Cunneen - Conflict, Politics and Crime: Aboriginal Communities and the Police

CONFLICT, POLITICS AND
CRIME

Chris Cunneen is Associate Professor in Criminology and Director of the Institute of Criminology, Sydney University Law School. He has published widely on Aboriginal people and the criminal justice system, an is the co-author of Indigenous People and the Lawin Australia (1995) and Juvenile Justice: An Australian Perspective (1995). He co-edited Faces of Hate: Essays on the Incidence and Natureof Hate Crime in Australia (1997).

CONFLICT, POLITICS
AND CRIME

Aboriginal Communities and the Police

Chris Cunneen

ALLEN & UNWIN

First published in 2001

Copyright Chris Cunneen 2001

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Contents

This book has grown out of many years of work with colleagues and friends. It has benefited immensely from their discussions, critiques and insights. I would like to particularly thank Paul Behrendt, Greta Bird, Harry Blagg, Nerida Blair, Jim Brooks, Murray Chapman, Mick Dodson, Mark Findlay, Cec Fisher, Terry Libesman, Garth Luke, David McDonald, Francis and Greg McKellar, Gary Martin, Irene Moss, Kate Munro, Clearie Quayle, Julie Stubbs, Roberta Sykes, Rob White and Sue Zelinka. Many Indigenous organisations have assisted my research work including Aboriginal Legal Services, Aboriginal Justice Advisory Committees, ATSIC, and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Unit in the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. I would also like to thank Natalie Brown, Zena Dabboussy and Mary Spiers who have worked with me as research staff on various projects which are reflected in this book. Amanda Andreazza assisted with the preparation of the manuscript. Finally, thanks to John Iremonger, Karen Penning, and Emma Cotter from Allen & Unwin, as well as their anonymous reviewer.

1
Introduction

This book is an analysis of policing in Indigenous communities. (I have used the terms Aboriginal, Indigenous and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander interchangeably throughout the text.) The book is not concerned with the institution of policing per se, nor does it rest on an essentialist view of the inherent nature of Indigenous societies or cultures as monolithic or static. Rather it seeks to explore what is particular about the relationship between the institution of policing and Indigenous communities in Australia within a historical and contemporary framework.

Poor relations between police forces and Indigenous communities throughout Australia have been a regular source of local, national and international criticism of the failure of governments to improve standards of policing and eradicate racist behaviour in public institutions. One of the most extensive royal commissions in the history of Australiathe Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custodywas established after numerous deaths in police and prison custody. After an exhaustive inquiry into 99 deaths (63 of which were in police custody) Commissioner Elliot Johnston concluded the following:

Let me say at once, it is my opinion that far too much police intervention in the lives of Aboriginal people throughout Australia has been arbitrary, discriminatory, racist and violent. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the antipathy which so many Aboriginal people have towards the police is based not just on historical conduct but upon the contemporary experience of contact with many police officers (Johnston 1991a, vol. 2, p. 195).

It is perhaps a similar point that Aboriginal writer and ex-prisoner, Kevin Gilbert, had made a decade and a half before the Royal Commission: The real horror of Aboriginal Australia today is locked away in police files and child welfare reports. It is a story of private misery and degradation, caused by a complex chain of historical circumstance, that continues into the present (Gilbert 1978, pp. 23).

Numerous government inquiries over recent years have investigated the factors impacting on relations between Indigenous people and the police. Indeed, the issue has been widely canvassed since the early 1980s. Many of these reports involved substantial recommendationsthe most extensive of which was the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and its 339 recommendations, many of which were directly related to policing matters. There is also a substantial and growing body of academic literature which refers to various aspects of Indigenouspolice relations. While there are gaps in the research which need to be remedied, overall it is clear that considerable resources have gone into identifying various aspects of the relationship between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and criminal justice agencies. Yet, despite the plethora of inquiries, reports and their respective recommendations, the level of over-representation of Indigenous people in the criminal justice system has not significantly improved, and the issue of poor relations between police and Indigenous people remains as significant as ever.