THIS NEW RACISM TURNS TO FIRE
Another warning that those pushing the new racism are - literally - playing with fire: "Vision has emerged of the Commonwealth Games surfboard countdown clock being set alight by protesters... The message attached to the video declares the fire was lit in support of the Stolenwealth Games protesters, who were detained by police in the past week."
"This actually trades on the myth that Aboriginal prisoners face a higher rate of deaths in custody than do white prisoners, thanks to racism:" Bolt
What Bolt doesn't say but the Royal Commission found. Linguistic flips exist reverse racism doesn't.
"At the time the royal commission was established in 1989, First Australians were more likely to die in custody than non-Indigenous Australians. This is no longer the case," he said.
With respect, minister, this is beside the point. The issue is whether Indigenous people are more likely to be placed in custody or prison because of their Aboriginality, with the inevitable result that lives are destroyed and lost.
On this, the royal commission was explicit: "An examination of the lives of the 99 (deaths investigated) shows that facts associated in every case with their Aboriginality played a significant, and in most cases dominant, role in their being in custody and dying in custody."
The situation now was summed up by the Chief Justice of Western Australia, Wayne Martin, who said in a speech last year: "Aboriginal people are much more likely to be questioned by police than non-Aboriginal people. When questioned, they are more likely to be arrested rather than proceeded against by summons. If they are arrested, Aboriginal people are much more likely to be remanded in custody than given bail.
"Aboriginal people are much more likely to plead guilty than going to trial, and if they go to trial, they are much more likely to be convicted. If Aboriginal people are convicted, they are much more likely to be imprisoned than non-Aboriginal people, and at the end of their term of imprisonment they are much less likely to get parole than non-Aboriginal people."
As Patrick Dodson, one of the commissioners, reported this week, the rate at which Indigenous people are imprisoned has more than doubled over the past 25 years; the incarceration of Indigenous women has risen by 74 percent in the past 15 years; and Indigenous youths now comprise more than 50 percent of juveniles in detention.
