The drownings of two boys in Western Australia are being treated as “death in police presence” and a report is being prepared for the coroner, as the Aboriginal community and others express their grief and anger.
The pair drowned in Perth’s Swan river after diving in to evade police, who had pursued five boys on foot following reports of “teenagers jumping fences” in suburban Maylands on Monday afternoon.
The first body was recovered on Monday night and the second was discovered yesterday morning. The search continued amid fears a third boy had drowned as he was last seen running on the riverbank, but police confirmed he was safe with family on Tuesday afternoon.
Aboriginal Legal Service chief executive Dennis Eggington urged the state government to put extra resources into the investigation, saying the vast majority of the Noongar community would be in mourning.
“I haven’t seen this level of grief, bordering on anger, but certainly grief and pain for a long, long time,” Eggington told the ABC.
He said the boys would have been “absolutely in terror”, while the survivors would be “scarred for the rest of their lives”.
Indigenous youth are pursued into rivers for 'jumping fences'. Pursued on bikes until their bodies are on fences. Pursued on bikes until they're under cars. There is no way to be Indigenous in this country without being chased.
— Alison Whittaker (@AJ_Whittaker) September 11, 2018
WA police commissioner, Chris Dawson said the deaths were “nothing short of a tragedy”. None of the boys have been charged with any offences.
In July, Dawson issued a historic apology to the state’s Indigenous people, saying he took ownership for “past wrongful actions that have caused immeasurable suffering” and fuelled a sense of mistrust towards the force.
But Amnesty International’s deputy national director, Alison Gibbins said it’s a “sad sign” that two months later “children would rather jump into a cold river than face police”.
“This is a tragedy that should have never happened,” Gibbins said.
“The community have been telling the WA government how to fix the justice system so kids are safe and living healthy lives in their communities.
“We need to restart the review of the youth justice system that the WA government has left on the shelf gathering dust since they were elected.
“The government needs to commit to working with Aboriginal young people to make real reforms in youth justice. This includes changing the way police work with Indigenous young people, and merging youth justice into the department of communities.
“These are all initiatives that should be rolled out immediately,” she said.
Guardian Australia’s Deaths Inside database has recorded two other deaths where Aboriginal men drowned while trying to flee the police under very similar circumstances.
In 2012, a 37-year-old man drowned in the Canning river at Thornlie, Western Australia, while attempting to evade police. TCW (not his real name) was last seen crossing the river on foot on the Spring Road Bridge while being followed by police and it is believed he jumped in. His body was not found until seven days later. His family raised concerns that he may have been assaulted, but the coroner ruled out foul play.
In 2013, 40-year-old JW drowned while attempting to evade police by swimming across the Murray river downstream of Berri, South Australia. Police sought to question him over an alleged robbery earlier in the day.
Neither man had been charged with any crime.
On social media, people were making connections between the deaths and the Herald Sun’s racist cartoon about Serena Williams.
The original sin of invasion in Australia means that unfortunately, racist cartoons are just one end of a violent and sadly, sometimes fatal, stick. And more often than not, the First Nations people pay the steepest price. https://t.co/56ms21Oowi
— Yassmin Abdel-Magied (@yassmin_a) September 11, 2018
Facebook comments on reports on the drowning of two Aboriginal boys in Swan River.
— evelyn araluen (@evelynaraluen) September 11, 2018
We are not human to them. pic.twitter.com/xcp74a9IiM
Can be people use their anger about the racist Serena cartoon to get angry about this?
— Nakkiah Lui (@nakkiahlui) September 11, 2018
Two Black boys chased by police for “jumping fences” into a river where they were allowed to drown?
This is the life or death consequences of racism. Show the world their lives mattered. https://t.co/0mBe2Rezsd
1. I am distressed about the conversations about the Serena Williams cartoon and the justifications of it not being racists and the commentary on those two boys who drowned in Perth this week. Australia has a race problem and it’s been there from the beginning.
— Mick Gooda (@MickGooda) September 11, 2018
The Greens are calling for police to be trained in how to stop pursuits before they become dangerous.
“State and federal governments have failed to take meaningful action. The WA Government needs to make this issue a priority,” WA Greens senator Rachel Siewert said.
There have been 43 deaths in custody in WA in the past 10 years, the highest in Australia.
