Cracks in the system
As much as you enjoy being out and about with people, tonight will be a good evening for rest and relaxation, Flip. If you can, try taking the afternoon off: curl up in your favorite chair with a good book, take a slow walk through a garden or putter about in the kitchen cooking up something fabulous. You need some time to refuel your soul, Flip. You will be able to tackle your projects tomorrow, relaxed and rejuvenated.
So I got around to reading that essay of Chloe Hooper's: The Tall Man. I have been watching the Palm Island case with some interest and suddenly put the pieces together - that was the Walkley award winning essay that landed on my desk several months ago, but which I never read. Well, last night I fell into Hooper's island of repute and was entranced from the word go. Now it all makes sense. I knew there was something bad going on with the application of justice on the island but was shamefully unaware of the details. Now I know.
At 11.20am on November 19, 2004, 36-year-old Cameron (Mulrunji) Doomadgee, died in the police watch-house on Palm Island. An hour earlier he had been alive, singing out loud as we wandered down the street. A police officer took offence to what he saw as a slight. He beat Doomadgee so badly that he died. The cone of silence closed. According to Hooper, a witness account described Doomadgee rolling around on the floor in pain before he died, whimpering "Help me", but the same witness was so intoxicated that all he could do was pat Doomadgee feebly on the head as he slowly passed into the next world. His liver was hewn in two by the attacks. He had broken ribs and a ruptured spleen.
The policeman walked free. The policeman walked free!
According to the ABC, the former New South Wales chief justice Sir Laurence Street is on the island this week to review the Queensland DPP's decision not to charge the policeman. Will justice be served?
I can only dream of one day writing as well as Chloe Hooper. That Walkley was sorely deserved.