This Dispatch was first published 10 June 2015
Dzień dobry moi przyjaciele,
In the film ‘Bundera Boys’ the late actor Maurie Fields plays a guard. He has occassion to say “Good on ya” to two old Jewish prisoners. “Godonya? Godonya? What is Godonya?” “I think it’s in Poland” is the reply. “godonya ! godonya ! vos iz godonya ? ikh trakhtn es iz in foyln !”
Yuendumu’s $7.6M Police Complex is nearing completion. ‘Making Communities Safer’ will soon come to fruition. We can’t wait for the grand opening! Godonya!
Before last Christmas there was a hunting party roaming the streets of Yuendumu. A pair of Policemen from Alice Springs were hunting for unregistered vehicles, unlicensed drivers and unworn seatbelts. Am told their sortie was quite successful and netted $9,000 in fines. At an average speed of 25Km per hour, un-registrable vehicles in Yuendumu are not quite sitting ducks, more like crawling ducks. I’m glad the community has been made safer by punishing the criminals that have persisted in imperilling our lives. Godonya!
Last week a group of women who were in “sorry camp” (bereaving the death of a Yuendumu man) witnessed some serious activity emanating from the new Police Complex across the road.
From around midnight to the next day, police were taking part in a hunting expedition. They were hunting for people with outstanding warrants. Am told they made a number of arrests.
In one instance eight members of the constabulary surrounded a residence and caught an alleged criminal, waking several children in the process. It was 5:30a.m. The alleged criminal was quite angry and told me that “someone” had informed the Police of his whereabouts. The possibility of a generation of children growing up hating the Police, and community conflict resulting from the suspicion that “someone” had dobbed “someone” in, and the resultant damage to the Social Fabric of Yuendumu, is a small price to pay for us being made safer by these night time raids. Godonya! Most of these warrants are for such heinous crimes as “failing to appear in court”. Calendars are not exactly ubiquitous in Yuendumu and awareness of dates not exactly Yuendumu Society’s forte! All the same the Law is the Law and has to be enforced. We all feel much safer now that those court skipping criminals are pursued. Godonya!
A few days ago four police vehicles with two sniffer dogs were roaming the streets of Yuendumu. They were hunting for drugs. On the NT Police Facebook page I learn that the search netted 34 gram of cannabis, $A420 cash and a bottle of Rum. A 24 year old man has been charged with supply of cannabis, possess tainted property and possession of alcohol in a restricted area. I’m glad the community has been made safer. Godonya! Yet another “¿Que?” moment. “…tainted property…?” What? Like Pilbara Iron Ore Deposits? Like Pastoral Leases?
Incidentally the dope detecting dog is called Wilson. Wilson is a common Yuendumu family name. It was a Wilson that a year ago put on his Facebook page “Have again been pulled over by the Police for DWB” (Driving Whilst Black)
We’ve been notified that at the next Sports Weekend there will be more police. I’m over the moon. Godonya! NT Police’s motto: Keeping People Safe
I’m prompted to repeat a Ghandi quote:
“ They do not know, that a subtle but effective system of terrorism, together with an organized display of force on the one hand, and the deprivation of all powers of retaliation or self-defence on the other, has emasculated the people and induced in them the habit of simulation.”
Must read Uncle Tom’s Cabin again. The habit of simulation indeed. I expect a plethora of Uncle Toms and Auntie Thomasinas at the grand opening of the Police Complex, especially if they hold a sausage sizzle.
They shall all declare how much safer they now feel, and how grateful they are that the Government saw fit to provide such generous funding. Ghandi furthermore said: “This awful habit has added to the ignorance and self deception of the administrators”
I’m old enough to have grown up with the stereotype of the unarmed Bobby that helps old ladies across the road. In my childhood town in Argentina two unarmed police on bicycles used to patrol at night. Every few minutes they would blow a whistle on opposite sides of the town, to let each other know all was well. They were whistleblowers. Not unlike the town criers of the previous century.
Half a century ago I remember reading a Time Magazine devoted to crime and policing. What stuck in my mind was that studies had clearly shown that there was a very strong correlation with increased rates of violence in society and the overt display of weapons and force by authorities.
What would Time Magazine back then have made of today’s black Ninja Police uniforms, and the Swiss Army Knife belts (complete with hand-cuffs, gun, taser, capsicum spray and nail clippers)? Am I wrong in thinking that members of the constabulary watch too much television?
I’m also old enough to remember watching policemen (there were very few policewomen back then) two finger typing on a loud typewriter at the local Police Station. Computers and silent keyboards are now de rigueur. All the same the Attorney General of the Northern Territory has recently justified the introduction of ‘Paper-less Arrest’ powers. The NT’s latest Death in Custody was such a ‘paperless arrest’. The Attorney General asserted that relieving NT Police of the burden of paperwork would free them up to do more Police work. Godonya! No surprises if I told you the NT’s Attorney General is an ex-Policeman, and a tough one at that. Godonya!
Am I wrong in thinking that Terrorism, Violent Crime, Suicides, Drug use, Child abuse, domestic violence, high incarceration rates, dysfunction in society etc. are exacerbated and become self fulfilling prophesies by an inordinate obsessive focus by outsiders that think they know better and view all of this through an ethnocentric double standard lens ?
There are good news stories I could tell you about Yuendumu, but I fear that those that are complicit in the ethnocidal attack being visited upon remote Aboriginal communities may only perceive these as yet more that needs to be changed, if Aborigines are to move ahead into the glorious mainstream.
The previous dispatch quoted African American writer Toni Morrison “Black people have chosen, or been forced to seek, safety from the whiteman’s promise.”
In ‘Living for the City’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSRyf5G2uI8 Stevie Wonder encapsulates this promise. The promise of assimilation.
Countering the negative stereotypes can be counterproductive. Such lies and ignorance shouldn’t be given oxygen.
Napoleon is alleged to have said this : “Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence”. He would have said it in French: “Ne jamais attribuer à la malice de ce qui est bien expliqué par l’incompétence”. In a Corsican accent.
I’m not so sure about that. It seems more like a compounding of malice and incompetence driven by ignorance that we are witnessing. And it is spreading, like weeds.
Dopóki znów się spotkamy
Frank
And this song dedicated to those understaffed underfunded hard working unsung heroes that work for Aboriginal Legal Aid Services:
…so deep in trouble the white folks couldn’t get him free…
Christmas Morning Blues – Victoria Spivey
I woke up christmas morning went out to get my morning’s mail
A letter sent from georgia the postmark said atlanta jail
In a mean old jailhouse ’cause he broke them georgia laws
My man’s so deep in trouble the white folks couldn’t get him free
He stole a hog the charge was murder in the first degree……
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_srzb98Uuc