigenous people with the Criminal Justice Commission announcing that they would be pursuing no disciplinary charges against Hurley in relation to the death in custody. They have left any further disciplinary matters to the Queensland Police service to deal with.
So once again we will have police investigating police and if you want to see how that works I suggest you read the coroners findings into how this was dealt with in the case of Senior Sergeant Hurley following the death in custody.
Even if his death was accidental surely he should not have been allowed to die on the floor of a watch-house on Palm Island.
Justice has not been served to the people of Queensland today? An oft used phrase that seems to fit very appropriately today is that Justice should not only be done it should be seen to be done.
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