ROME: A 37-year-old man is the fourth Aboriginal man to die in detention in less than three weeks in Australia, during a police chase in the mining town of Broken Hill, 1,150km inland from Sydney. According to a police report, the man from the Brakindji nation, Anzac Sullivan, died after “a medical episode” on March 18 and officers tried unsuccessfully to revive him. This was reported by The Australian newspaper. The death of four Aboriginal people in police custody or in prison over a period of 16 days causes alarm to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the National Commission of Inquiry into the Deaths of Aborigines “in custody”.
On 2 March a man of around 30 died in a Sydney prison hospital, on 5 March a woman in a cell in another Sydney prison, and two days later a man in prison near Melbourne. And the death of Anzac Sullivan in a police chase is considered “death in custody” under the law even though he was not under arrest at the time. “The deaths of four people in the space of just over two weeks is a strong red flag that something is seriously wrong with the police and prison systems in Australia,” said Sarah Cresslin of the Aboriginal Legal Service. Sydney, representing Sullivan’s family. “We demand that Anzac Sullivan’s death be urgently investigated by an independent agency, that the investigation be transparent and accountable to his family and the Broken Hill Aboriginal community.” The excessive presence of Aborigines in police custody and detention means that Aboriginal people have a much higher chance of dying in prison or under arrest than the rest of the population. In 1991, the National Commission of Inquiry investigated Aboriginal deaths in custody over a 10-year period and made 339 recommendations, of which only two thirds have been fully implemented.