I feel this video is importent because it documents the contact between police and murris. The police are the main agency for implementing indigenous policy in state and federal governments. Yet these thugs feel they have free right of access to Aboriginal housholds and have no need to explain their actions. basic question of respect, let alone adherence to proper police protocols, not to mention cultural protocols in an Aboriginal community.

This is commonplace on the missions, I have experienced it myself. When I was on Palm Island it was a daily occurance in the neighborhood I was in for the police to walk into a house and grab people. There is usually an argument because the police do not explain themselves and barge in with no respect. When there is an argument there are usually a number of people arrested. Chris Hurley arrested Mulrunji because he spoke out about another arrest Hurley was involved in, all Mulrunji was doing was walking down the street.

My nephew was arrested for DD on Palm Island last year. He went to gaol for it. He and his family thought he would be in gaol for a few weeks but he was in for 8 months. Nobody bothered to tell him what the situation was, the police just grabbed him took him from the Island without explaination.

Incidents such as Hurley’s treatment of Mulrunji or this home invasion are no freaks or the result of a few bad apples. This kind of Jackbootism is the norm in policing Aboriginal communities.

However, i did a google search on the guy making the videos (his name SM if i got it right, is mentioned in one of his others) shows he has personally experienced a pretty disgraceful situation at the hands of local (and now dismissed?) police in the past, which helps put his ongoing video campaign in context. Thanks to the internet, I understand the Quakers even took up his cause!

Perhaps sharing some of that history would help the points across better.

http://www.nirs.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1&Itemid=18

The reason for the arrest is not the point of me posting the link, it is the way in which the arrest occured.

Similarly the rape allegations indicate a deep sense of conflict with this particular officer, at least in this particular houshold, irrespective of the facts of that matter.

Even with a breach of parole or any other legitimate reason for arrest, it is not acceptible for police to walk into peoples houses and grab people without telling them why. In the video this information was not offered until after the scuffle.

As a result of this jackboot style another 4 people were arrested giving a good indication of a major cause of the over representation of Aboriginal people in the criminal justice system. A bit of simple politeness and explaination would have seen this person arrested without incident. But policing of this sort turns minor situations into snowballing conflicts.

And then these cops are expected to be the frontline in sensitive issues such as dealing with child sexual assault.

I would be interested to know what the man’s initial charges were.

As for the rape allegations made toward the police officer, a viewer with no background can not know whether there is any truth in them, though i guess the complainant could lodge a issue with the CMC if they were stonewalled at DOmadgee level.

The incident is obviously a snippet of a wider issue/undercurrent, but I guess i’m saying I would be concerned that the video you linked may not be perceived as intended.

From Australian Story:

Noel Pearson: “I’m the beneficiary of that privileged moment in Hopevale’s history when you had functional families and functional parents bringing up kids right at the time when education was opening up. My parents never knew what the hell I was doing in Sydney, really, I don’t think - probably didn’t even know what a university degree was - but nevertheless, they encouraged me. And I think their legacy is unravelling in our hands at the moment. My generation and the younger generation are not bringing up strong families. We are riddled with social dysfunction and alcohol and gambling and we’re destroying the potential of our children rather than fulfilling it. ”

Yet there is a definite conflict here. One the one hand his generation was the beneficiary of functionality - on the other his generation is riddled with social dysfuntion. Here is Pearson’s method as modelled by his parents. If his parents offered the ‘tough love’ he has suggested elsewhere, which he believes is necessary to fix things, why did it go pear shaped in the next generation? I dont believe Pearson is reconciling the conflictual rifts in his own story.

“GERHARDT PEARSON: Grog has had an impact on my life, on many of my friends life. Within our own family we have brothers who are alcoholics. My own life has been spent most of my time out of working hours. You have a few beers and sometimes a few too many. And you will never make opportunities for yourself if you’re constantly in a drunken state. If we want to tackle the issue of grog in the Cape, well, then grog mustn’t be part of your life. I’ve personally taken it upon myself to try and live up to that, and I’m better for it. ”

Gerhardt sounds like a walking advertisement for Noel’s agenda really. This story with a fabled imagined past conflicting with the familial dysfunction of the present, in its unreconciled state, riven with its own internal conflicts is interesting for it should suggest to pearson that tough love and paternalism does not work, at least not long term and that people, like situations are complex and many layered. And that alcohol abuse resulted here from a good upbringing where there most definietely was no victimhood mentality. And this tough love produced alcoholics after all.

I wonder if anybody else picks up the overwhelming urgency in Pearson’s utterance and rhetoric which suggests its all just a little bit personal?

Anyway, I think that is interesting.

“The kidnapping of Breton Gregory”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37BgiXX6aAQ

My own take on the incident
http://paradigmoz.wordpress.com/2007/07/17/jackboots-in-paradise-police-at-doomadgee/

I too was not impressed with Pearson’s tirade in Hopevale.

Ah, but that’s the luxury you have of being a white middle class boy, knowing that your opinions, however uninformed, will be listened to and that whatever criticisms you make you won’t be called to account for and whatever solution has to be paid for you won’t have to put your hand in your pockert to pay a cent for.

You lucky, lucky man.

You should be aware that the term Eskimo is offensive to the Inuit. The Wikipedia article bemoans the lack of another term to cover the Inuit and the Yupik, but is one necessary? Torres Strait Islanders do not identify as Aborigines so we use both terms.

melaleuca, what Peterc said. My hunch was that the traditional owners in Hope Vale went along with Pearson because they could see there was no alternative to get additional Commonwealth support. You don’t get people’s true support by lecturing them and laying on a guilt trip.

Nevertheless I do hope it works out for them.

Nevertheless, Wikipedia’s entry on Noel Pearson is a good reference for those wanting an overview of Pearsons background, and the development of his ideas (through his published writings) over the past seven years.

Wilma Mankiller from the Cherokee Nation and the British writer Jay Griffiths were adamant that it had been shown all around the world time and time again that solutions coming from the outside would fail.

Do you think that all non-white people are interchangeable? An eskimo is an Australian aborigine is a Red Indian? Is money one of those undesirable “outside solutions?”

His welfare reforms are actually still a trial, as the withholding of welfare funds has not actually occurred yet (according to the program), only agreement has been achieved for this in Hopevale and Mossman Gorge communities.

No agreement in Aurukun either, so the model does not appear to be accepted across Cape York unless Pearson shows up to give his pep talk, and maybe not even then.

Howard and Brough jumping on the band wagon (and sneaking in the land grab title changes) is premature in the extreme. And their lack of consulation with other NT communities is an absolute disgrace. Post election I suspect everything will fizz out quietly.

There is however quite clearly a need for urgent action to address problems highlighted in the 4 Corners program, but real engagement and consultation with communities is needed, ongoing Federal commitment and funding is required, and all the skunkworks about shifting titles needs to be deleted.

I got the impression that Brough (and by extension Howard) really don’t listen at all. They think they know the answers, cherry pick some of Pearson’s initiatives, then barge on ahead with their own paternalistic agenda. Ugly stuff this.

“I was horrified at the speech that Pearson made at Hope Vale. It had been clear up to that point that the money Brough was offering was conditional on them privatising home ownership and that the traditional owners had not been consulted. Pearson reminded me of a headmaster I had at a certain Lutheran boarding school. Very authoritarian.”

Wake up and smell the coffee, Brian.

In one of the featured communities 14 out of the 17 households went on an alcohol binge from Wednesday until the money ran out on about Sunday. We are dealing with adults who are hopelessly dysfunctional and who are cannibalising their own children. Note for example the periodic teenage suicides.

The Noel Pearson speech on the footy oval was Martin Luther King like in its passion, eloquence, clarity and raw honesty. It had the desired effect: even the four or five disgruntled traditional owners subsequently came on side. They went from banner waving opponents to back slapping supporters based on that one speech alone!

Unless these communities get their acts together pronto, their children should all be removed forthwith. No child deserves to be brought up in an environment where suicide and/or abuse and neglect are all they have to look forward to. This should be their last chance.