Received on 16.11.19:

On Saturday the 9th of November, 19-year old Walpiri man, Kumanjayi Walker, was murdered in his own home in Yuendumu by Zachary Rolfe, a Northern Territory police officer. Kumanjayi Walker’s family called for a national day of action on the 13th of November, where people mobilised across so-called Australia to protest the murder of yet another Indigenous person by a cop.

In Meanjin/Brisbane on the lands of the Jagera and Turrbal people, the local Aboriginal community congregated in the city. They were supported by members of the local Chilean community who expressed a clear message of international Indigenous solidarity, as well as anarchists and leftists of many different stripes and other community members.

The rally descended onto the ‘Queensland’ Police Headquarters where there was explicit calls for payback from speakers. An Aboriginal flag was painted on the intersection and the front of the building was covered in chalk graffiti calling for justice and naming the killer cop, Zachary Rolfe, as a murderer.

At the close of the rally, it was released that Zachary Rolfe was charged with murder. If convicted of murder, Zachary Rolfe will have been the only cop in so-called Australia to have been convicted of murder, despite over 420 recorded deaths in custody since 1991. The Northern Territory Police Association has expressed their full support of the murderer cop and by being charged with murder, a coronial inquest into the murder of Kumanjayi Walker is avoided. Coppers are the attack dogs of the colonial project in so-called Australia. ACAB.

A media release from the Yuemdumu community says:

“Whilst the Walker family and broader Yuendumu community welcome the murder charge, they maintain it is not enough. The demands of the community are for comprehensive justice including police body cam footage of the murder, an independent investigation, a coronial inquest to take place in Yuendumu, for 24-hour medical staffing in the community, no police for at least one year and alternative community policing such as Night Patrol.”

For more information on Indigenous deaths in custody in so-called Australia