I’m reflecting on the freedom I have to make art in my life (in the widest sense of the idea of art making) – and thinking of Mulrunji Doomadgee, who died within forty minutes of being put in the Palm Island lock-up, for a misdemeanor, in 2004.
The sorry sentencing of Lex Wotton (charged with inciting a subsequent riot) is the latest in this tale, told again on the ABC radio program The sentencing of Lex Wotton this morning.
Here’s Andrew Boe (Queensland criminal lawyer), towards the end of this program, his words carrying the weight of a man impassioned in his truth-telling:
…where in the history of this matter, has there been any acknowledgement of those responsibilities? Where has there been an appreciation that this man should never have been arrested for swearing on the street? Never been placed into custody. Should not have been left in a situation where there was manhandling by one police officer in a fashion that that sort of injury should occur. Where has there been an acceptance that leaving him on that cement floor for three hours to die in excruciating pain was acceptable? Where has there been an embracement of the conditions that these watch houses are set up in where the monitor video that was capturing this was not being heard by the Senior Sergeant and other people shortly just outside? Where has there been an acceptance that the investigation with all its shortcomings, and they’ve been so clearly set out in CMC [Queensland's Crime and Misconduct Commission] reports, where has there been an appreciation that what we did here was very wrong, and how we went about examining it was wrong, and flawed.
