3d ago

A shameful death after a supermarket scuffle shines a light on Australia’s unfinished business | Julianne Schultz

www.theguardian.com

Snippets

People are not “placed” on the floor – that is what you do with bags, boxes and rubbish. But that was the word used by the Northern Territory police to describe the sequence of events to the media. Tragically, painfully, I think it says a lot.

Almost a million more people voted yes in the referendum than voted for the Labor party in the recent election. The combined Liberal National party vote was about half the no vote. While the majority rejected the voice proposal because they didn’t know, didn’t care or thought it was unfair, this cannot be mapped on to the political snapshot that the election provided. The referendum was not a proxy election. The door to meaningful, symbolic and practical recognition can and must be opened again.

9 comments

People are not “placed” on the floor – that is what you do with bags, boxes and rubbish. But that was the word used by the Northern Territory police to describe the sequence of events to the media.
Because they're trying to put a neutral spin on them tackling the guy, it's no surprise.
It's like the spin they themselves have in this article with this quote:
I try to imagine a similar scene at my local Coles, where many people who have not been winners in life’s lottery also shop for little items to keep hunger at bay, but no image comes to mind.
Implying the guy was in there just shopping for little items is an interesting way to cover walking into a shop after assaulting a woman, stealing things, and getting into a fight with security when confronted. The Eulogy Song is definitely still relevant...
- Pretty sure the "to keep hunger at bay" is implying the theft.
  Regardless of the journalism it seems to be a pretty disproportionate outcome.
  If it was a white kid in the ghetto the outcome would and is different. Look at the deaths in custody.
  And just like all the other deaths in custody no cop has been or will be convicted of murdering anyone thats aboriginal. Just silly little workplace accidents oops. Lucky that reconciliation week will help woth that ... Oh wait.
  
  Regardless of the journalism it seems to be a pretty disproportionate outcome.
  If it were just him stealing then getting immediately tackled I'd be more sympathetic, but considering he was assaulting people before even entering the shop I'd put decent odds on the guard not being the one to start the fight. He still shouldn't have died over it but if you're going to get into fights the chance of something going wrong is non-zero.
  If it was a white kid in the ghetto the outcome would and is different. Look at the deaths in custody.
  Indeed, the white kid would be more likely to die in custody if taken into it. Whether he'd be arrested in the first place is another matter but I think it's a pretty good bet that if this same situation occurred with someone of any ethnicity they'd be ending up on the ground.
- The Eulogy Song is definitely still relevant...
  Diana died with Arab semen on her dress?
  
  Pretty sure that's an embellishment, but I can't say I ever dived into that particular rabbit hole.

People are not "placed" on the floor that is what you do with bags, boxes and rubbish. But that was the word used by the Northern Territory police to describe the sequence of events to the media.
Of all the things that went wrong the journalist leads the story with a criticism of the grammar? People are "placed" under arrest, placed first in a competition, placed in a job etc
Tragically, painfully, I think it says a lot.
Desperate for a hot take? Exploiting the tragic death for a literary career beyond journalism? I admit to not reading the article so maybe I am being too harsh - am sure someone here will tell me if so.

Death during restraint is a common and well documented issue. There is training on how to appropriately restrain someone whilst offering minimal risk to all parties involved. A huge part of it is not squashing the person being restrained - positional asphyxia.

The self-righteous ACABs always pretend to be the 'good guys' while really being murderous, rapist thugs.

9 comments