[Green-Activist] Palm Island Death in Custody Case

[Anne Goddard]

From: Samuel Watson
Sent: Friday, 23 February 2007 8:14 AM
To: Samuel Watson
Subject: FW: The Queensland Police / the Palm Island Death In Custody case






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From: Samuel Watson
Sent: Friday, 23 February 2007 8:01 AM
To: 'letters at theaustralian.com.au'
Subject: The Queensland Police / the Palm Island Death In Custody case





The Beattie government must sack Judy Spence the Police minister 
immediately. She has presided over the most appalling downward spiral in the 
standards of Police service delivery and Police accountability and in the 
finest Westminster tradition, she must take full responsibility and resign 
her commission. In recent months she has become nothing more than a puppet 
extension of the Queensland Police union. By her own blind patronage of that 
select and powerful group, she has become further isolated and alienated 
from the broader community. When she accepted her ministerial commission 
from the state governor to act on behalf of the people and in the best 
interests of the general community, her oath of office bound her to act for 
all Queenslanders, not only those in blue uniform. The Palm Island death In 
Custody case has brought into full focus the horrific racism that still 
pulses within that "thin blue line," and yet Spence steadfastly refuses to 
reign in the more extremist elements of the Union or show any genuine 
leadership. In recent years there has been a number of cases in which 
Aboriginal Police officers have faced serious charges; but in those cases 
there has been a deafening silence from the Police Union and not a word of 
support from the Minister. Now we have the macabre threat of a mass Police 
march on parliament because the Crown had the temerity to charge a member of 
the Police Union over the death of an Aboriginal man. Minister Spence is now 
seen across the state as the Parliamentary face of a union that has 
consistently refused to engage with our broader community and has 
consistently failed to act in the better interests of their entire 
membership. Ordinary Queenslanders certainly support the right of the Police 
Union to act for their membership with passion and zeal, that is their job. 
But that commitment to their members must never be predicated or qualified 
by the tensions of race or colour. And ordinary Queenslanders must be able 
to represented by a Minister who will display integrity and honour; but 
tragically this incumbent Police Minister has an abundance of neither.



SAM WATSON

17 / 106 Norton Street,

Upper Mt.Gravatt

Qld. 4122

Ph - 07 34205505

Ph - 0401227443


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