Browsing Tag
police
49 posts
Men charged over major kava seizure in remote community
A huge haul of kava has been seized in a remote community where police have arrested and charged two men with supplying the intoxicant. The seizure of 235kg of the alcohol substitute was made on Tuesday at Galiwinku on Elcho Island, 550km northeast of Darwin, following reports kava was being distributed in the area. More than $15,400 in cash was also seized and two men, aged 28 and 35, were arrested following a police search of a property. The pair have been charged with possessing and supplying a commercial amount of kava and were remanded in custody after appearing…
Call for NT’s top cop to quit over ICAC finding
Northern Territory Police Commissioner Michael Murphy is under pressure to resign after admitting he was the unnamed bureaucrat whose conduct was branded "negligent and incompetent" in a scathing ICAC report. Mr Murphy's admission came a week after the NT's corruption watchdog announced a finding of improper and unsatisfactory conduct against an unnamed public official who had mismanaged a conflict of interest in the recruitment of a senior officer. "I found that the conduct involved negligence and incompetence … result(ing) in a substantial detriment to the public interest," Delegate for the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption Patricia Kelly SC said in a…
‘Inhumane’: overcrowded watch house conditions exposed
Inhumane, discriminatory and a violation of human rights - two women have described the conditions endured by inmates in a Northern Territory police station. Aboriginal women Deanna, 30, and Simone, 35, were held in the Alice Springs watch house for extended periods from January and late November respectively. Their experiences have been detailed in affidavits submitted to the Alice Springs Local Court in January and made public by Aboriginal Peak Organisations Northern Territory. They described hot, overcrowded and poorly ventilated cells crammed with up to 20 women at a time. There was often a shortage of mattresses to accommodate inmates…
NT:’Inhumane’: overcrowded watch house conditions exposed
Inhumane, discriminatory and a violation of human rights - two women have described the conditions endured by inmates in a Northern Territory police station. Aboriginal women Deanna, 30, and Simone, 35, were held in the Alice Springs watch house for extended periods from January and late November respectively. Their experiences have been detailed in affidavits submitted to the Alice Springs Local Court in January and made public by Aboriginal Peak Organisations Northern Territory. They described hot, overcrowded and poorly ventilated cells crammed with up to 20 women at a time. There was often a shortage of mattresses to accommodate inmates…
New bail laws increase pressures in ‘broken system’
Record high prisoner numbers have forced a government to convert a purpose-built police watch house into a temporary jail as new bail laws come into effect. The Palmerston watch house, north of Darwin, will be handed over to the Department of Corrections to house an overflow of prisoners for the "foreseeable future," according to the territory's chief minister. In October the Country Liberal Party repealed bail legislation to ensure anyone committing "serious crime" would face jail time. Those laws came into effect on Monday when seven bail applications made in the courts on the same day were denied or referred…
Racism role in death at centre of teen shooting inquiry
Former police constable Zachary Rolfe's "fascination with violence" barely featured in his criminal trial but during Australia's longest-running coronial inquest his actions have been characterised as racist. Despite this, the NT coroner is being encouraged to discount racism as a cause of death in Mr Rolfe's fatal shooting of Warlpiri-Luritja teen Kumanjayi Walker. NT coroner Elisabeth Armitage closed the inquest into Kumanjayi Walker on Thursday to consider more than 5000 pages of transcripts and 1990 pages of written submissions before she hands down her findings in February. Mr Walker was shot three times at close range by then-constable Rolfe during…
Seven women killed, time to ‘wake up’, cops say
Northern Territory police are pleading with the community to "wake up" to an unfolding epidemic of domestic violence as investigations continue into seven deaths in less than five months. The latest death of a woman allegedly killed by her partner prompted an appeal on Tuesday by the Territory's police Assistant Commissioner Travis Wurst: "this has to stop". "The tragedy is mounting, and that tragedy is one that the Northern Territory cannot ignore - seven matters are being investigated by the Northern Territory police as domestic homicides since 1 June of this year," he said. "The Northern Territory cannot accept one…
Racism complaint is a ‘positive step’: NT police boss
Three serving Aboriginal police officers have lodged a complaint against the Northern Territory government and police commissioner, alleging racial discrimination over a 20-year period. The complaint, lodged with the Australian Human Rights Commission, alleges racial vilification and derision, and an unequal system of pay and promotion. Sydney-based law firm Levitt Robinson lodged the complaint on the officers' behalf. "(Aboriginal Community Police Officers) have been subject to racist conduct since their position was invented," lawyer Dana Levitt told AAP. "A lot of them have complained about the treatment to which they were subject or they've seen other community members subject and…
NT’s youth crime crackdown ‘locking up a generation’
A planned crackdown on youth crime by the new Northern Territory government has stirred controversy but the voices at the centre of the debate are missing. Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro, who led the Country Liberal Party back to power at last week's election, has vowed to reintroduce spit hoods on children and lower the age of criminal responsibility back to 10. But children affected by these policies can't tell their story - the law prohibits it. A series of archaic rules silence the young people whose stories are condensed into reports and hearings where the only prospects are criminalisation. These…
‘A good idea’ to acknowledge Australia’s history: PM
Acknowledging the history of injustice against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is a good idea but it is important to celebrate the community's successes, the prime minister says. Northern Territory Police Commissioner Michael Murphy on Saturday apologised for the harm done by officers throughout the force's history, conceding they had made mistakes and committed injustices against Indigenous people. Asked if such comments reflected the federal government's steps towards truth-telling, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said "absolutely". "It's a good idea to acknowledge history and to acknowledge that why we are here today is because of that history," he told the…