Letter to politicians about Kooris & cops

Dear Sir,

On Sunday the 15th of February 2004 Thomas James Hickey was impaled on a fence & died while riding his bike. His parents claim he was frightened by police causing his death, and although surveillance footage shows it was not him the police were after; this does not preclude his death being caused by his fear of police. I don’t know, I wasn’t there. I do know, however, that police harass Aboriginal youth frequently. I know brown skin incurs police harassment because my dad was born in Malaysia & while police frequently pulled over my brother (he was darker skinned than me), they never ran the names of his white friends who were with him through their computers whilst checking to see if there were any outstanding warrants against my brother (which there never were). I know Aboriginality incurs police harassment because the only time police have ever expressed any interest in me was when I was wearing an Aboriginal flag on a headband and they threatened to throw me in jail for 8 hours when I was skylarking about without disturbing any people or damaging anything (I was merely happy & I was not under the influence of alcohol or any other substance); not to mention the experiences of my Aboriginal friends & things I have heard from Juvenile Justice. I know Aboriginal people are literally harassed to death because of the Report into Black Deaths in Custody as well as the death of the brother of one of my friends while in police custody. Since this report was written its recommendations have not all been implemented and the deaths in custody rate has actually exceeded what it had been before.

So I don’t know what happened on February 15th but I do know there is a good chance he was frightened by the police. Whether this is the case or not, as I have stated, Aboriginal people are literally harassed to death in this country. The leader of the State Opposition stated publicly, as his response to the outpouring of frustration over this situation, that he “would have bulldozed the block years ago.” I need to hear from one of my elected representatives that bulldozing the meagre possessions of the Aboriginal Housing Cooperative is not an appropriate response to this outpouring of grief & frustration.
I have voted Labour all my life until the last election when I voted Green because Labour has neglected health & education. Win my vote back, state that the blatant racism constantly sprouted by the Liberals & others in both State & Federal parliament is not on.

I will have posted written copies of this letter to you (premier Bob Carr) & my local MP Clover Moore, as well as emailing copies to you, Clover Moore, Tanya Plibersek (my local Federal MP), John Brogden, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, The Daily Telegraph & the Koori Mail.

Yours faithfully,

Joe Krishna Mithiran