Part One: Personal Response
‘The tall man’ is a truly traumatizing documentary to watch. From the documentary, it is so obvious that Cameron Doomadgee was brutalized by the police officers led by Officer Hurley to the point of death. It is also obvious from the documentary that the police were out to hide the truth. In fact, police brutality has been an issue in Australia for a long time now (Biondo & Palmer, 19993) (Nedim, 2015). Personally, I believe that the Palm Island incident of 2004 was a real-time evidence of how police officers, the media, and even the government tend to brutalize against the minority.
The aboriginal community, who are the indigenous community and the majority of the residents of Palm Island of Queensland, Australia, definitely qualify to be called a minority group. The community is both few in number and occupy only a small part of Australia. Moreover, the aboriginal community is among the few black communities who live in a predominantly white Australian community. Furthermore, possibly because of their culture and their low literacy levels, the aboriginal community occupy markedly few positions in the job market of Australia. This explains why, for instance, the squad of police officers working in Palm Island were predominantly white while they were working in a community which is made of black people majorly.
From the video, it was obvious that the police acted unfairly to Mr. Doomadgee. First, it was not worthy for police officers to pursue a man and decide to apprehend him for the reason that he was being a nuisance to the police. In fact, as is featured in the documentary and the accompanying book, the victim was allegedly walking peacefully to his home whilst singing his favorite song, albeit drunkenly. As such, a person in that state does not fit into the definition of one who is a nuisance to the police; and apprehending him was not to be an option. Doing ahead to apprehend him and then assault him was even worse. Secondly, after assaulting him, Officer Hurley, with the help of other police officers in Queensland who are predominantly white, tried to cover-up his deeds by alleging that the victim tripped and that the trip was sufficient to explain all his injuries. the police even went ahead to hide crucial information from the Palm Island pathologist who was performing the autopsy of Mr. Doomadgee’s body thus prompting the pathologist to agree with the police officers’ allegation that the victim’s injuries were due to the alleged trip. However, it is hard to tell whether the pathologist, being white in a black aboriginal community, also had bias of his own and decided to hide his true findings – it is almost obvious that a simple trip cannot sufficiently explain the breakage of four ribs, severe head bruising, rupture of the spleen, deep lacerations of the liver, and death while in custody. As is reported by a December 2016 article on ABC news – the police acted with impunity.
Following the death of Mr. Doomadgee, an uprising arose in Palm Island – the aboriginal community of the island were deeply saddened by the unfair death of one of their own and the visible discrimination by police officers in the island. However, the media labeled this uprising and peaceful demonstration as a riot (Hollinsworth, 2005). This was extremely harsh from the media considering the fact that not many of them were on the ground. Moreover, by labeling it as a riot, the media was incriminating the Islanders unfairly.
The reports that there was a riot in Palm Island prompted the state to send their more police officers to deal with the rioters. Again, this is unfair and discriminative from the state. The state should have rather acted neutrally and tried to establish the source of the islanders’ dissatisfaction instead of going ahead to thwart their efforts to express themselves.
The police who were sent to calm the riots made the situation even worse and confirmed the callousness of the police and their discrimination of the aboriginal community. The officers searched many houses in Palm Island and arrested as many as 28 individuals of the aboriginal community. The searches were not worth it and should have not been warranted – something which confirms the unfairness of the state while handling the situation. Furthermore, while conducting the searches and the arrests, it is alleged that the police used excessive force and even used their guns while dealing with unarmed individuals – factors which contributed to the tension between police and citizens of Palm Islands even up to today (Glowczewski, 2008). It has been alleged that the police even had the audacity to point guns at children and women. Among those who were arrested was Mr. Lex Watton. Mr. Watton was accused of inciting the rest of the community – a crime for which he was charged and imprisoned. Moreover, the police did not ask Officer Hurley to step down so as to allow an investigation into the alleged assault of Mr. Doomadgee.
The imprisonment of Mr. Watton for alleged incitation of the community reveals the unfairness in the judiciary of the time in Australia. The judiciary needed to investigate further and find out the facts of the case. The climax of the judiciary’s failures at in the case is heralded by the release of Officer Hurley after he was taken to court.
Generally, the systems were unfair to the aboriginals. Recent developments in the issue following the petition by Mr. Watton reveal this (Knaus, 2016). I personally think that Mr. Doomadgee and the aboriginals should have been and should be treated better. To make up this, the government should move to aid the aboriginal community in recovery following this truly traumatic incidences.
Part Two: Helping the Palm Island Community with Recovery
The family of Mr. Doomadgee and the general community of the Palm and Torres Islands have not recovered fully from the truly traumatizing death of one of their own and the events that followed more that twelve years later. A news article by Horn (2014) of ABC News in 2014 was the first evidence of this – the writer reported that a majority of the Palm community was still struggling with the memories. It is not surprising though, the account of Mr. Doomadgee’s death and the brutal treatment by police officers in the aftermath of the incidence can easily cause post-traumatic stress disorder (Van der Kolk & McFarlane, 2012). It is thus clear that the community of Palm Island needs help. In this paper, the specific strategies of helping this community, considering their aboriginal culture, are discussed.
Before heading to the community, it will be critical for me to seek a good understanding of the community, their cultural practices, the problems they face, and any other historical injustices that they have suffered. This information will help me to know how to approach the subject with the aboriginals. Moreover, I will require extra skills in interaction with aboriginals and how to form relationships with them.
Moving to the subject, the first strategy I will look to employ is community empowerment. Usually, people feel helpless after a traumatic event – the response by authorities is likely to have compounded the feeling of helplessness among the aboriginal community (Bain, 2012). Empowerment will look to make the community realize that even though one of their own is gone, all is not lost – there are things that they can do to prevent such things in the past. Moreover, there is a general feeling in the Palm and Torres Islands that justice has never been achieved. Thus, to empower these people, I will need to encourage them in their quest for justice. In recent times, courts have ruled in their favor – it has been established that the police acted unfairly and that the police discriminated against the aboriginals racially during the incident. Moreover, empowerment will help to alleviate feelings of desperateness. In my opinion, getting compensation for the injuries and the losses suffered will be the best possible justice for the affected families and thus enabling them to get it will help in their recovery. For this step, I will need extra skills for handling racial discrimination.
Secondly, even though the events occurred a long time ago, one factor that seems to contribute to the poor healing of the mental wounds left by the traumatic events of 2004 is the extensive media coverage of the same issue. As such, to protect the individuals, it is important to limit media attention and to train them means of warding off media interest (Bain, 2012). I will look to train inform the individuals that they have a right not to talk to the media whenever possible and the write to limit the amount of information about their feelings and the 2004 incidences that are featured in media outlets. Even though the community would be looking to pursue justice, they should look for a means of doing this whilst avoiding the glaring cameras of the media.
Thirdly, I will look to increase the awareness of the community on post-traumatic stress disorder – a medical condition that affects individuals long after they experience extremely traumatic life events (Scarpa et al., 2006). On this, I will inform them the main symptoms of the disorder including overt anxiety, temperamental problems, and sleep disturbances (Bain, 2012). I will also increase the awareness of the people of the various non-pharmacological means of managing this disorder – including speech therapy. Here, I will emphasize the importance of opening up and talking to other people about one’s problems in the process of healing. Moreover, I will advise the members of the community to ensure that they can make support groups where they can talk and listen to each other so as to reduce the emotional burden among one another (Scarpa et al., 2006). Finally, I will look to encourage the members of the community to seek medical help at the nearby hospitals whenever they felt that speech therapy was insufficient in managing the post-traumatic stress.
For the strategies to succeed, my knowledge of the various needs of the community and the issues facing them will be key. My skills in interacting with the community and ensuring that they accept my offer to help them will be key. More importantly, I believe that the state should intervene in ensuring that the issues of the aboriginals are sorted fully and compensation given where it should be given.
References
Bain, D. (2012). Community Crisis Recovery Guide: Strategies to rebuild you and your kids after a tragedy. Retrieved from http://zradio.org/shows/mornings/community-crisis-recovery-guide-strategies-to-rebuild-you-and-your-kids-after-a-tragedy/
Biondo, S., & Palmer, D. Violence at the hands of the police. Retrieved from http://www.aic.gov.au/media_library/conferences/ncv2/palmer.pdf
Glowczewski, B. (2008). Warriors for Peace: the political condition of the Aboriginal people as viewed from Palm Island. Guerriers Pour La Paix, 1-191.
Hollinsworth, D. (2005). “My Island Home”: riot and resistance in media representations of Aboriginality. Social Alternatives, 24(1), 16-21.
Horn, A. (2014, November). Palm Island death in custody: Community still struggling to deal with memories 10 years on. Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-11-19/palm-island-community-still-struggling-after-death-in-custody/5901028
Knaus, C. (2016, December 05). Police discriminated against Palm Island’s Indigenous community, federal court finds. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/dec/05/police-discriminated-against-palm-island-indigenous-community-federal-court-finds
Nedim, U. (2015, June 22). The continuing issue of police brutality in Australia. Retrieved http://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/the-continuing-issue-of-police-brutality-in-australia/
“Palm Island riots: Federal Court finds police acted with ‘impunity’ in racial discrimination lawsuit.” (2016, December 5). Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-05/palm-island-riots-federal-court-upholds-discrimination-suit/8093182
Scarpa, A., Haden, S. C., & Hurley, J. (2006). Community violence victimization and symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder: The moderating effects of coping and social support. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 21(4), 446-469.
Van der Kolk, B. A., & McFarlane, A. C. (Eds.). (2012). Traumatic stress: The effects of overwhelming experience on mind, body, and society. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
