Thirty police hurt in Sydney, Australia riot

AAP ^ | 16th February 2004 | AAP

[KangarooJacqui]

Thirty police hurt in riot February 16, 2004 6.10AM AEDT

THIRTY police officers were injured as they were pelted with bricks and Molotov cocktails during an overnight riot in inner-Sydney sparked by a youth's death.

Police reinforcements from across Sydney were called to Redfern after the riot by 100 youths broke out at about 6pm (AEDT) yesterday.

A police spokeswoman said the riot ended early today and four people were in custody, with police still at the scene.

It appears the incident was sparked by the death of a 17-year-old boy who was impaled on a metal fence after falling from his bicycle on Saturday.

Thomas Hickey died in hospital yesterday morning from his injuries.

His mother says her son was pursued by police, but they deny the allegation.

The police spokeswoman said 30 officers were injured but it was not yet clear how many required hospital treatment.

"Thirty police officers were injured to varying degrees," she said.

Reinforcements brought in from across Sydney included police rescue, the dog squad and highway patrol officers.

"I can confirm Molotov cocktails were used and there were bricks and bottles and such," the spokeswoman said.

The four people arrested are yet to be charged.

The spokeswoman said the arrests came during a police sweep of the area and were not directly related to the riot.

Redfern railway station has been reopened after being shut for several hours during the standoff.

AAP

[KangarooJacqui]

Horrifying... I just heard a report on the news that the rioters were subdued with high-pressure fire hoses.

I'm currently staying in Sydney's inner southwest (just a few minutes' drive from where this happened), and I wondered what the police sirens and choppers were all about.

Chilling to think this sort of thing can happen here. Sydney's fast turning into this side of the Pacific's Los Angeles or Chicago, in my opinion...

[debg]

Kid's name is Thomas Hickey..here's a photo:

[Tijeras_Slim]

Also interesting was the link on the page (upper right) to a Police probe of an anarchist website. What's going on down there?

[null and void]

Yikes!

[oldfart]

"What's going on down there?"

Evidently they're a bit further down the road to Socialism than we are. See what we have to look forward to?

[KangarooJacqui]

There's a reason I don't live in Sydney... no, scratch that, there is MANY reasons I don't live in Sydney.

This is just one of them.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

It appears the incident was sparked by the death of a 17-year-old boy who was impaled on a metal fence after falling from his bicycle on Saturday

That is a very weird way to die. It would have to be a very tall bicycle or very little fence.

Any more information on exactly how this happened?

[cyborg]

Yes there's not a lot of info in this story.

[mylife]

That is a very weird way to die. It would have to be a very tall bicycle or very little fence.

Those were my thoughts as well

[KangarooJacqui]

I saw the fence on the early morning TV news about half an hour ago... couldn't really tell how tall the fence was, but he could have been looking over his shoulder (he was being chased by police, according to reports) and rode his bike into the kerbside at speed, thereby flipping him upwards onto the fence.

The shots of the riot were just awful, though. Police with riot shields, lined up... kids throwing stones, rockets, one police officer was hit by a flying brick...

[KangarooJacqui]

Alright, alright, I'm new at this "breaking news on FR" business... ;-)

(This from http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story.jsp?sectionid=1258&storyid=903220 - does that help a little more?)

POLICE have denied they were chasing a teenager when he was flung off his bicycle and impaled on a metal fence, suffering fatal injuries.

Thomas Hickey died in Sydney's Children's Hospital yesterday of chest, neck and internal injuries after what police said was a tragic and freak accident.

Police would not comment whether there was an arrest warrant out for the 17-year-old, who died just minutes after spotting officers.

The youth's mother Gail Hickey said witnesses saw the teenager being chased by police just before he came off his bike and was impaled on the fence in inner-city Waterloo.

"Police chased him," she said.

"Four people saw him and they said police chased him."

Redfern Police held a press conference yesterday to ask for witnesses to come forward.

Inspector Bob Emery said there was no pursuit and at the time of the accident police were patrolling several blocks from where the incident occurred.

"They were some distance [away]. They were in the area patrolling," he said yesterday.

Minutes before, police and the boy had crossed paths but they did not try to pursue him because he was not a person of interest, Insp Emery said.

Asked whether Hickey may have been fleeing because he saw the police, Insp Emery said it was impossible to know what the youth had been thinking.

Asked about reports that a warrant was out for Hickey's arrest, Insp Emery replied: "That's not an issue.

"He wasn't being sought by the police, he wasn't a person of interest to them."

Insp Emery said witnesses saw the youth flung into the air but, apart from the bike having "virtually no brakes" he was unsure what happened.

"I don't think that it will happen again in another 100 years," he said.

"It is a tragedy all round to lose a 17-year-old in such a freak accident."

He also said the fence was not dangerous and did not have pointed palings.

"I don't think you would see it as an accident waiting to happen," he said.

Mrs Hickey described her son as "little for being 17" with a happy personality.

Police are preparing a report for the coroner on the death.

[prion]

Is this just poor people rioting against "the establishment" or is there some sort of ethnic issue or overzealous police behind this, or what? Usually, people have smoldered for a long time before they break out in rioting.

[wretchard]

The aborigines have pretty much been destroyed by welfare and reservation policies that have turned many into alcoholics and criminals. There's a whole industry devoted to keeping the aborigines in the 'victim' condition. This is so bizarre that people who look absolutely white style themselves as aboriginal leaders. It confuses the hell out of Asian-Australians, probably because they have the sense to see the occasional absurdity of it.

[MrBambaLaMamba]

Sydney's great, just don't go into Redfern.

Something bad is always happening in Redfern, the hotbed of indigenous malcontents and mischief makers.


And remember the most effective way to end war and ensure peace is to kill the enemy.

[Phsstpok]

Kids not an Anglo, so is he an aborigine, asian/Idian/African immigrant or perhaps an Arab/Muslim? What is the nature of the neighberhoods where the riots took place? Why would a particular community react this way? Has there been a "long history" of cops killing members of one community or another? Also, this picture makes him look about 12. Is he really that age?

This story has been "sanitized" to be politically correct, but doing that makes it much less informative;

Now, this is a much better version of the story with context (though I don't think it's all that politically incorrect in any way... but that's just me):

Teenager's death triggers fiery Aboriginal rampage

By Tim Dick , Jennifer Cooke and Alexandra Smith
February 16, 2004
 

Fury and tragedy...Redfern station burns during the height of the confrontation between local Aboriginal people and police following the death of Thomas Hickey, right. Main photo: Edwina Pickles

 

Teenager's death triggers fiery Aboriginal rampage
By Tim Dick , Jennifer Cooke and Alexandra Smith
February 16, 2004

 

Redfern railway station was set ablaze, windows were smashed and at least one police officer was taken to hospital as Aborigines went on a rampage last night in a furious response to the death of a teenage boy.

Trains were ordered not to stop at the station from about 9.30 as Aborigines began gathering and fire crews and police reinforcements were called in.

Up to 60 police officers in riot gear, seven fire engines, 15 police cars and two ambulances converged on the Lawson Street block from Regent Street to Abercrombie Street.

The death of 17-year-old Thomas Hickey on Saturday was the trigger that reignited simmering Aboriginal anger over policing in the area.

Thomas, TJ to those who knew him, died in hospital early yesterday morning from neck and chest injuries after being impaled on a fence while cycling home on Phillip Street. His family claims he was being chased by police when the accident happened, a charge the police reject.

As police moved in last night the rioters torched the entrance of the station using a liquid accelerant splashed from a bottle. Sticks wrapped with burning material were used to set alight furniture in the street.

Flames billowed from the station entrance as police in riot gear advanced three-deep towards a man at the top of Eveleigh Street. At least one police officer was carried to an ambulance.

Bottles were hurled at the station wall, leaving a thick carpet of broken glass along the footpath. Rioters stole a baton from a police car and used it to smash all the windows on the Lawson Street side of the station as well as several police windscreens.

Locals described the riot as the biggest they had seen in years. Alastair Cameron, an events manager of Little Eveleigh Street, said the rioters had been throwing bottles and bricks at the station and onto its roof from about 7pm. At one stage they had set fire to plastic street barriers and a car driven into the barriers was left to burn.

Late last night one person had been arrested and all available police from the inner metropolitan commands were sent to Redfern. About 11.30 a line of police officers in riot gear faced about 50 Aborigines.

Thomas's aunt, Virginia, said: "If you're black and see a police car, you just run." She believes police were chasing him as he rode back to her home, where he lived, about 11.15am on Saturday after visiting his mother.

Thomas's mother, Gail, said witnesses had told her that police were chasing him before the accident, and that officers had pulled him off the fence and searched his pockets before he was taken to Prince of Wales Hospital.

A warrant is believed to have been issued for the teenager's arrest. However, Inspector Bob Emery insists that at the time Thomas was not "a person of interest" to police, who were "blocks away" when he lost control of the bicycle.

Inspector Emery said a member of the public had flagged down passing police and told them where they were needed.

A spokesman for the mourning family, Lyall Munro, said "as far as we're concerned, it's an Aboriginal death in custody", because the family said Thomas had died while being chased by police.

Inspector Emery appealed for anyone with information to come forward.

Earlier yesterday flyers were handed out with a picture of police and reading: "Wanted: child murderers. There is a gang of child killers operating in the Redfern area. They can be easily identified as they all dress the same."

 

This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/02/15/1076779843405.html

[luvbach1]

Perps commit offenses and police sometimes chase them. Since when is that police misconduct?

[KangarooJacqui]

Thanks. This isn't my first trip to Sydney, I know to avoid Redfern (especially on foot). It's just one of many areas (for various reasons) to avoid, unfortunately.

I also know about the "industry" devoted to keeping indigenous Australians (we're not supposed to call them "Aboriginies" anymore, because that is exclusive of the Torres Strait Islanders)... it's called ATSIC (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission) and it was the creation of the bleeding-heart lefties of the last Labor Government who comprised Australia's ruling party Federally from 1983 until 1996. (And you lot thought 8 years of Clinton was bad... *shudder*)

It's a big scam and benefits very few people, while the vast majority of indigenous Australians remain poor, uneducated and in many cases lacking basic health care (all the sorts of things that ATSIC's enormous budget was supposed to fix.)

[luvbach1]

So they were Abos.

[luvbach1]

Stupid PC dictum since indigenous means aboriginal.

[debg]

Thanks for the article. It makes sense that the kid was probably aborigine, esp. with his name. Apparently Redfern community is home to the indigenous.