Posted on 06/03/2006 3:14:54 PM PDT by Pikamax
Caucasian accuser was 'first to abuse' By Ean Higgins 02jun06
THE Aboriginal teenager facing the first charges under Western Australia's new race-hate laws claims she spoke back to a white woman only after being racially abused herself.
The 15-year-old girl could face up to six months' detention for allegedly calling 19-year-old Mellissa Blackney a "white slut" during a confrontation in the mining town of Kalgoorlie.
The girl, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, claimed Ms Blackney drove her car aggressively towards her, mistakenly believing one of three Aboriginal girls had thrown a rock at her Nissan Skyline. She said Ms Blackney then became aggressive.
"She starting swearing at us. She said, 'You little black c..ts'," the girl said. The girl claims Ms Blackney then started to push her, at which point she admits striking Ms Blackney.
She also admits she called Ms Blackney a "white c..t", but only, she says, after Ms Blackney started the racial abuse.
Ms Blackney yesterday categorically denied the girl's claims. "I was swearing - I said 'Why did you throw a f..king rock at my car?"' said Ms Blackney.
"But I never made any racial reference whatsoever." Ms Blackney also denies she was physically aggressive. Police charged three Aboriginal girls, aged 14, 15 and 21, with assault after they allegedly attacked Ms Blackney in April.
The 15-year-old has additionally been charged with racial vilification and is scheduled to face a hearing in the Children's Court in August.
The case has sparked outrage among some Aboriginal leaders, who say the charge is not in keeping with the intent of the new racial vilification laws.
Aboriginal Legal Service chief executive Dennis Eggington said Kalgoorlie was a "hard-nosed frontier mining town where Aborigines dealt with overt and covert racism daily".
"It's not like living in a leafy suburb in Melbourne ... if people understood the level of racial abuse and vilification that our indigenous community suffer on a daily basis they would understand that there is a terrible irony in this particular case in Kalgoorlie," he said. "Sometimes the only way indigenous people feel they can live through being called a boong and an Abo and a black nigger is by biting back and saying 'You white so-and-so'."
Mr Eggington urged police to apply the law equally.
Premier Alan Carpenter yesterday said the law was designed to protect people of all backgrounds from being racially vilified.
"The expectation that we had when we introduced this legislation was that we would reduce the amount of racial vilification happening in Western Australia ... no matter what that individual's background," he said.
The 15-year-old girl yesterday said she believed that had the situation been reversed - if she were a white girl hurling racial abuse at a black woman - she would not have been charged.
Additional reporting: Paige Taylor
oops.
Man, it must be tough when you have to follow the same laws you forced through that you wanted to use against everyone else. Sure must suck.
C.T FIGHT! MEOW!!!!!
That happened in Florida, too. If I remember correctly, the first person to be arrested for a hate crime was a black man, who, while resisting arrest, called the arresting officers "Crackers."
"My boomerang won't come back,
My boomerang won't come back,
I wave the thing all over the place,
Practice 'til I was blue in the face,
I'm a big disgrace to the aborigine race,
My boomerang won't come back!"
I'm trying to remember the case, but I remember down south, some place passed a hate crimes law, and the first charge was a firestorm.
It was a black college kid who beat up another black college kid because he was gay.
The NAACP and some gay rights groups stepped in and then stepped right back out so fast it must have given them whiplash.
From what I do remember about the case, it was at a all african american college, and the gay student was attacked in the dorms, the NAACP wasn't happy with an african american being charged first, but didn't want to cause problems because the victim was gay and also black, and the gay groups were happy but didn't want to antagonize the NAACP by promoting the case.
LOL! Funny how those "one-way" laws never seem to work as intended.
What ever happened to: "sticks and stones can break my bones; but names..."
I guess if she just called her a slut it would have been alright, huh?
How about Caucasian?(You, Caucasian you!)
Ah... maybe not.
It's just like here. When a minority is made to be accountable to the law that minority considers it racism.
Young kids who claim an aboriginal ancestry have become experts at playing the race card. Even if they are 80% European and of Caucasian appearance, they will still resort to playing the race card.
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