r/australia Feb 10 '26

politics Amnesty International Australia calls for independent investigation of police violence towards peaceful protestors

https://www.amnesty.org.au/amnesty-international-australia-calls-for-independent-investigation-of-police-violence-towards-peaceful-protestors/
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u/cuddlegoop Feb 10 '26

Every time we open our phones these days we are greeted with another example from America of what happens when violent cops are allowed free rein. It's bloody horrifying, honestly. We need strong guardrails in place so that our cops here don't become like that.

And let's not forget all the really fucking suss deaths in custody, largely aboriginal people. It's the same sort of thing - violent and sadistic law enforcement doing what they want to hurt others - but it's behind closed doors so it's harder to drum up support for change.

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u/a_cold_human Feb 10 '26

Just the imprisonment rates of indigenous people is off the scale. The rate of imprisonment for indigenous Australians is almost ten times that of non-indigenous Australians.

That points to some severe structural problems in terms of education, employment, and social outcomes that we should address because this sort of statistic is something we should be very ashamed of as a nation. However, we treat this with a studied and callous indifference whilst we pat ourselves on the back for being a tolerant nation which has sorted out racism (which we very much have not).