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There is very little known about the circumstances of a young Warlpiri man’s death in custody.

What we do know is that at around 1pm on May 27, security approached the in Coles, in Mparntwe/Alice Springs, over potential , after which two plainclothes police officers took over and killed Kumanjayi White.

The Northern Territory criminal justice system has followed the same script from other circumstances where a police officer or a prison guard kills a First Nations person, going into a type of lockdown. That involves disappearing all related evidence, including CCTV footage, from public sight, while local law enforcement guards its right to be the sole investigator.

When calls for independent inquiries are made, such as is happening now, local law enforcement goes into overdrive to protect its right to investigate its own. Government ministers of the relevant state or territory then support local police in keeping everything under wraps until it’s ready to provide its version of events.

The killing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people by police and corrections officers is not uncommon. While the charging of officers involved is rare, a conviction in relation to an Aboriginal custody death is unknown.

The clockwork manner in which authorities deal with such incidents points to why there have been no convictions and why nothing changes.

Australian police do not kill non-Indigenous people with disabilities over misunderstandings in a supermarket. But the police have been killing First Peoples since colonisation, and they’ve been getting away with it.

Federal intervention demeaned

Kumanjayi White lived in supported state care in Mparntwe. The outrage over his death in custody is national not only because of the seeming callousness, but because the young boy was from the remote community of Yuendumu, which was where 19-year-old Warlpiri teen  by police in 2019.

The call for an independent investigation into Aboriginal deaths in custody shows that not many believe that a police agency involved in the death of a First Nations person can honestly investigate the officers involved.

Departing from the standard textbook reaction to a First Nations custody death, federal Indigenous affairs minister Yanyuwa woman Senator Malarndirri McCarthy has called for an independent inquiry.

She told the media that this recent incident as Yuendumu has experienced “many traumas”.

The then Northern Territory police constable Zachary Rolfe’s killing of Kumanjayi Walker did lead NT police to investigate and charge Rolfe, a rare occurrence. Rolfe received a sliding scale of charges, comprising murder, which if he was not found guilty of, was then followed by manslaughter and, if that failed, a violent act causing death.

But despite Rolfe having fired two bullets into Walker’s torso, who was on the floor with Rolfe’s partner on top of him, the non-Indigenous jury acquitted the former police officer of all three charges.

Northern Territory chief minister Lia Finocchiaro said she had spoken with McCarthy and had rejected her call.

Finocchiaro, who is also police minister, said she found her exchange with McCarthy “really unhelpful to have an uneducated conversation about” the inquiry issue.

Crackdown on First Peoples

Kaurareg, Kalkalgal and Erubamle man and Justice Not Jail’s spokesperson Thomas Mayo said on June 2 that “a mere glimpse at the record of police investigating themselves when there are allegations of racial violence against them is enough to understand why the family and community are calling for an independent investigation.”

“I ask anyone with a sense for fairness and justice to loudly support the family of Kumanjayi White and their demands.”

Kumanjayi White’s grandfather, Warlpiri elder Uncle Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves, listed several demands. They include the release of the CCTV footage of the incident, an independent investigation and that the media and police stop attempting to vilify the deceased man.

Justice Not Jails said Kumanjayi White’s death happened as the NT shifts further right under the Country Liberals which, it said, has launched “relentless and racist attacks on Aboriginal families and communities”.

“These attacks include reforms to bail and sentencing that have significantly increased the number of Aboriginal people in prison,” Justice Not Jails said. Last month, Finocchiaro revoked the law requiring judges consider imprisonment as a measure of last resort, a recommendation of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

Since the 1991 royal commission handed down its recommendations, there has been . Right now, 36% of is made up of First Nations inmates, while Indigenous people only make up .

Getting away with it?

The much-anticipated coronial inquest report into Kumanjayi Walker’s death was to be released on June 10, but has now been postponed to July to allow the Yuendumu community time to grieve the loss of another of its young ones.

One witness told the media that one plainclothes officer had their knee on the . This suggests that the pair of police had the young man face down on the ground, securing him in the prone position, which is well known to be a potentially fatal hold.

Numerous First Nations people who have died in custody were subjected to applying pressure to their back as they were being held face down, until they stopped breathing.

This happened in the cases of Dunghutti man David Dungay Junior in 2015, Wiradjuri, Kookatha and Wirangu man Wayne “Fella” Morrison in 2016 and Noongar man Mr Riley in 2017, to name a few.

Protest actions against the police killing of Kumanjayi White are being held across the country this coming week.

“The inquest into Kumanjayi Walker’s death laid bare the racism in NT police,” Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung woman Senator Lidia Thorpe said on June 5. “Now the final findings are being delayed because of this latest killing. It’s trauma after trauma for our families, with no one ever held accountable.”

“Kumanjayi White’s death is not an isolated incident. It’s part of a brutal system that targets and kills our people with impunity. Police are not above the law, but they can get away with murder.”

[Paul Gregoire writes for Sydney Criminal Lawyers where was first published.]