In his report, State Coroner John Abernathy cleared the cops of all blame for TJ’s death even though it occurred during a police operation.

At a September 24 NSW parliamentary inquiry into the “Redfern riot,” however, an Aboriginal liaison officer with the police testified that the police covered up their direct responsibility for Hickey’s death.

“The coronial inquiry was not just a cover-up, it was worse—it was a complete and utter whitewash,” said Ray Jackson, president of the Indigenous Social Justice Association, at a September 3 speak-out organized by the Militant Labour Forum in Campsie, Sydney. “There were contradictions galore in the police evidence presented,” said Jackson. “Even given the evidence, his decision was a bad one.”

The coroner stated that he could not accept statements from Hollingsworth and Reynolds, the two cops in the wagon chasing TJ, that they had not seen the youth when they traveled down the street behind him.

Eyewitnesses interviewed by the Militant at the time said they saw the cops’ vehicle ram TJ’s bike from behind, pitching him onto the steel fence.

Police Commissioner Ken Moroney defended his cops, saying that inconsistencies in the statements given by Hollingsworth and Reynolds, “do not necessarily amount to lies.”

Hollingsworth, a senior police constable, refused to testify at the inquest on the grounds it could lead to possible disciplinary action, reported the Sydney Morning Herald.

“The coroner made the most insulting decision by allowing Hollingsworth not to take the stand,” Jackson commented. “He should have forced him to take the stand. It was a slap across the face to the family and supporters.”

According to the Herald, “the inquest found that Hickey died of penetrating neck and chest injuries sustained when he was catapulted over the handlebars of his ‘defective’ bike onto the fence.”

“The forensic report on his injuries was never looked at in court,” Jackson said. “It stated that Hickey’s internal injuries were the result of absolute force. That is, the bike must have been hit with force to catapult the youth onto the fence.

“When we saw the bike, the wheels had been changed. A young guy who had known TJ saw his bike with the wheel off at Redfern station. No forensic evidence was taken from the police wagons. In an open inquiry it would have been.”

“We want to reintroduce the case back into the coroner’s court so he can hear the true evidence—not the fabricated evidence he heard in court. But it will take a lot of lobbying and support to get the case reopened,” he said.

Ron Poulsen, the Communist League candidate for the seat of Watson in the October 9 federal elections, joined the speak-out to demand justice for TJ. He called for the prosecution of the cops who killed the youth and protests against the whitewash by the court system. “The courts always act to cover up constant police racist harassment and violence against Aboriginal and other oppressed and working-class youth,” he said.  
 
‘Police rammed the kid’
The cops’ cover-up was further exposed when Paul Wilkinson, an Aboriginal liaison officer with the Redfern police, told the September 24 NSW parliamentary inquiry into the “Redfern riot” that “the police actually rammed the young kid.” Wilkinson, who has since been transferred out of Redfern, said that his house had been burned down and he had received death threats from police warning him not to come forward and give evidence.

Wilkinson was never questioned by police authorities for that report. “The reason they wouldn’t ask me is because they’re trying to cover up for exactly what took place down in Redfern that day,” he said.

At the parliamentary inquiry the liaison officer described the racist behavior typical of Redfern cops. Wilkinson described one junior constable saying when he heard a scream, “I hope it was a coon underneath our tires.”

In the coroner’s report much of the blame for the so-called riot on February 14 was laid on TJ’s family. The coroner stated that if the family had gone to the police with their concerns that TJ had been pursued by the police then the outcome “would have followed a very different path.”

An August 18 Herald editorial following the release of the coroner’s report called for “more experienced police” and “a rethink of policing approaches.”

An internal police report into the events following TJ’s death recommended that police consider using more “offensive” riot-control equipment such as rubber bullets, armoured rescue vehicles, long-range capsicum spray, and gas grenades.

There has been a beefing up of police in Redfern and Sydney more generally in the wake of the February 14 “riot.” On July 16, for example, the New South Wales state Labour government announced that a full-time riot squad of 46 officers would be created to respond to “civil disorder” anywhere in the state.

A $6 million seven-story new police station is planned in Redfern with cop numbers boosted from 170 to 226. They will be issued with riot shields and undergo riot control training, including the use of armored vehicles.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home