Ilo diaz

Here is a piece I wrote looking at the historical context that led up to police killing of Abdifatah in Footscray.

I argue that this historical context played a part in the 11 seconds it took for police to locate, call for backup and ultimately kill Abdifatah.

blog.centreagainstracialprofiling.au

Victoria Police members have been pushing for more money recently. In view of all the systemic issues Vic Pol have, I don't understand how they still hold both political power and social licence.
Shows how deeply police are embedded in our imagination

Racist thinking leads to racist policy. Victoria's proposed new 'social cohesion' laws will perform safety for some groups, while extending police power to control other groups.
Nothing in this goes towards reckoning with growing white supermacy.
Read more
blog.centreagainstracialprofiling.au

More than 90% of people caught with small amounts of illicit drugs criminalised in NSW despite diversion reforms Exclusive: Police used discretion to divert just 6.9% of people caught with personal use quantities of drugs from criminal justice system, data shows

Despite having the discretion to divert people caught with small amounts of illicit drugs away from the criminal justice system, NSW police used it in just 6.9% of cases. It was only 2.6% for those who were indigenous. Disgraceful. #auspol #NSWpol
www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

The police union really showing their colours today. Geez, I wonder who are the ones feeding stories to the media to criminalise protest and poverty.

www.theage.com.au/national/vic...

that famous image of george bush receiving the news about 9/11 but he's sitting at the hot ones table with some sauce on his mouth

alternate timeline where instead of reading to children on 9/11, george bush was in the middle of filming hot ones

Thousands march to New Zealand's parliament in protest of treaty bill – video The hīkoi mō te Tīriti, or march for the treaty, has arrived at New Zealand's parliament house to protest a bill that seeks to reinterpret the country’s founding treaty between Māori and the crown. Although the bill is unlikely to become law, its introduction has prompted widespread anger among the public, academics, lawyers and Māori rights groups, who believe it is creating division, undermining the treaty, and damaging the relationship between Māori and ruling authorities Tens of thousands converge on NZ parliament as march to protest controversial Māori rights bill reaches capital Continue reading...

Thousands march to New Zealand's parliament in protest of treaty bill – video

What's shocking is the audacity to go to such lengths to set someone up for a crime. I wonder if we've missed other similar cases because of 'churn' culture of our legal system.

Police officer who tasered Clare Nowland tells court his job was to ‘maintain the peace’ Sen Const Kristian James Samuel White said situation with 95-year-old carrying knife ‘was not going to be resolved without the use of force’

It's harder for police to control the crime narrative when the 'criminal' is a 95 year old white great grandmother.

But damn it do they try.

"At the police academy we are taught ‘any person with a knife is a danger’,”

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

‘Who benefits from this?’ Soul-searching after the Amsterdam violence Jewish and Muslim communities speak of heightened fears as questions linger about events around football match

“Who wins when they do this...I think the winner is Wilders. And the losers and the victims are Amsterdam society – everyone, the Jews, the Muslims, Christians, everyone.”

It's the same question we should ask ourselves in Australia.
#auspol

www.theguardian.com/world/2024/n...

A Return to Leftist Self-Defense Communities targeted by escalating right-wing violence are learning from their own histories how to keep each other safe.

Latest from me: I talk about the need for community self-defense projects, a necessary piece of supporting marginalized communities and any revolutionary project to remake the world. But that defensive work starts with mutual aid and community accountability. www.yesmagazine.org/social-justi...

Premier Allan spins anti-genocide protest as 'War on Christmas'  - The Shot They're just lying about basically everything now, hey?! Good times! I don't know what I'm meant to put in this little box. Free Palestine.

“We are all sick of this stuff,” she said, refering to the protests (not the genocide).

I feel like the thing that is missing is that politicians are treating the right to protest, and a commercial corporate event as the same moral equivalent.

theshot.net.au/uncategorize...

It's become cool to increasingly problematise protests in Australia.
They have fallen for coverage of false equivalences that many politicians push. Like weighing up the right to protest with the moral outrage of disrupting the Myers windows. Or in this case, the threat of protest

BREAKING: WA Police target Indigenous youth rehabilitation event, arresting three boys in front of other children Police arrived without warning at a youth rehabilitation event co-run by the Aboriginal Legal Service of WA with five cars, arresting three boys participating in the program on Thursday.ALS WA chief e...

"What happened today, ... was they had all these kids together... and the cops turned up with five car loads of cops then proceeded to arrest three young boys...handcuff them in front of all the other kids."

Imagine the harm police have just caused to this community

nit.com.au/14-11-2024/1...

Burgertory owner reveals further ‘twisted act’ in open letter to police Burgertory owner Hash Tayeh has hit out over revelations police knew his Melbourne restaurant was allegedly burned down for political reasons and put the force “on notice”.

"police later dismissing a pig heart being dumped at Burgertory’s door as “just littering”'

Police strategically use discretion to select who they think is worthy of safety and who isn't. They also own crime narratives.
Well done Hash on pushing back on vicpol.

www.theage.com.au/national/vic...

New Zealand Parliament suspended after haka protest As parliamentarians gathered for a preliminary vote on the bill on Thursday, Te Pāti Māori MPs physically tore a copy of the bill, stood and began a haka.

As parliamentarians gathered for a preliminary vote on the bill on Thursday, Te Pāti Māori MPs physically tore a copy of the bill, stood and began a haka.

It's getting ridiculous how lawyers for police are trying to make a 90 year old sound like a serious police threat so intense, they needed to taser her.
There is no excuse here.

Hey ex Twitter people, just a heads up that under Elon's terms and conditions, as of this Friday he can use all of your tweets to feed his LLM. You can only stop it by deleting your tweets.

Asio chief says a terrorist attack in Australia is ‘probable’ in the next 12 months Australia’s counter-terrorism agencies are calling for new powers to tackle religious and ideologically motivated extremism

Don't remember?

"Asked if this had created a false equivalence between left and rightwing extremism, Burgess said Vic police appeared to be referring to protests and that leftwing groups “might get involved in a bit of biffo” which is “not what concerns Asio”

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

'Touch our kids, it's over': Neo-Nazi issues chilling warning to authorities An ABC investigation has uncovered a disturbing escalation in rhetoric from prominent neo-Nazis in Australia, including comments about encouraging violent crime.

Remember that time when ASIO was like 'right-wing extremism is in the rise' and every police body was like 'yeah, we agree'
But Vic Pol was like 'yea but antifa and extreme left too'
And everyone rolled their eyes.

www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11...

AFP officer caught with 200 grams of meth avoids jail In 2022, William Wheatley was found with a quantity of methamphetamine 50 times higher than the threshold for trafficking.

Ex AFP officer is found with meth 50 times more than the threshold for trafficking and is charged with a lower offence.

It's madding how much slack we give police officers. They hold extraordinary power over people. They should be held to extraordinary standards

www.theage.com.au/national/vic...

Thought I'd run some things past my most talkative colleague today about Anthropic working with Palantir.
They were not impressed.

https://www.techopedia.com/news/anthropic-joins-forces-with-palantir-for-defense-projects

Snapshot of IBAC work concerning VicPol. 1654 complaints recieved, 37 complaints investigated

If my maths is correct, IBAC, the body in charge of independent complaints investigation of VicPol investigated 2% of complaints made to them.
Not sure we can say we have an independent complaints system with those kind of numbers. #PoliceOmbudsmanNow
#AusPol #VicPolWatch

The Amsterdam attack shows Israelis' denial of the reality they created | Opinion ***

"But the Amsterdam riots also have a context, and Israel is unwilling to address it ... After all, it did not erupt like this before the war in Gaza."

www.haaretz.com/opinion/2024...

How Attacks on Israeli Soccer Fans in Amsterdam Unfolded Antisemitic assaults on visiting Israeli soccer fans, and incendiary chants and attacks by some Israelis: Here’s what we know so far about the violence in Amsterdam last week.

"After arriving home, some Israeli fans and those who greeted them at the airport repeated the incendiary chants against Arabs and Gazans"

It's deliberate self censorship by NYT. Despite the facts, they still frame it as antisemitic violence in the first paragraph

www.nytimes.com/2024/11/10/w...

"The racist actions and genocidal chants of the Maccabi supporters, in contrast, resulted in no arrests or global calls of condemnation."
Framing matters.

https://www.crikey.com.au/2024/11/11/amsterdam-football-fan-attacks-palestine-israel-media-coverage/

NSW police win pay rises of up to 40% in biggest wage increase in 30 years Deal comes as Minns government remains mired in pay disputes with nurses and other public-sector unions

Few thoughts: 1/ Most police forces (including AFP) say they need more cops. 2/ There’s other pay disputes going on, eg in Vic. 3/ Police increasingly say, about everything from FV to drugs, we can’t “police our way out of this”. Why is everyone still trying?

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Agree. Invest in addressing the determinates of crime. Or better yet, let's reimagine what safety and crime look like, by resourcing communities to find non criminalising solutions.
But if we are going to give money to police, let's also give money to bodies to keep them accountable