A newly released survey finds that hundreds of county sheriffs believe their power as law enforcement overseers supersedes state and federal laws in an alarming show of right-wing radicalization of law enforcement across the U.S.
In a survey of over 500 sheriffs conducted by The Marshall Project and political scientists Emily Farris and Mirya Holman, nearly half of respondents, or over 200 sheriffs, agreed with the statement that “The sheriff’s authority supersedes the federal or state government in my county.” Even more sheriffs, about 71 percent, agreed with the statement that they are willing to interject when they do not personally support a state or federal law.
The survey is a show of the rise of “constitutional sheriffs,” or people who believe that they are a singularly powerful legal authority who outrank federal or state officials within county borders. In modern years, constitutional sheriffs have thrown their efforts behind the movement to overturn the 2020 election results; in some places, constitutional sheriffs are on the ballot this election.
The movement’s organization, the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, boasts hundreds of dues-paying sheriffs and has thousands of other members and sympathizers, including figures like Donald Trump-pardoned Joe Arpaio, a former county sheriff in Maricopa County, Arizona, who committed a long list of inhumane and potentially criminal actions during his time in office.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled the group as extremist, with roots in white supremacy and ties to far right groups like the Oath Keepers — in fact, the group’s founder, Richard Mack, was once a board member of the far right militia.
The growth of the constitutional sheriff movement is also representative of the growth of far right ideology among sheriffs; an alarming 11 percent of respondents said that they personally support the group, while about a quarter of respondents said they had never heard of them.
Data shows that values of the constitutional sheriff movement are dangerous; a 2019 study found, for instance, that constitutional sheriffs are 50 percent more likely to have violent encounters with their constituents and federal Bureau of Land Management employees.
At the same time, Mack has tied the constitutional sheriff movement to the rise of far right ideology within the mainstream Republican Party. In past years, for instance, constitutional sheriffs found popularity in refusing to comply with gun control laws put in place by Nevada lawmakers in response to the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history, comparing the state government to Nazi Germany.
“A lot of [Constitutional sheriff] talking points are squarely among the center of the Republican party now,” Jessica Pishko, a former University of South Carolina researcher and author of an upcoming book on sheriffs, told USA Today.
Recently, the group has taken hold among two mainstream far right movements. Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, dozens of sheriffs objected to mask mandates and other COVID-19 restrictions put in place to prevent the spread of the deadly virus.
Now, constitutional sheriffs have tied themselves to Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and destabilize future elections in the U.S. — conservative activists have in fact been seeking out such sheriffs to help them in the cause. Sympathetic sheriffs, who are likely to identify with Republican sentiments about the supposed tyranny of the federal government, can bring the support of armed law enforcement to the cause in a time when right-wing vigilantes are intimidating voters at the polls.
The movements indeed have parallels; just as election deniers are seeking positions that could have power over election administration, constitutional sheriffs are in elected positions in which they are willing to violate the very laws they’re supposed to enforce.
Oladeji Omishore fell to his death after Met police Tasered him on Chelsea Bridge on 4 June. His bereaved family now hopes to take legal action against police watchdog the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).
Oladeji’s family has launched a CrowdJustice campaign. They’re trying to raise funds for the court case challenging the IOPC’s decision not to investigate the conduct of the officers involved.
Death following police contact
Oladeji died in June having fallen into the River Thames after police Tasered him multiple times. He was near his home and experiencing a mental health crisis at the time.
The IOPC’s own data shows that police disproportionately use Tasers against Black people, particularly those experiencing mental health issues.
Oladeji’s recently bereaved family joined the United Family and Friends Campaign (UFFC)’s annual protest on 29 October. Since 1999, the coalition of bereaved families which makes up the UFFC has organised a procession and rally each year. The families aim to remember their loved ones and demand justice for those killed at the hands of UK police in prisons, immigration systems, and psychiatric custody.
Speaking to protesters on the day, Oladeji’s father told the crowd:
My son was caring, compassionate, giving and artistically talented, with a deep appreciation for nature. But on that fateful day he was vulnerable, in mental health crisis, clearly distressed and in painful agony. He needed support and medical intervention but was instead met with brutal, brutal excessive force.
The recently bereaved family of Chris Kaba, whom Met officers shot and killed in September, also attended the UFFC rally. Their presence reflected the ever-increasing number of deaths of Black men at the hands of police.
Taking the IOPC to court
Oladeji’s family states that police responded to their loved one, who was evidently in need of support, with “repeated, excessive, unjustified force”. The bereaved family is concerned by the watchdog’s “unlawful and irrational decision” to treat the two officers involved as witnesses and not investigate them for professional or criminal misconduct. Through this case, Oladeji’s family seeks transparency and accountability.
INQUEST is a charity which supports the bereaved families of people who have been killed due to state violence and neglect. Underscoring the significant impact that a successful legal challenge against the IOPC could have in this and other cases, the charity tweeted:
HELP
Deji Omishore's family want to legally challenge the IOPC. This could lead to more justice & accountability for police in their case & many more.
End Taser Torture, a grassroots campaign group established and led by the bereaved families of Adrian McDonald, Marc Cole and Darren Cumberbatch, has launched a petition to ban the police’s use of Taser against people experiencing mental health crises. All three men were experiencing mental health crises and died following police use of Tasers. Urging people to donate to the fundraiser, End Taser Torture shared:
Please Retweet: We just supported this case!
Can you spare a few quid to bring this urgent Legal challenge against the IOPC? Community support will help to secure justice for Deji and many many more families @justicefordejihttps://t.co/WmBPCFeM5C via @CrowdJustice
Oladeji’s family seeks to raise £10,000 by midday on Wednesday 16 November. Supporters can donate via the CrowdJustice campaign page. You can also follow the family campaign on Twitter at @justicefordeji.
A culture of misogyny and predatory behaviour is “prevalent” in many police forces across England and Wales, and fuelled by lax vetting standards, according to a report by His Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary (HMIC).
Inspectors found cases where incidents such as indecent exposure were dismissed as a “one-off”, and where applicants with links to “extensive criminality” in their families had been hired.The findings of the report won’t come as a surprise to anyone who faces the brunt of this behaviour every day, and especially those from marginalised and working class communities. But it does show that our police force is beyond reform, and we need to start looking at alternatives to our current policing model.
“Systemic failures”
The report found:
systemic failings, missed opportunities, and a generally inadequate approach to the setting and maintenance of standards in the police service.
It further stated that:
over the last three or four years, the number of people recruited over whom we would raise significant questions is certainly in the hundreds, if not low thousands.
It added:
Our vetting file review showed that forces had found language and comments on social media, attributable to vetting applicants, that were potentially discriminatory, inflammatory, or extremist.
HMIC’s Matt Parr said that “it is too easy for the wrong people to both join and stay in the police” and that there were “significant questions” over the recruitment of thousands of officers.
However as Kevin Blowe from the Network for Police Montioring pointed out, it’s hardly surprising that police recruitment attracts the wrong type of people:
"so what was it that attracted you to conservative, racist, misogynist institution that holds the monopoly on state violence and yet whose members constantly celebrate their victimhood in the face of a public they despise for never understanding them?"
Report after report has exposed the institutionalised racism and misogny at the heart of UK policing. We should no longer be shocked or surprised with these findings. We should be taking action to do things differently.
Time and again we hear promises of reform. Following this report, the Met tweeted that it would be “ruthless in ridding the Met of those who corrupt our integrity”.
This is not good enough. As Sisters Uncut tweeted, “They had their chance to reform”:
This will surprise no one who has been paying attention.
The Met was founded 200 years ago. They had their chance to reform. Time to abolish.https://t.co/Ao7NtpZoPl
It’s undeniable that the Met is institutionally corrupt, racist, misogynistic, and violent. HMIC’s findings present an opportunity to reconsider the role of police in our society, and to move towards systems and strategies that actually work to make the world a safer place.
This begins with investment in and the empowerment of communities, not the police. We need strategies that actively prevent harm from occurring, and foster accountability when it does.
Our police force is rotten to the core. The problems are systemic, and this report is yet further proof that the police do not keep us safe. It’s time to stop talking about reform. Instead, let’s look at ways to defund the police and fund services and actions that benefit our communities rather than perpetuating the violence, racism and misogyny marlignalised communities face on a daily basis.
A tragic day of mourning. Thousands thronged the West Papuan funeral cortège today and tonight as the banned Morning Star led the way in defiance of the Indonesian military.
There haven’t been so many Papuan flags flying under the noses of the security forces since the 2019 Papuan Uprising.
Filep Jacob Semuel Karma, 63, the “father” of the Papuan nation, was believed to be the one leader who could pull together the splintered factions seeking self-determination and independence.
It is still shocking a day after his lifeless body in a wetsuit was found on a Jayapura beach.
Police and Filep Karma’s family say they had no reason to believe that his death resulted from foul play, report Jubi editor Victor Mambor in Jayapura and Nazarudin Latif from Jakarta for Benar News.
“I followed the post-mortem process and it was determined that my father died from drowning while diving,” Karma’s daughter, Andrefina Karma, told reporters.
But many human rights advocates and researchers aren’t so convinced.
Speculation on reasons
Some are speculating about the reasons why peaceful former political prisoner Filep Karma was perceived to be an obstruction for Jakarta’s “development” plans for the Melanesian provinces.
“There were too many strange circumstances around his death and questioning police’s influence on the family. We are not accepting this as an accident,” declared Indonesian human rights Veronica Koman in a tweet.
Human rights lawyers for West Papua are solid that there were too many strange circumstances around his death and questioning police’s influence on the family. We are not accepting this as an accident. https://t.co/bfOcMvNpha
Tributes pour in
Tributes have poured in from many of his friends, colleagues and fellow activists across Indonesia and the Pacific.
Indonesia researcher Andreas Harsono of Human Rights Watch wrote: “Filep Karma’s humour, integrity, and moral courage was an inspiration to many people. His death is a huge loss, not only for Papuans, but for many people across Indonesia and the Pacific who have lost a human rights hero.”
The Diplomat’s Southeast Asia editor Sebastian Strangio wrote: “Karma trod a path that avoided the extremes of violent rebellion and acquiescence to what many Papuans view as essentially foreign rule.
“Whether this approach ever would have achieved Karma’s long-held goal of independence and autonomy for the Papuan people is unclear, but his passing will clearly leave a large vacuum.”
He was a former civil servant who, dismayed at how many Indonesian state officials treated West Papuans, spurned a good salary to dedicate his life to West Papua.
Although standing for “justice, democracy, peace and non-violent resistance, he was jailed for 11 years for raising the Morning Star flag.
One of the most comprehensive tributes to Karma was offered by Benny Wenda, leader of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP), saying that the day was a “national day of mourning for the West Papuan people — all of us, whether in the bush, in the cities, in the refugee camps, or in exile”.
‘Great leader’
“Filep Karma was a great leader and a great man,” says Wenda.
“Across his life, he held many roles and won many accolades — he was a ULMWP Minister for Indonesian and Asian affairs, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and the longest serving peace advocate in an Indonesian jail.
In “Loving memory” for Filep Karma . . . “For West Papuans, Filep was equivalent to Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King.” Image: Free West Papua Campaign
“But he was first of all a frontline leader, present at every single protest, reassuring and inspiring all West Papuans who marched or prayed with him.
“Filep was there at the Biak Massacre in 1998, when 200 Papuans, many of them children, were murdered by the Indonesian military. Despite being shot several times in the leg that day, his experience of Indonesian brutality never daunted him.
“He continued to lead the struggle for liberation, whether in prison or in the streets.
“For West Papuans, Filep was equivalent to Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King.
“The history of our struggle lived within him.”
‘How did he die?’
Now Benny Wenda says: “The big question is this: how did Filep die?” (He reportedly died while surfing despite being a skilled diver.)
“Indonesia systematically eliminates West Papuans who fight against their occupation. Sometimes they will kill us in public, like Theys Eluay and Arnold Ap, who was murdered and his body dumped on the same beach Filep died on.”
But Wenda adds, it is more common for West Papuans to “die in mysterious ways” or face character assassination, as in the case of Papua Governor Lukas Ensemble.
Filip Karma was a courageous and inspirational man of peace.
However, tonight at the funeral procession in Jayapura, many have been singing:
Human rights campaigner Filep Karma, the most famous West Papuan former political prisoner, was found dead early today on a beach in the Melanesian region’s capital Jayapura.
His death has shocked Papuans and the grassroots activist communities in Indonesia and around the Pacific.
“It is true that a body was found by a resident on the beach at Bse G, suspected to be Filep Karma, but to be sure, the police are still waiting for confirmation from his family,” North Jayapura police chief Police Adjunct Commissioner Yahya Rumra told Antara News.
The head of the Papuan Human Rights Commission, Frist Ramandey, confirmed Karma’s body had been found on the beach, reports CNN Indonesia.
However, he said his group was still investigating the circumstances of Karma’s death.
“He was a father figure for West Papuans and respected by many Indonesian people. He was gentle, loving, courageous, and full of wisdom,” said human rights lawyer Veronica Koman in a tweet.
“Grassroots are shaken.”
‘I’m crushed beyond words’
In a later tweet, she added: “We first met when I visited him in prison. We would spend days and days together when he visited Jakarta or I visited Jayapura.
“He laid the foundation of how I, as an Indonesian, view West Papua. He called me ‘child’ and I called him ‘father’.
“I’m crushed beyond words.”
The Indonesian police investigation site at the Jayapura beach where Filep Karma’s body was found today. Image: Tabloid Jubi
Filep Karma, 67, led the raising of the Morning Star flag of independence — banned by Indonesian authorities — in Biak in 1998 and was eventually imprisoned.
He was released two years later.
In 2004, he again carried out a similar act and was accused of “treason”.
On that occasion he was jailed for 15 years but released in 2015.
Filep Karma, the most famous West Papuan ex political prisoner, was found dead on a beach in Jayapura this morning.
He was a father figure for West Papuans and respected by many Indonesian people. He was gentle, loving, courageous, and full of wisdom.
“Sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment for the act of simply raising a flag . . . his release on 19 November 2015 was widely celebrated among Papuan civil society.”
The son of a prominent local politician, originally from Biak island, Karma studied political science in Java before working as a civil servant in Papua.
Indonesian police investigators at the beach scene in Jayapura where the body of Filep Karma was recovered today. Video: Jack Caryota
Watch how fully armed paramilitary police officers approached this unarmed brave West Papuan man carrying the banned Morning Star flag. “Respect us! This is our father!” referring to the passing of Leader Filep Karma.
Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape has sent his condolences to the family of the policeman killed in Hela province.
He called on the suspects to surrender and for witnesses to assist police with their investigation into the killing of Senior Constable Nelson Kalimda.
“I call upon all persons with information to come out. Arrests must be made to the criminals and the full story behind the officer going missing and [being] killed be established,” Marape said.
Hilda Kalimda, wife of the killed policeman Senior Constable Nelson Kalimda . . . messages of condolences and support from PM James Marape, Police Commissioner David Manning, Hela Governor Philip Undialu and others. Image: Loop PNG
“My sympathies to the wife, children, relatives and rest of the members of the Royal PNG Constabulary.
“We will assist police to bring the criminals to justice. Going forward we will amend laws to bring higher penalties to those who offend [against] police personnel.”
Marape condemned the actions of the criminals.
“If police personnel are not respected, this is not good and police personnel must be given full respect and appreciation by the community.
Drove out by himself
For Hela’s case where the officer drove out by himself without letting his colleagues know and to be found dead a few days later, this demanded a full investigation from police, Marape said.
“I appreciate the Hela provincial government led by Governor Undialu who assisted police with the investigation and location of vehicle and now the body .”
Hela Governor Philip Undialu and Koroba-Kopiago MP William Bando also expressed their sympathies to the family of the dead policeman.
Undialu said:“Hela people and the Hela provincial government are also in grief and share our deepest condolences for this gruesome killing.
“We condemn this animalistic behaviour in the strongest terms possible and appeal to police to come hard on those responsible.
“We have assisted so far and are committed to support the repatriation of the body back to the family and fulfill customary obligation.
‘State of shock’
“We are also committed to ensure that those responsible are captured and face the law.
“The Police Commissioner [David Manning] in his press statement acknowledged our support so far and I assure the family and police force that we are with you in this time of sorrow, grief and state of shock.
“The police located the vehicle but communities identified the culprits and retrieved the body. Hela people will hold a haus krai in Tari and will hand over the body to the family.”
Bando strongly condemned the act and called for an investigation to be carried out to establish the cause and reason for the murder.
He said it was sad losing a life but not all Hela was “at war”, nor were they all responsible for the killing.
Miriam Zarrigais a PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with permission.
Local government officials in Papua New Guinea have offered a cash reward for information after the body of policeman Senior Constable Nelson Kalimda — whose body went missing in Tari, Hela — was found yesterday in Margarima.
The body of Papua New Guinean policeman Constable Nelson Kalimda — who went missing in Tari, Hela — was found yesterday in Margarima after the provincial government put up a cash reward.
Provincial police commander Robin Bore confirmed that the body had been found at the Andapali River in Margarima, near the Margarima-Kandep road.
How The National reported the story on its front page today. Image: The National
“We have brought late Kalimda’s body back to Tari,” Commander Bore said.
Police Commissioner David Manning last night said that for those who wore the police uniform this was a personal loss.
“This is someone who has a family, who has served with us, below us or above us. He was one of us,” he said.
“We swore an oath to serve and we will continue to serve despite this loss
‘Our profession has risks’
“Ours is a profession that comes with risks.”
Manning said investigations were being led by some of the most capable officers in the PNG police force to bring swift justice on those involved in the death of Kalimda.
“I issue them a clear warning to anyone involved with Senior Constable Kalimda’s death to not resist arrest when police catch up with them.
“If these suspects threaten police with weapons, our police personnel have full authority to escalate the use of force and to use all appropriate means necessary to take control of the situation.
“Police have made two arrests so far and there are four other persons of interest that are the subject of an ongoing search.”
Kalimda was part of a team that escorted exam papers into Tari and he went missing on October 20.
He was last seen driving out of a guest house in Tari. His car was found last Thursday, a week after he was first reported missing, in a deserted area at the Komo-Hulia district, near Ambua.
Police assisted with fuel
Governor Philip Undialu said the provincial government assisted police with fuel and funding in the search for Kalimda.
Undialu said a suspect from the area had confessed to killing Kalimda in a phone conversation and said that he had thrown Kalimda’s body into the Andapali River.
He said that after the provincial government received the information, a reward was offered for the community to assist police and the PNG Defence Force to find Kalimda’s body.
“The body was recovered just this afternoon [Sunday] by a group of youths, and we will pay them a reward.”
Undialu also called on the suspect, whose identity is known, to surrender to police and appealed to the community to help bring in the suspect.
Rebecca Kukuis a journalist for The National newspaper. Republished with permission.
Murder charges have been reinstated against the man suspected of killing French Polynesian journalist Jean-Pascal Couraud, known as “JPK” — his byline, who vanished in 1997.
Francis Stein, a former head of the territory’s archive service, was first charged in 2019 but France’s highest court accepted his appeal last year that investigative magistrates had breached rules during his questioning.
The investigative magistrates have now revived their probe against Stein and Miri Tatarata, who was JPK’s partner.
The pair are both accused of killing JPK, an investigative journalist who was editor-in-chief of the French-language newspaper Les Nouvelles de Tahiti, whose body has never been found.
An investigation was first opened in 2004 after a former spy claimed that JPK had been abducted and killed by the government’s GIP militia, which allegedly dumped him at sea between Moorea and Tahiti.
Murder charges against two members of the now disbanded GIP were dismissed eight years ago, but kidnapping charges have been upheld.
French Polynesian journalist Jean-Pascal Couraud, who disappeared in 1997. Image: RNZ Pacific/AFP
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
A Vanuatu Mobile Force’s officer who risked his life wading through chest-high water carrying ballot boxes, is calling on the new government to fund new bridges and roads for residents of central Santo.
Private Samuel Bani is part of the Vanuatu Mobile Force (VMF), a group of volunteers in Vanuatu’s military who support the Vanuatu Police.
He was one of hundreds making sure the 2022 election was possible by delivering ballot boxes to remote areas.
Some were sent by helicopter, others by truck and in some cases the journey was made by foot.
“The journey was so slippery — the road was flooded, there was no bridge, so we had to cross the river by foot. At some points the river reached my chest. It’s so dangerous while it’s raining,” Bani said.
“The journey was so tough, the current is so strong. We nearly lost the ballot boxes because the tide was so strong, it’s so dangerous,” he said.
Bani, an official based in Luganville, said his team risked their lives crossing the Jordan River to deliver boxes so people in remote villages could exercise their right to vote.
The team of three picked the boxes up in Sanma Province.
“We had to run four hours to reach the place, then we slept one night in a village then we walked seven to nine hours up the hill to reach Vunamele,” Bani said.
“These people have their rights, we just get the boxes up so they have their rights,” he said.
‘We put our life on the line’ With the swearing-in of the new government of Vanuatu looming this Friday, Private Bani is calling on leaders to learn from his experience and strengthen infrastructure in rural areas.
“We put our life on the line,” he said.
He wants elected representatives to make the journey he did to understand the hardship people go through just to have access to basic necessities like health care.
“There’s pregnant women walking down and when someone is dead they have to get the coffin back down,” Bani said.
Issues with infrastructure in parts of Santo is an ongoing issue, RNZ Pacific correspondent Hilaire Bule said.
People have died crossing the Jordan River, he added.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Aotearoa New Zealand’s Green Party has again urged the government to step up its condemnation of Iran.
About 50 protesters burned headscarves and passports outside the Iranian embassy in the capital Wellington yesterday.
There has been a wave of protest in Iran and around the world over the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by the “morality police” for violating Iran’s dress code.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the government had been working hard over the past several months to ensure the safe exit of travellers Topher Richwhite and his wife Bridget Thackwray.
Greens’ foreign affairs spokesperson Golriz Ghahraman said there was no longer anything stopping the government taking stronger action.
Green Party foreign affairs spokesperson Golriz Ghahraman hugs a protester. Image: Angus Dreaver/RNZ News
“Now there is no imagined or real impediment to us actually taking action and it is our responsibility to do that,” Ghahraman said.
“We need to come to line with the rest of the world when action on Iran is concerned.
Specific actions needed
“There are these very specific actions we can take that will hurt the people most responsible for this violence and oppression.”
Ghahraman wanted a freeze on the assets, bank accounts and travel of people supporting violence in Iran.
Protests continue in Iran . . . NZ Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta says NZ was “appalled” by the use of force by Iranian authorities. Photo: Andalou/RNZ News
There has been an upsurge in the protests this week, with tens of thousands taking to the streets in major cities across Iran after security forces were reported to have opened fire on protesters in Saqquez, Amini’s home city, on Wednesday.
In a tweet, Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta said Aotearoa was “appalled” by the use of force by Iranian authorities overnight.
“Violence against women, girls or any other members of Iranian society to prevent their exercise of universal human rights is unacceptable and must end.”
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Eight policemen attached to Mt Hagen police division have been identified as suspects in an election-related shooting that resulted in four people killed and several others wounded on 6 August 2022.
The shooting took place in Anglimp-South Waghi electorate in Jiwaka province and investigations were completed last week.
The alleged shooting caught international media and election observers criticism, triggering the investigation.
Crimes division director Chief Inspector Joel Simatab said that primary reports — including the autopsy, post-mortems, eye witness statements and other evidence — had been compiled.
He said the public must be aware that investigations had been completed.
International observers’ ‘lot of noise’
“At that time we had international observers in the country who made a lot of noise about the security forces involved in the killing,” he said.
“And we responded, sending our detectives — two from NCD [National Capital District] and four from the Highlands region — who carried out the investigations,” he said.
“We want to give assurance that we have done our independent investigations and [are] now working with the Coroner’s office, going through their process to serve [the suspects] to come and give their side of the story before arrests are made.”
It was alleged that youths from the area blocked off the highway over frustrations over how elections were being conducted, which resulted in police shooting at them.
Marjorie Finkeois a PNG Post-Courier journalist. Republished with permission.
Study says deployment of technology in public by Met and South Wales police failed to meet standards
Police should be banned from using live facial recognition technology in all public spaces because they are breaking ethical standards and human rights laws, a study has concluded.
LFR involves linking cameras to databases containing photos of people. Images from the cameras can then be checked against those photos to see if they match.
“The Commissioner of Police David Manning is in charge of the operations and directives.
“He has advised me that he is taking swift and appropriate action.
“Police will help forge peace,” he added.
According to sources on the ground, the fight started in early September when a man from Kuboma tribe was killed in a fight over a soccer game in the remote Trobriand archipelago.
Situation still tense
The situation has remained tense since then and escalated on Monday, when the Kuboma villagers (seven villages inland that include Bwetalu, Yalaka, Buduwalaka, Kuluwa, Luya, Wabutuma and Gumilababa villages) allegedly destroyed all the yam gardens of the Kulumata villages (Kavataria, Mulosaida and Orabesi villages).
The Kulumata villagers went up to the station to demand answers from the district development authority on why their yam gardens were destroyed and for authorities to address the situation when they were attacked by the Kuboma villagers who were already there waiting for them.
All-out tribal warfare with traditional spears and bush knives broke out between the two parties, that led to 26 people being killed from the Kuboma side and about six people killed from the Kulumata side.
Kiriwina island in the Trobriands . . . “Tribal fighting has always been part of our lives and culture. But normally when someone got killed, the fighting stopped.” Image: Scott Waide/RNZ Pacific
Another source said it was “frightening to see such violence on their island” that is locally known or dubbed as the “island of love”.
“Tribal fighting has always been part of our lives and culture.
“But normally when someone got killed, the fighting stopped, they cease fire and start the traditional process of dealing with the death, and they do not just continue fighting like this.
“The Kulumata and the Kuboma people are all related to each other and it is heartbreaking for us as mothers, sisters, daughters to watch our people fight among themselves like this.”
“But you must also understand that our gardens are very important to us.
Painted in war colours
“Our yams are important and very valuable, to see them chopped off, destroyed — yes our men would be so angry, because we value our gardens.”
They [men] painted themselves in the traditional war colors and went up to the station to show their frustration.
When they met the other party, they started fighting, and we ran away with our children.
“They will not harm women and children but it was just too frightening to watch, so we ran away,” the source said.
Attempts to get comments from the local MP and Deputy Opposition Leader Douglas Tomuriesa was unsuccessful yesterday.
More than 30 people have been confirmed dead by Papua New Guinea government official Nelson Tauyuwada following tribal fighting on Kiriwina Island in the Trobriand archipelago.
Tauyuwada, the Kiriwina Island Area Manager, said the death toll would probably increase.
He believes a soccer game clash that took place last month sparked the fatal incident that happened yesterday.
“There are many layers to the rivalry between the two tribes involved, including political lines,” he said.
However, Kabwaku United Church Committee member David Mudagada said the fighting broke out from general election related issues.
“The fighting broke out from general election related problems. That triggered some other small issues, social issues that’s why they started the fight and it’s quite a mess right now,” Mudagada said.
“What I heard from those people around the scene is that they started fighting from the government station and then they moved the people towards their villages and they are slashing them with knives and all this — and then they retaliated,” he said.
Chaotic situation
He said the situation was chaotic.
“The government authorities are also at the scene right now they are trying to stabilise the situation…..then get the police from the Alotau, capital of Milne Bay province, and then they go to the small island in the Trobriand Islands.
“We are not sure when they are going to arrive, there were a couple of police officers there but they were outnumbered,” he said.
PNG’s constabulary is still trying to get officers to the scene and is expected to update the media as more details come to hand.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Thirty people are reported to have been killed and many seriously injured in the worst tribal warfare on Kiriwina Island in Papua New Guinea’s Milne Bay Province yesterday.
The number of deaths will be the highest ever recorded during a tribal warfare on the island.
Douglas Tomuriesa, the member for Kiriwina-Goodenough and Deputy Opposition Leader, confirmed that 30 people were dead and many were seriously injured.
He was organising an airline charter to transport police personnel from Alotau to fly in to the Kiriwina, known as the “island of love”, in the Trobriand group, to bring the situation under control.
The situation is reportedly tense and may escalate further due to the number of deaths.
A villager said a worse case scenario by this morning might be other villagers taking sides and joining the warfare.
According to him the district has only two police personnel, despite a number of fully furnished houses for police personnel on the island.
Firearms discharged
He also alleged that firearms were discharged in the fight resulting in the high number of casualties.
Confirming the fight in a WhatsApp message, Provincial Police Commander Peter Barkie said: “Yes, received info daytime today about fighting on the island but police don’t have a boat, only dinghies, so we secured NMSA boat but logistics was slow and captain advised that, not safe to travel at night so police team will travel 5.00am at East Cape to Losuia.”
How the Post-Courier reported the massacre today. Image: PNG Post-Courier
Commander Barkie also requested for reinforcements to be on standby and that a decision would be made when the police team arrives on the ground.
A concerned women leader, Joyce Grant, has appealed to Internal Security Minister Peter Tsiamalili for urgent government intervention, describing the number of deaths as the highest ever recorded in the history of Kiriwina society.
Her WhatsApp message said: “Although I am not mandated leader, however as concerned leader of my community, it is with the saddest of hearts that I write to your high office to appeal and ask for urgent government intervention.”
According to Grant, the fight began at approximately 11am yesterday, Monday, 24 October 2022.
Three main villages of Wards 19 and 20 of Kiriwina LLG approached the district office at Losuia to express their anger over the consistent destruction of their gardens by known perpetrators of neighbouring villages.
Gardens ‘a focal point’
“Gardens in the villages are the focal point of community existence. Without a garden, you are not able to sustain your family’s livelihood,” she said.
“However, no government officials were on hand to mediate the matter, including non-presence of law-and-order committees as the police station is manned by limited police personnel only.
“The church elders were also present to assist to contain the situation but the neighbouring villages were also ready for confrontation, therefore the situation was not able to be contained.”
The issue had started almost two months ago, immediately after the 2022 national general elections, and involved a soccer match. That fight resulted with one death and several people seriously injured.
“A police mobile unit was sent to maintain peace however to date, no clear resolution was reached to mitigate the issue then,” Grant said.
“Please Minister, our people need the governments urgent intervention of Police presence on the ground for the sake of our people’s lives. People are dying and the question is ‘who is responsible?’
Tomuriesa appealed to both warring factions to lay down their arms.
He said that when police reinforcements arrive, they should be “honest with themselves” and assist police by identifying the original instigators to face the law.
Philippine police have announced the arrest of a suspect in the killing of a radio journalist who was known for criticising President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his immediate predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte.
The suspect, identified as Joel Estorial, 39, gave himself up to the Philippine National Police (PNP) and Interior Secretary Benjamin Abalos and was charged with murder two weeks after seasoned radio broadcaster Percival Mabasa (also known as Percy Lapid) was gunned down in a suburb south of Manila, officials said.
Estorial surrendered “out of fear for personal safety following public disclosure of … CCTV footage revealing his face during the incident and naming him as [a] primary person of interest,” according to a statement from Abalos’ office.
“This is a major breakthrough. He made an extra-judicial confession, duly assisted by counsel,” Abalos said, adding that the suspect had named three other accomplices who were subjects of “intensive follow-up operations”.
The gun used to shoot Mabasa was recovered and “positively linked to the crime scene” by the police forensics laboratory, according to the national police.
Estoral confessed that five others had allegedly participated in the planning and killing of the broadcaster, but he only managed to identify three.
Mabasa, who worked for DWBL radio station, was ambushed on October 3 as he drove his car toward a gated community in Las Pinas, a suburb in southern metro Manila. He was the latest in a long line of killings targeting members of the Philippine media.
Motive remains unknown
However, the motive for his murder remains unknown. Abalos did not answer reporters when they asked him about this on Tuesday.
“Just give us a few more days. We have to get the mastermind, that’s very important. The investigation is ongoing right now, there are many more details. Let’s not jeopardise them,” he said.
The suspect in custody was presented at the press briefing, where he spoke to reporters.
Someone from inside the country’s main prison facility, whom Estoral did not identify, had ordered a hit on Mabasa, he said. He identified two brothers and a third man as fellow accomplices in the attack.
“I was afraid and conscience-struck for the killing of Percy Lapid,” said a handcuffed Estorial, who wore a helmet and bullet-proof vest.
“Our arrangement was for whoever got closest to Percy would be the one to fire the fatal shot, and I was in that position. I was threatened with death if I didn’t shoot Percy at that moment, so I did,” Estorial said.
The team was paid 550,000 pesos (US$9300) for the hit, he told reporters.
“I hope the family forgives me. I did not want to do it, I was just forced to do so,” he said.
Family thank police
Mabasa’s family issued a statement Tuesday thanking the police and saying they hoped his killing would not become just another statistic among murders of Filipino journalists dating back decades.
“We hope this development leads to the identification, arrest and prosecution of the mastermind,” the family said.
Filipino activists light candles in memory of killed radio journalist Percival Mabasa (also known as Percy Lapid) during a demonstration in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Oct. 4, 2022. [Basilio Sepe/BenarNews]
The Southeast Asian nation ranks among the most dangerous countries for journalists worldwide. Dozens have been killed with impunity since the dictatorship of Marcos’ late father, Ferdinand E. Marcos, more than 36 years ago.
Mabasa’s commentaries were often bold and sharp as he sought to counter fake news spread on air as well as on social media. He had also hit out against a perceived attempt by supporters of the Marcos family to distort history and had been bitingly critical of the war on drugs by Marcos’ predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, which left thousands dead. During his six years in office, Duterte had said journalists were fair game if they were corrupt.
The Duterte administration worked to close down broadcaster ABS-CBN Corp. and convict Maria Ressa, the chief executive of the news website Rappler who was later named a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, on cyber libel charges.
Jeoffrey Maitem and Mark Navales in Cotabato City, southern Philippines, and Basilio Sepe in Manila contributed to this report.
There is a shameful public tragedy unfolding day by day as the Bainimarama government tries to stop a potential political candidate, lawyer and former journalist Richard Naidu, from getting into Parliament by trying to “criminalise” him over a trivial social media post.
Richard Naidu is one of Fiji’s leading lawyers, for decades a fighter for democracy and rule of law, with a deep social conscience that drove him to frequently write articles in the media to enlighten Fiji on relevant issues of vital interest.
Naidu’s alleged crime: a trivial post on his personal Twitter account that a legal judgment probably intended to say “injunction” rather than “injection” — an error that may have even been a typist’s error which the learned judge failed to pick up (as we all all do now and then).
No big deal any sensible person or judge would have thought, or even slightly funny.
But the malevolent forces running the Bainimarama government, suddenly pounced on Richard Naidu five months after that social media post, for allegedly “scandalising the judiciary”.
The media speculation was that Naidu became a target when there were public indications that he might be a candidate for the opposition National Federation Party (NFP), and if elected would have made an excellent Attorney-General.
But if he is convicted of this alleged “crime”, Richard Naidu would not be allowed to be a candidate in the 2022 elections, he might face a jail term and be deprived of legal practice. One can only imagine the dreadful trauma for his wife and family — all for a trivial throwaway line on Twitter, by a witty lawyer.
The tragedy is not that the Attorney-General and Minister of All Things (Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum) is driving this legal persecution — which he is — just as he has been the driver of the Bainimarama government for more than 14 years.
The real tragedy is the utter silence of the many bright people, once upon a time pro-democracy fighters with me, who have helped to bring Bainimarama to power and strengthened his government’s credibility nationally and internationally over the last 16 years.
The unfolding tragedy is far more painful for me personally as most of these silent warriors for Bainimarama and Sayed-Khaiyum, were friends with whom I closely interacted more than a decade ago.
A recent Fiji Times article on “good governance” by Richard Naidu … enlightening Fiji on relevant issues of vital interest. Image: The Fiji Times screenshot APR
The shameful silences At the head of the list of course has to be Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum himself, who shared a cell with me for our 1988 Sukuna Park protest against the Rabuka coup. My wife and I attended his first wedding function.
Then there is Riyaz Sayed-Khaiyum who was a good journalist friend who used to invite me to his family home for Eid. Riyaz has been driving the vicious Fiji Broadcasting Corporation (FBC) media campaign to tarnish Richard Naidu. Aiyaz and Riyaz are sons of Khaiyum Sr who welcomed me into the NFP parliamentary team in 1996.
Wadan Narsey (second from left) being welcomed by friends after being elected National Federation Party’s MP for Suva Central Indian in 1996. (Syed Abdul Khaiyum is on the right). Image: Narsey On Fiji
Then there are Nazhat Shameem and Shaista Shameem who were part of the Shameem family who used to welcome me and my wife to their mother’s home in Samabula.
As a bright High Court judge, Nazhat took to the slippery slope when she irregularly chaired a committee that replaced Chief Justice Danial Fateaki with Tony Gates.
We all remember that Gates tried to justify the 2006 coup alongside fellow High Court judges Davendra Pathik and John Byrnes, but failed when the 2009 Court of Appeal overturned their judgment.
Nazhat Shameem is now a high flying international bureaucrat, President of the International Human Rights Council. But she has been totally silent on the abuse of human rights going on in Fiji, and currently to the mistreatment of her old legal colleague Richard Naidu.
Shaista Shameem, a friend for decades until she justified the 2006 coup as a Fiji Human Rights Commissioner assisted by once radical unionist James Anthony. Despite that, I went to months of trouble to help her in making the legal case for pensioner (the late) David Burness against the Bainimarama government’s illegal reduction of his pension.
Shaista Shameem is now professor of law and vice-chancellor at the University of Fiji. She is totally silent on the abuse of human rights in Fiji and that of Richard Naidu who is also a lawyer like her.
Shaista has even appointed as professor of law Brigadier Aziz who saw at close quarters through his membership of the Evans Board of Inquiry into the 2000 coup and mutiny, the erosion of human right to life in the Republic of Fiji Military Force (RFMF).
There is Dr Satyendra Prasad, a former USP colleague who was part of our group (including the Citizens Constitutional Forum) that battled for democracy and racial equality after the 1987 Rabuka coup. Dr Prasad has astonishingly resurfaced politically serving the Bainimarama cause in New York and Washington.
Then there is Ashwin Raj (head of the Fiji Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Commission) who once upon a time was helped by Professor Biman Prasad and me to get a substantive post at USP.
He has faithfully served the Bainimarama regime for years (including the vicious persecution of the late Ratu Timoci Vesikula for an alleged racist remark), but Raj could never be accused of defending the many persons in Fiji whose basic human rights have been attacked by the Bainimarama regime itself.
Ashwin Raj is silent on this current attack on the basic human right of a Fiji citizen to point out on social media, a possible spelling mistake in a legal judgment.
There is the shadowy RFMF Military Council which is the real power behind Voreqe Bainimarama, that Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has silently used. I have little doubt that many of these officers were in the post-2000 classes I taught at the RFMF Officer Training courses in Vatuwaqa.
They would also have been in the early 2006 pre-election workshops at the RFMF camp in Nabua, attended by the top 400 RFMF officers, including Commander Voreqe Bainimarama who today is allegedly powerless to control his rampaging deputy.
Wadan Narsey (right) with the late former NZ High Commissioner Michael Green (left), Police Commissioner Andrew Hughes and Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama – well before the 2006 Fiji coup. Image: Narsey On Fiji
Then there is also Brigadier General Ioane Naivalarua who, as Commissioner of Police in 2010, invited me to give a two hour workshop to his top police officers on how to tackle escalating crime in Fiji and the costs to the police of the coups.
It would seem that all my detailed explanations to the RFMF and police hierarchy of the terrible economic costs of the coups — and to them — clearly fell on deaf ears.
Wadan Narsey lecturing to Fiji troops and Police Commissioner Brigadier Ioane Navalarua. Image: Narsey On Fiji
Then there are the corporate giants of Fiji who have been financially backing the Bainimarama government’s FijiFirst Party for years. The donors’ lists released by the Supervisor of Elections through the Fiji Sun two years ago, showed conclusively that hundreds of thousands of dollars were donated over the period 2014 to 2018 by the owners, their wives, daughters, mothers and even employees of Tappoos, Vinod Patels, Punjas, RC Manubhais, CJ Patels, the Wella Pillays etc through the strong-arm fundraising by Sanjay Kaba and other collectors.
These corporate giants, while occupying key positions on pubic enterprise boards in Fiji as never before, have never spoken out on their social responsibilities in Fiji such as the protection of human rights.
Yet Richard Naidu is a principal lawyer of a top law firm in Fiji, Munro Leys, with a well-earned reputation for protecting lawful corporate rights in Fiji — including theirs.
The silent Pontius Pilates Like modern day Pontius Pilates, the above silent protagonists for Bainimarama and Khaiyum seen to have washed their hands of the basic human rights of Fiji citizens which are being battered left right and centre by the Bainimarama government that they helped to install.
As if all that matters to them are their profits and their personal careers and interests.
But Fiji will not forget them and their complicit silences, nor their shared responsibility in the abuses of human rights taking place in Fiji.
Sadly, Fiji people have not spoken out and taken to the streets when so many individuals have been unjustly persecuted after the 2006 military coup, like Russel Hunter, Hank Arts, Fred Wesley, Netani Rika, Anish Chand, Mereana Kitione, Kemueli Naiqama, Professor Pal Ahluwalia and so many others.
Many, like Professor Biman Prasad and other critical opposition MPs face daily attacks by the FBC and Fiji Sun for their efforts to hold the Bainimarama government to account.
And now they are after decent law-abiding lawyer Richard Naidu, all because he put up his hand to serve Fiji in Parliament at great financial cost to himself.
As I have done before, I remind Fiji readers of the wonderful lines attributed to Lutheran Pastor Martin Niemöller who was originally anti-Communist, an early supporter of Hitler, and even thought by some to have had anti-Semitic views:
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out — because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
Pastor Niemöller, like Archbshop Chong (head of the Catholic Church in Fiji) currently, frequently spoke on the dangers to decent society of the apathy of the general public.
I would urge the governments of Australia, NZ, US and Canada to keep a close watch on the progress of this legal case by the Bainimarama government and also of the names of the silent collaborators, who will one day no doubt want to settle in decent countries with respect for the rule of law, which they have helped to destroy in Fiji.
Dr Wadan Narsey is a former professor of economics at The University of the South Pacific and a leading Fiji economist and statistician. This article is republished from the author’s blog Narsey On Fiji with his permission.
A Papua New Guinean businessman has been arrested and charged by police as the first of 15 “persons of interest” relating to post national election violence in the Southern Highlands Province earlier this year.
Police have confirmed the unsuccessful candidate for the SHP regional seat, Peter Nupiri, a former chair of PNG Power and a construction business managing director, has been arrested and charged over election-related crimes.
Police Commissioner David Manning confirmed the arrest and charging of Peter Nupiri.
A search warrant was executed by police as confirmed by Commissioner Manning.
“We are not time bound by the elections. If these candidates think that we are, then they are sadly misinformed,” he said.
Police also confirmed a candidate personally presented himself to Commissioner Manning and was interviewed by the Police Special Investigation Team (SIT) to ascertain whether he was criminally responsible for crimes committed in Mendi, SHP.
He was not charged but will be required if evidence permits.
200 ballot boxes destroyed
Police allege that Nupiri, 46, from Olea village, Mendi, Southern Highlands, communicated with individuals to destroy about 200 ballot boxes that were stored at the Mendi police station.
Police allege his communication via mobile phone to several men led to the six-days violent destruction of Mendi town.
The ballot boxes were stored at the police station after supporters had disputed the counting of the 200 plus ballot boxes.
On August 18, several armed men allegedly entered the premises and fired several gun shots and threatened the duty officers.
They then took control of the premises and opened the two containers where the boxes were kept and took the boxes out and destroyed the ballot boxes by setting them on fire.
The result of the actions taken by the men led to the burning down of properties, killing of 15 people and destruction of other property.
On 4 August, Black Lives Matter campaigner and Bristol copwatcher Ahmed Fofanah died unexpectedly. Bristol Copwatch, a police monitoring group, has launched a crowdfunder to cover the costs of Ahmed’s funeral.
Years of police harassment and racism
Ahmed died suddenly – aged 42 – in August 2022, having faced years of police harassment. In a 2020 interview with Black Lives Matter Weston-super-Mare, Ahmed shared his experiences of targeted violence and racism by local police. Explaining how police made his life “hell”, Ahmed stated that police persistently racially profiled him, stopped and searched him, and even confronted him with guns.
spent years trying to clear his name of false accusations from Avon & Somerset Police
It added that:
Ahmed was able to clear his name but still never received an apology or compensation for years of police harrasment.
In his interview, Ahmed shared that his experiences of police harassment induced extreme “anxiety”. He added that due to being criminalised, he could no longer work in his security job. Reflecting the harmful impact of policing on families and communities, Ahmed said that his daughter started to self harm due to the distress caused by her father’s experiences. Meanwhile, Ahmed stopped driving, taking the bus or visiting the town centre for fear that armed police would shoot and kill him on sight.
Reflecting on Ahmed’s struggle for justice, Bristol Copwatch founding member John Pegram said:
Even at his lowest Ahmed had a strength that is rarely seen and a fierce determination to fight for his rights.
Ahmed was a key member of the Co-POWeR Community Engagement Panel.
Co-POWeR is an association which produces research and recommendations relating to the “wellbeing and resilience” of Black and racially minoritised families and communities. In its statement, the university added that Ahmed “will be sadly missed”.
We were deeply saddened to learn of his passing as he meant so much to all of us. His resilience and sheer bravery and determination in the face of adversity were truly beautiful things and seeing him rise time and again was an inspiration to us all.
It added:
All of us within the Bristol Copwatch core organising team are devastated by his death and will never forget his importance as someone we supported during his fight for justice and as a strong black man and loving father and husband.
Ahmed leaves behind a wife, five children, and three grandchildren. Bristol Copwatch is raising money to support his grieving family. The police monitoring group is asking for supporters to donate what they can to reach its £7,000 target.
INQUEST has published a report revealing new data and sharing the harrowing stories of 22 Black and racially minoritised people whose deaths in prison were “preventable and premature”. The report reflects the prevalence of institutionalised racism, systemic violence, and neglect in England and Wales’ prison system.
Deaths in prison
INQUEST is a charity which supports families bereaved by state neglect and violence. Freedom of Information (FoI) data gathered by the charity reveals that 2,220 people died in prison between January 2015 and December 2021.
371 people died in prison in 2021, the highest number of deaths ever recorded in English and Welsh prisons. Responding to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) statistics in January, INQUEST director Deborah Coles argued that:
the pandemic alone cannot explain away this record level of deaths.
Indeed, in July, User Voice (a charity led by formerly incarcerated people) published evidence that in some cases, prison conditions during lockdown amounted to the UN’s definition of torture. The systemic neglect and restrictive regimes implemented during the pandemic inevitably took their toll on imprisoned people’s physical and mental wellbeing.
Institutionalised racism
INQUEST’s new report, Deaths of racialised people in prison 2015 – 2022, analysed the deaths of Black, mixed-race, Asian, Middle Eastern, Eastern European, white Irish, white Gypsy and Irish Traveller people. Coles explained that the deaths of Black and racially minoritised people are “among some of the most contentious, violent and neglectful” deaths in prison.
The report analyses the “preventable and premature” deaths of 22 racially minoritised people in prison. These cases include:
the inappropriate use of segregation;
the racial stereotyping of Black imprisoned people as “aggressive”;
the neglect of imprisoned people’s physical and mental health;
prison staff failures to seek help, particularly for Black and mixed-race imprisoned people; and
cases of extreme and violent bullying.
According to INQUEST’s analysis, the highest number of prison deaths were among Black and mixed-race people. Black and mixed-race women accounted for almost half of the deaths of all racially minoritised women in prison. The researchers said that this is evidence of “the role of institutional racism in the prison estate”.
In a press release, executive director of INQUEST Deborah Coles said:
The failure of post-death investigations to examine the potential role of racism or discrimination in deaths renders racialised issues invisible. As a result, the opportunity to acknowledge and address racial injustices and inequalities is lost.
Harrowing case studies
The report details the death of 22-year-old Pakistani Mohammed Irfaan Afzal. Mohammed died from a chest infection on 4 August 2019 while being held on remand at HMP Leeds. According to INQUEST, he arrived in prison physically healthy. However, he lost almost a third of his body weight over the course of 48 days. This left him ‘vulnerable to infection’.
Prison staff described Mohammed as “bewildered” and “child-like” during his time behind bars. Inquiries into his premature death found multiple failures to identify and meet his physical and mental health needs.
My brother suffered for the last few months of his life scared, starving, sick, and alone. That will haunt me every day until I die. No one has been held accountable for his death, and there has been no justice.
The decision to imprison the people featured in this report ended up being a death sentence. Imprisonment is ineffective in reducing crime and instead perpetuates harm and violence, with racialised and marginalised groups worst affected.
INQUEST’s report comes at a time in which the government seeks to expand the prison system. In 2021, the Ministry of Justice announced plans to create 20,000 new prison places. These places will likely be filled by those criminalised by the government’s draconian new laws, as well as people pushed into destitution and mental health crises due to a cost-of-living crisis following years of austerity.
These and other factors disproportionately target Black and racially minoritised people, who are already overrepresented in England and Wales’ prison population. Indeed, although they make up just 13% of the general population, they account for 28% of people behind bars.
This disparity is even more pronounced in the youth carceral estate, with over half of children in custody being from Black and racially minoritised backgrounds.
As INQUEST has detailed, imprisonment can be a ‘death sentence’ for criminalised people. Prisons don’t create justice or accountability – they cause irreparable harm to individuals and communities.
The only way we will see an end to these preventable deaths is if the state ends its destructive prison expansion scheme. Instead of more prisons, we need community-based infrastructures of care which deal with the root causes of social harm through healthcare, housing and education.
You know, when police start becoming their own executioners, where’s it gonna end? Pretty soon, you’ll start executing people for jaywalking, and executing people for traffic violations. Then you end up executing your neighbor ‘cause his dog pisses on your lawn.
— “Dirty Harry” Callahan, Magnum Force
When I say that warrior cops—hyped up on their own authority and the power of the badge—have not made America any safer or freer, I am not disrespecting any of the fine, decent, lawful police officers who take seriously their oath of office to serve and protect their fellow citizens, uphold the Constitution, and maintain the peace.
My concern rests with the cops who feel empowered to act as judge, jury and executioner.
These death squads believe they can kill, shoot, taser, abuse and steal from American citizens in the so-called name of law and order.
The driver, 17-year-old Erik Cantu and his girlfriend, were eating burgers inside the car when the police officer—suspecting the car might have been one that fled an attempted traffic stop the night before—abruptly opened the driver side door, ordered the teenager to get out, and when he did not comply, shot ten times at the car, hitting Cantu multiple times.
Mind you, this wasn’t a life-or-death situation.
It was two teenagers eating burgers in a parking lot, and a cop fresh out of the police academy taking justice into his own hands.
This wasn’t an isolated incident, either.
In Hugo, Oklahoma, plain clothes police officers opened fire on a pickup truck parked in front of a food bank, heedless of the damage such a hail of bullets—26 shots were fired—could have on those in the vicinity. Three of the four children inside the parked vehicle were shot: a 4-year-old girl was shot in the head and ended up with a bullet in the brain; a 5-year-old boy received a skull fracture; and a 1-year-old girl had deep cuts on her face from gunfire or shattered window glass. The reason for the use of such excessive force? Police were searching for a suspect in a weeks-old robbery of a pizza parlor that netted $400.
In Arizona, a 7-year-old girl watched panic-stricken as a state trooper pointed his gun at her and her father during a traffic stop and reportedly threatened to shoot her father in the back (twice) based on the mistaken belief that they were driving a stolen rental car.
This is how we have gone from a nation of laws—where the least among us had just as much right to be treated with dignity and respect as the next person (in principle, at least)—to a nation of law enforcers (revenue collectors with weapons) who treat the citizenry like suspects and criminals.
The lesson for all of us: at a time when police have almost absolute discretion to decide who is a threat, what constitutes resistance, and how harshly they can deal with the citizens they were appointed to “serve and protect”—and a “fear” for officer safety is used to justify all manner of police misconduct—“we the people” are at a severe disadvantage.
Add a traffic stop to the mix, and that disadvantage increases dramatically.
This free-handed approach to traffic stops has resulted in drivers being stopped for windows that are too heavily tinted, for driving too fast, driving too slow, failing to maintain speed, following too closely, improper lane changes, distracted driving, screeching a car’s tires, and leaving a parked car door open for too long.
Motorists can also be stopped by police for driving near a bar or on a road that has large amounts of drunk driving, driving a certain make of car (Mercedes, Grand Prix and Hummers are among the most ticketed vehicles), having anything dangling from the rearview mirror (air fresheners, handicap parking permits, toll transponders or rosaries), and displaying pro-police bumper stickers.
Equally appalling, in Heien v. North Carolina, the U.S. Supreme Court—which has largely paved the way for the police and other government agents to probe, poke, pinch, taser, search, seize, strip and generally manhandle anyone they see fit in almost any circumstance—allowed police officers to stop drivers who appear nervous, provided they provide a palatable pretext for doing so.
Traffic stops aren’t just dangerous. They can be downright deadly.
Patrick Lyoya was pulled over for having a mismatched license plate. The unarmed man was shot in the back of the head while on the ground during a subsequent struggle with a Michigan police officer.
Levar Jones was stopped for a seatbelt offense, just as he was getting out of his car to enter a convenience store. Directed to show his license, Jones leaned into his car to get his wallet, only to be shot four times by the “fearful” officer. Jones was also unarmed.
Bobby Canipe was pulled over for having an expired registration. When the 70-year-old reached into the back of his truck for his walking cane, the officer fired several shots at him, hitting him once in the abdomen.
Dontrell Stevens was stopped “for not bicycling properly.” The officer pursuing him “thought the way Stephens rode his bike was suspicious. He thought the way Stephens got off his bike was suspicious.” Four seconds later, sheriff’s deputy Adams Lin shot Stephens four times as he pulled out a black object from his waistband. The object was his cell phone. Stephens was unarmed.
That police are choosing to fatally resolve these encounters by using their guns on fellow citizens speaks volumes about what is wrong with policing in America today, where police officers are being dressed in the trappings of war, drilled in the deadly art of combat, and trained to look upon “every individual they interact with as an armed threat and every situation as a deadly force encounter in the making.”
Keep in mind, from the moment those lights start flashing and that siren goes off, we’re all in the same boat. Yet it’s what happens after you’ve been pulled over that’s critical.
Trying to predict the outcome of any encounter with the police is a bit like playing Russian roulette: most of the time you will emerge relatively unscathed, although decidedly poorer and less secure about your rights, but there’s always the chance that an encounter will turn deadly.
Survival is key.
Technically, you have the right to remain silent (beyond the basic requirement to identify yourself and show your registration). You have the right to refuse to have your vehicle searched. You have the right to film your interaction with police. You have the right to ask to leave. You also have the right to resist an unlawful order such as a police officer directing you to extinguish your cigarette, put away your phone or stop recording them.
However, there is a price for asserting one’s rights. That price grows more costly with every passing day.
If you ask cops and their enablers what Americans should do to stay alive during encounters with police, they will tell you to comply, cooperate, obey, not resist, not argue, not make threatening gestures or statements, avoid sudden movements, and submit to a search of their person and belongings.
Unfortunately, in the American police state, compliance is no guarantee that you will survive an encounter with the police with your life and liberties intact.
More often than not, it seems as if all you have to do to be shot and killed by police is stand a certain way, or move a certain way, or hold something—anything—that police could misinterpret to be a gun, or ignite some trigger-centric fear in a police officer’s mind that has nothing to do with an actual threat to their safety.
Now politicians, police unions, law enforcement officials and individuals who are more than happy to march in lockstep with the police state make all kinds of excuses to justify these shootings. However, to suggest that a good citizen is a compliant citizen and that obedience will save us from the police state is not only recklessly irresponsible, but it is also deluded.
In a nutshell, the following are your basic rights when it comes to interactions with the police as outlined in the Bill of Rights:
You have the right under the First Amendment to ask questions and express yourself. You have the right under the Fourth Amendment to not have your person or your property searched by police or any government agent unless they have a search warrant authorizing them to do so. You have the right under the Fifth Amendment to remain silent, to not incriminate yourself and to request an attorney. Depending on which state you live in and whether your encounter with police is consensual as opposed to your being temporarily detained or arrested, you may have the right to refuse to identify yourself. Not all states require citizens to show their ID to an officer (although drivers in all states must do so).
As a rule of thumb, you should always be sure to clarify in any police encounter whether or not you are being detained, i.e., whether you have the right to walk away. That holds true whether it’s a casual “show your ID” request on a boardwalk, a stop-and-frisk search on a city street, or a traffic stop for speeding or just to check your insurance. If you feel like you can’t walk away from a police encounter of your own volition—and more often than not you can’t, especially when you’re being confronted by someone armed to the hilt with all manner of militarized weaponry and gear—then for all intents and purposes, you’re essentially under arrest from the moment a cop stops you. Still, it doesn’t hurt to clarify that distinction.
While technology is always going to be a double-edged sword, with the gadgets that are the most useful to us in our daily lives—GPS devices, cell phones, the internet—being the very tools used by the government to track us, monitor our activities, and generally spy on us, cell phones are particularly useful for recording encounters with the police and have proven to be increasingly powerful reminders to police that they are not all powerful.
Knowing your rights is only part of the battle, unfortunately.
As I point out in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, the danger arises when the burden of proof is reversed, “we the people” are assumed guilty, and we have to exercise our rights while simultaneously attempting to prove our innocence to trigger-happy cops with no understanding of the Bill of Rights.
Port Moresby’s “amazing city” tag in Papua New Guinea is fast losing its varnish and appeal — its veneer of a modern metropolis tarnished by an ethnic underbelly that relishes criminal activity, racial violence and a tendency to unleash aggressive violent behavior at any opportune time.
Last weekend’s violence which left three people dead is the fifth such “amazing act” this year, says an exasperated Police Commissioner David Manning.
The question, raised on social media, in homes, schools, offices, among local landowners, the Motu Koitabu, and discussed in pubs and boardrooms across the city, is: “When will enough be enough?’
When will Port Moresby truly rise above its ethnic cleansing bloodbath rituals to become the modern Amazing City of cross cultures that it professes to be, and that every peace loving Papua New Guinean wants to enjoy?
A drug deal gone wrong has sparked a deadly ethnic war between Eastern Highlands and Hela province people living in Port Moresby.
Yesterday, the fight was violent around the Erima, Wildlife, 8 and 9 Mile settlement areas as pitched battles raged.
NCD Governor Powes Parkop called for calm and for peace to return, adding it is against the law to carry offensive weapons in public.
‘Leave it to police’ call
Commissioner Manning also called for calm and for the warring parties to lay down their arms and let police investigate the killings.
As of last night, three men were dead and six wounded who were being treated at the Port Moresby General Hospital.
Last night, Gordon, Erima, Wildlife, 8 and 9 Mile were tense with police patrols keeping a close watch on those areas.
The ethnic clash, the fifth so far this year, is putting a huge dent on the National Capital Diustrict Commission’s (NCDC) effort to promote the capital city’s image as “Amazing Moresby”.
On social media, angry residents have taken not so kindly to the fighting with many urging the government to clamp down on ethnic groups from the Highlands by returning all settlers back to their province of origin.
The Vagrancy Act, which enables police to evict illegal settlers in the city, was thrown out at Independence, which has led to a growing settlement population in the city.
But fed up Motu Koitabu landowners and angry residents want the city cleaned up.
A call for martial law
One commentator even called for martial law to be enacted and the city cleaned of all illegal settlers.
The flare-up between men from the Eastern Highlands and Hela provinces has sent innocent women and children scattering for cover and refuge.
It is alleged the death of a man from Eastern Highlands during a drug deal is said to have started the fight. The police, however, cannot say much, but could only confirm that an investigation has commenced on the issue.
The roads around Erima and 9 Mile saw men and women running with offensive weapons.
While police tried their best to make their presence felt during the chaos, they were outnumbered as scores of men continued to fight.
Commissioner Manning said that any ethnic clashes at other major centres in the country were “unnecessary” and “unfortunate”.
“It is concerning how people can employ their tribal tactics and think that they can clash with other groups in the cities and towns,” he said.
These ethnic clashes are a result of a lack of appropriate policing interventions.
Why have settlements grown?
Furthermore, there are a lot of discussions on why we have allowed settlements to grow in the last two to three decades and whether those settlements contribute to these ethnic clashes, he added.
Meanwhile, NCD Governor Parkop warned city residents carrying weapons who have gone unnoticed.
Bows and arrows, machetes, iron bars, stones and other dangerous weapons were seen publicly yesterday at the Gordon bus stop and Erima with the ethnic clash still tense with police continuously patrolling the area.
City Manager Ravu Frank said this kind of behaviour was illegal. Unfortunately, lives have been lost. City residents have to move around freely and not be in fear of their safety.
The parties concerned must air their grievances to police.
Commissioner Manning said ethnic clashes were no longer restricted to rural centres and it had greater impact on everyone’s lives and gave concern to a lot of people, especially government and police when it happened in the urban environment.
In 2022 alone, five ethnic clashes have erupted between different groups — mostly from the Highlands region.
Miriam Zarrigais a PNG Post-Courier journalist. Republished with permission.
A man has died after Hertfordshire Police restrained him during a mental health crisis. Police arrived after receiving reports of a man running in the street in distress late on Friday 7 October. Hertfordshire Police have now referred themselves to the IOPC (Independent Office for Police Conduct).
The BBC reported the IOPC as ‘understanding’ that:
officers reported the man appeared to be having a mental health crisis so the ambulance service was also called.
The man is understood to have become unwell while being restrained at the scene…Officers began CPR until paramedics arrived shortly before midnight, but the man was pronounced dead at 00:17.
The IOPC confirmed that Hertfordshire Police used PAVA spray (pelargonic acid vanillylamide), an incapacitant. It is unclear, and likely will remain so, why exactly the police chose to use an incapacitant spray on someone experiencing a mental health crisis.
Incapacitant
The director of the charity INQUEST, Deborah Coles, set out the facts:
A man in mental health crisis is Pava sprayed, restrained and dies. A long pattern of deaths and no systemic change or accountability. We need to end police being first responders to people in crisis and invest in emergency mental healthcare. https://t.co/9pu93lwc3s
The Network for Police Monitoring (Netpol) also noted the use of PAVA spray:
On Friday, a man having a mental health crisis and in distress died after he was sprayed with CS spray and restrained by Hertfordshire Police officers https://t.co/RWg2XvKKW3
PAVA spray is a chemically concentrated version of pepper spray that’s been a controversial deterrent due to its £2m rollout expense and its proven misuse in pilot trials.
PAVA spray is used as a defence tool to stop people resisting. It is sprayed into people’s eyes causing them to close and resulting severe pain. It is mainly used by police officers.
Mind also cited a study which found that PAVA spray was used disproportionately against certain groups:
[the study] revealed disproportionate use of force in prisons against younger people, black people and Muslim people, which the Ministry of Justice was unable to explain.
PAVA spray is a type of pepper spray that is clearly controversial, whether used by police officers or in prisons. The fact that Hertfordshire Police used it on someone who was in mental distress is a travesty.
We don’t yet know more details about the man who died in the custody of Hertfordshire police. However, it’s clear that police turn mental health crises into tragedies. A report from the IOPC found that:
In the majority of cases involving either allegations of discrimination or common stereotypes and assumptions, there was evidence that the individual concerned had mental health concerns or a learning disability. This supports findings by others that the intersectionality of race and mental health can increase the risk of higher levels of use of force.
Obviously, higher levels of force mean a higher incidence of serious injury and death.
As advocacy organisation Liberty argues:
When people are in mental health crises, policing is not the answer.
Instead we need mental health care and interventions which: – support those in crisis – address the root causes of mental ill-health and distress – put human rights at their hearthttps://t.co/RWsg9T0T9u
Police do not protect the public, or communities at large. Given their endemic racism and regular lack of accountability, we cannot rely on them to be truthful. We must resist police violence, and we must do so together. How many more times do police need to kill people experiencing mental distress before anything changes?
For the first time in the life of school exams in Papua New Guinea, police will monitor the national grades 8, 10 and 12 exams over the next three weeks.
The engagement of the police is to provide security for invigilators (teachers who supervise exams) and to crack down on cheating and bribery.
Education Minister Jimmy Uguro announced the extraordinary intervention, saying that more than 200,000 students were expected to sit for the exams cross the country.
Several policemen from the Special Services Division (SSD) are now travelling into several provinces around the country — including Morobe, Madang, Eastern Highlands, Southern Highlands and Hela — as they assist the invigilators and other Education officials to carry out their duties during the three weeks of examinations.
In recent years, PNG has experienced an unprecedented rise in cheating scandals from several schools across the country and as such the inclusion of police is a way to deter such activities from being carried out.
Uguro said that cheating during the examinations would not be tolerated with students warned to be mindful as they sat for the exams.
“While we do not wish to include police officers in such activities, the safety of the invigilators and education staff is of paramount importance. People will do anything to ensure their child goes into university, however we want it to be done the right way and not through bribery and cheating,” he said.
Western Highlands cheating
The warning comes after several schools in Western Highlands in 2019 saw more than 400 students not certified because of cheating.
And several more schools in the years that have followed have seen students cheating in schools across the country.
All of the students in the three grades have been warned to not cheat during the examination with the National Education Board implementing strict rules while students are sitting for the exams.
Uguro said that while he wished the students the best of luck in their examinations, he wanted all them to know that cheating would not be tolerated and there would be severe consequences for such actions being taken by any student.
“If anyone is found to be cheating, they will be severely penalised and cheating is an attitude that is unfair, and cannot be allowed to continue,” he said.
“Those found to be cheating on any of the days for the three grades will be banned from continuing the exams, and we will be reporting any illegal activities and practices found to be carried out during the examination processes.”
Uguro said the warning was not only for the students but for the teachers and other help around the schools who were assisting with cheating.
Cheats ‘will not be certified’
“They will be dealt with by police,” he added. “If you are found cheating, the only penalty we will give is you are not going to be certified. No student and school will be certified if they are caught cheating.”
Teachers would be terminated and would never teach again, said Minister Uguro.
If teachers had been found to have assisted in cheating and bribery, they would also face not teaching again he reiterated.
For the students, those found to be cheating would be referred to the National Education Board (NEB) and appropriate action would be taken, Uguro said.
Minister Uguro also took the time to wish the students the best of luck and urged them to do their best.
“I want to wish all students the best in the exams today and I challenge them to do their best for themselves and their families and for the country.”
200,000 students start exams
Today the 200,000 students from more than 3000 schools in the country will sit for the papers with the Grade 10s commencing the start of examination.
The examination will conclude on Friday.
On October 17 the Grade 12s start their exams and end on Friday, October 21.
The third and final week will see grade 8s commence their exams on Monday, October 24, and end on Friday, October 27.
Miriam Zarrigais a PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with permission.
Disclosures in the Chris Kaba case cast new light on the latest police killing of a young Black man. Kaba was shot dead by Metropolitan police officers in September. Kaba, who was 24, was about to become a father.
Some, including the right-wing press, had claimed the killing followed a vehicle pursuit in Streatham, south London. But the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has shed more light on this.
Officers continued to follow the Audi until 10.07pm. The officers did not activate their lights or sirens.
Outside the hearing a member of the Kaba family told reporters:.
The family is pleased that, in this statement, the IOPC made public some of its initial findings about what happened that night. Every new fact is a step towards justice for Chris.
The inquest also heard that the officer who fired a single shot through the windscreen of Kaba’s car was currently suspended while investigations took place. The officer is named only as NX121.
We need answers. Not just this family, but the whole of London – the whole of the country – needs to know how something like this could occur? How can a young man, sitting in a car, unarmed, be shot in the head by police in London in 2022? This should never have happened. It must never happen again. We must never accept this as normal. Someone must be held accountable.”
Justice
The Kaba case, which was largely drowned out in the mainstream media by the Queen’s death, led to outpourings of grief and even a protest in central London which was bizarrely conflated with the royal mourning period.
Commentators echoed the Kaba family’s calls for justice. Some pointed out the parallels with other high profile police killings, including those where police claims were later found to be untrue:
‘Mark Duggan shot at police’ – confirmed as untrue
‘Jean Charles De Menezes vaulted the ticket barriers’ – confirmed as untrue
‘Deji Omishore armed with a screwdriver’ – confirmed as untrue
Chris Kaba…let me cut to the chase. The Met Police do not have our trust. This is true
Another emphasised that there had not been a car chase, as had been reported, before the shooting took place:
Chris Kaba shot to death by a police officer update: New IOPC statement ‘The officers did not activate their lights or sirens while following the vehicle. The intention was to use an ‘enforced stop extraction’ on the Audi’ It suggest Mr Kaba was not in a police chase @itvlondonpic.twitter.com/TlSdC46hOJ
This new information comes as the most senior Met officer pledged to root out racism and other forms of prejudice in the force. It follows a scandal centred on officers sharing racist memes in a Whatsapp group.
Sir Mark Rowley told reporters:
I will be ruthless in rooting out those corrupting officers and staff, including racists and misogynists, from our organisation.
An ex-Met police officer turned immigration officer is currently suspended over the Whatsapp revelations.
Recommendations ignored
As the Canary has reported, many of past inquiries into police violence have produced recommendations.
But they have failed to meaningfully implement the majority of the recommendations. The police themselves have demonstrated that it is impossible to reform an inherently oppressive and destructive institution.
This is just the latest high profile killing of a Black person by the Met Police. Given that recent studies have found that the police are up to four times more likely to use force on Black people, it can come as no surprise that some of these incidents result in fatalities.
Chris Kaba is just the latest victim. There have been many others over the years. Police violence against Black people is an endemic and enduring issue, and one where glacial promised reforms and mealy-mouthed pledges cannot begin to address.
Journalists may face decades in prison for “foreign interference” offences unless urgent changes are made to Australia’s national security laws, according to a University of Queensland researcher.
PhD candidate Sarah Kendall from UQ’s School of Law warned that reporting on issues relating to Australian politics, national security or international relations while working with overseas media organisations could place journalists at risk of criminal prosecution under the Espionage and Foreign Interference Act 2018.
“The law could apply to any journalist, staff member or source who works for or collaborates with foreign-controlled media organisations,” Kendall said.
“There could also be repercussions for journalists working overseas, as any news published in Australia is subject to these laws.”
The Espionage and Foreign Interference Act 2018 covers nine foreign interference offences, with penalties ranging from 10 to 20 years imprisonment.
“While these offences require some part of the person’s conduct to be covert or involve deception, this does not exclude legitimate journalistic activities,” Kendall said.
“Journalists could be acting covertly whenever they liaise with a confidential source using encrypted technologies or engage in undercover work using hidden cameras.”
Public interest protection
In a Foreign Interference Law and Press Freedom briefing paper, Kendall recommended that the government introduce an occupation-specific exemption to protect journalists working in the public interest.
The paper argues that the scope of offences be narrowed to remove “recklessness” and “prejudice to Australia’s national security” as punishable elements.
“For example, a journalist could be accused of recklessly harming national security when they publish a story that reveals war crimes by members of the Australian Defence Force,” Kendall said.
“Journalists and their sources could face up to 20 years in prison if any part of their conduct was covert, even if they are engaged in legitimate, good faith reporting.”
Kendall said the law’s Preparatory Offence, which carries a potential jail term of 10 years, risked creating a dangerous precedent when combined with the offence of conspiracy.
“This offence can capture the earliest stages of investigative reporting so a discussion between a journalist and source about a potential story on Australian politics could see them charged with conspiring to prepare for foreign interference,” Kendall said.
Foreign Interference Law and Press Freedom is the latest report in UQ Law School’s Press Freedom Policy Papers series, a project aimed at laying the groundwork for widespread reform in laws spanning espionage, whistleblowing and free speech as they affect the media.
The Post-Courier daily newspaper is one of 15 companies in Papua New Guinea that have pledged to fight against gender-based violence (GBV) while promoting gender equality within and outside of the workplace.
Signing the National Capital District Commission’s “Zero Tolerance to GBV Pledge” under its GBV Strategy 2020–2022, means that as organisations, the 15 companies will partner with the NCDC to eradicate all forms of violence within the city through their employees.
City manager Ravu Frank congratulated the organisations for taking the bold step at the signing up yesterday, noting that addressing GBV-related issues in the city required a collective effort from the municipal authority in partnership with all stakeholders.
“We came up with the NCDC GBV Strategy to raise awareness of the acts of violence against women with the view to end violent behavior against women and to regard them as equal partners in development,” he said.
“I am glad that a good number of our contractors have shown commitment to this cause.
“By signing the pledge all NCDC contractors agree to avoid any form of violence against women at their workplace, at home and in public.
“All NCDC contractors will be accountable for their violent actions against women and will seriously impact their engagement with NCDC leading to the termination of their contracts.”
Second batch of companies
This is the second batch of companies that have contracts with the city authority to sign the GBV pledge.
NCDC commenced implementation of the three-pillar Zero Tolerance to GBV Strategy 2020–2022 last year. The first was Walk the Talk with a compulsory signing of a pledge by NCDC staff to abstain from any form of violence.
The engagement of contractors is part of the second pillar to involve stakeholders and partners and the third is the demand for a community free from gender-based violence.
Hebou Construction Limited was one of the first companies to sign up.
According to health and safety manager Larry Watson, the pledge has helped the company give back to its employees and community through promoting gender equality and ensuring that female employees get proper assistance when needed.
In an editorial on Tuesday, the Post-Courier quoted from the first African-American President Barack Obama:
“You can judge a nation and how successful it will be based on how it treats women and girls.”
“And his observation, we say, is an expression of wisdom and truth,” said the newspaper.
“No country in the world will improve itself where the culture of violence against women exists, that is what he meant in his statement.
‘A lot of talk’
“In PNG there’s being a lot of talk and even action on violence against women and girls, but the message and progress has been unsatisfactory.
“Just last week bodies of two women were discovered in the nation’s capital with preliminary examination showing that they were raped and murdered.”
The Post-Courier said that while some might say that the two incidents were isolated, “we say its not and that despite numerous efforts by NGOs, churches and even parliamentarians on this issue, the incidences of women and girls being mistreated and murdered is slowly on the rise again.”
The newspaper said there were three major factors in the violence and the community’s response:
It is a cultural issue and it is huge;
It is not recognised as a development issue; and
We’re just talking; no money and no real action
The Post-Courier said it was time to recognise that mistreatment of women was the biggest drawback in the country’s national development.
Papua New Guinea’s National Capital District Governor Powes Parkop wants the city’s police to fully investigate the gruesome murder of two women in Port Moresby late last week.
Parkop told the Post-Courier that such “despicable” brutality against womenfolk in the city and throughout the country was not welcome — and the recent crimes were not either.
The two women were allegedly raped, murdered and dumped at different locations last week.
One body was discovered at the 9-Mile public cemetery just outside the city and the other body at a spot along the Gordon storm-water drain in the early hours of Sunday morning.
“I am and will continue to be appalled that such despicable crimes continue to be committed against women and girls in our city and elsewhere in our country,” Parkop said.
“While there may be other factions contributing to these crimes, the lack of or poor respect for women and girls as equal citizens of our country remains a main cause of violence against women and girls in our country.”
Parkop is a strong advocate of women’s rights and has initiated several programmes to promote gender equality within Port Moresby and also in the National Capital District Commission (NCDC).
Women’s, girl’s lives ‘risky’
“These latest killings in our city are not an exception. Lives of women and girls continue to be risky in our country as a result of continuing gender inequality. I appeal to the police to investigate and have these perpetrators arrested and charged.”
The NCDC will continue to promote the gender equality and eliminate gender-based violence (GBV) across the city.
“On our part in the city we continue to implement our GBV strategy which we will in fact escalate [on Wednesday] with signing of more of NCDC contractors pledging to abide by and implement the strategy with us,” Parkop added.
Superintendent Ikumu urged city residents — especially young girls and women — to be more considerate about their security and safety when “hanging out with friends” during social outings.
He said such killings were a concern for police and investigations were continuing.
Claudia Tallyis a PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with permission.
Alleged corruption involving Governor Lukas Enembe has dominated both Papuan and Indonesian media outlets and social media groups over the past two weeks.
The Indonesian media is rife with allegations and accusations against the governor who is suspected of spending of billions in rupiahs.
These media storms are sparked by allegations against him of receiving gratification worth Rp 1 million (NZ$112,000).
Governor Enembe was named a suspect by the Indonesian Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) last week and summoned on Monday, September 19, by Police Mobile Brigade Corps (BRIMOB) headquarters in Kota Raja, Jayapura Papua.
Due to illness, the governor was unable to attend the summons. Only his lawyers and Papuan protesters attended, who then condemned KPK of being unprofessional in handling the case.
Papuans (governor’s supporters) take this case as another attempt by the state to “criminalise” their leader motivated by other political agendas, while Jakarta continues to push the narrative of the case, being a serious crime with legal implications.
According to Dr Roy Rening, a member of governor’s legal team, the governor’s designation as a suspect was prematurely determined. This is due to the lack of two crucial pieces of evidence necessary to establish the legitimacy of the charge within the existing framework of Indonesia’s legal procedural code.
Unaware he was a suspect
Dr Rening also argued that the KPK’s behaviour in executing their warrant turned on a dime. The Governor was unaware that he was a suspect, and he was already under investigation by the KPK when he was summoned to appear.
In his letter, Dr Rening explained that Governor Enembe had never been invited to clarify and/or appear as a witness pursuant to the Criminal Procedure Code. The KPK instead declared the Governor a suspect based on the warrant letters, which had also changed dates and intent.
The manner in which the KPK and the state are handling the case involving Papua’s number one man in Indonesia’s settler colonial province has sparked a mass demonstration with the slogan “Save Lukas Enembe” from criminalisation.
The Governor’s case has generated a flurry of news stories with all kinds of new allegations by the nation’s most prominent figures.
Mohammad Mahfud Mahmodin, commonly known as Mahfud MD, Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs, accused Governor Enembe of corruption, amounting to billions of rupiahs during a public media conference held at the Coordinating Ministry Office, Jakarta, on Monday.
His allegations have sparked a backlash from the Governor and his lawyers, as well as from the Papuan people.
Governor’s lawyer Dr Rening said Mahfud MD should not be included in the technical part of the investigation, particularly when in relation to those financial figures. Dr Rening said any confidential information was already protected by the constitution and it was inappropriate for Mahfud MD to make such announcement.
He asked which case the minister Mahfud MD was referring to in his allegation because the actual case involving the KPK investigation only related to a gratuity of 1 billion Rp.
‘Massive campaign to undermine Governor Enembe’
Dr Rening asked how Mahfud MD could explain the other charges that were not included in the dispute of this case, adding that “we are still of the opinion, as I have mentioned in my articles, that ‘This is what we call a systematic, structured, and massive campaign to undermine the honour and reputation of Papuan leader Lukas Enembe’.
“Governor Enembe himself has also rejected the allegations involving the spending of billions of rupiah, accusing Mahfud MD of making false allegations against him.”
Reverend Dr Socratez Sofyan Yoman … the KPK has lost its integrity and legitimacy as an independent institution. Image: Tabloid Jubi
Reverend Dr Sofyan Yoman, president of the Papuan Baptist Church Alliance, stated on the same day as Mahfud MD’s press conference that it would be remembered as the day the KPK lost its integrity and legitimacy as an independent institution for the protection of the nation’s morale.
He said it would be recorded that 19 September 2022 was the day of the “death” of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).
“Therefore, I express my condolences for the passing of the KPK. So, the history of the KPK is over,” reported Tabloid Jubi.
At the press conference, Mahfud MD was accompanied by Alexander Marwata (KPK), Ivan Yustiavandana, director of the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK), and other representatives from the State Intelligence Agency (BIN), National Police, and the Armed Forces were also present.
By engaging in this collaboration, the KPK lacked an independent voice, and its integrity and legitimacy were shattered by state intervention.
Jakarta’s ‘state of panic’
Reverend Yoman’s “condolence” statement about the KPK was the result of the state intervention in suffocating KPK’s ability to stand independently.
Reverend Yoman added: “Jakarta is in a state of panic right now because gross human rights violations in the land of Papua are already being recognised by international institutions such as the UN, European Union, Pacific Island forums (PIF) and Africa Caribbean Pacific nation states (ACP).
“Governor Lukas Enembe’s case is not the real issue,” he said.
In reality, this was “merely a façade designed by Jakarta” to distract the public from paying attention to the real issue, which was the state’s crimes against West Papuans, reported Papua.tribunnews.com.
Natalius Pigai, a prominent Indigenous Papuan figure in Indonesia and former human rights commissioner, wrote on Twitter: “There is no single law that authorises Mahfud MD to lead a state auxiliary body. The coordinating minister can only lead police and prosecutors as part of the cabinet, he cannot act as Head of State. It was a silly intervention that weakened the KPK, and strengthened accusations of political motivations toward Lukas Enembe.”
Despite this condemnation and rejection from the governor’s camp, Governor Lukas Enembe remains a suspect waiting to be investigated by the KPK. The KPK’s Deputy Chair, Alexander Marwata said KPK examined a number of witnesses before establishing Enembe as a suspect.
“Several witnesses have clarified, and documents have been obtained that give us reason to believe there is enough evidence to establish a suspect” reported Kompas.com.
Papuans protect residence
Meanwhile, the Governor’s private residence in Papua is being protected by Papuans, triggering more security personnel being deployed in a region that is already one of the most highly militarised in the Asia Pacific.
Papua’s people have been shaken by the news of this corruption allegation against their Governor.
According to Paskalis Kosay, Papua is worried about the loss of Lukas Enembe, a unifying figure among the Papuan people.
He added: “Papua’s political situation has become increasingly unhealthy since Mahfud MD’s statement. The internet — particularly social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and WhatsApp — are full of both positive and false information. Also, its contents may be used to slander, humiliate, or discredit the good name, honour, or dignity of a certain person, figure, or group.
“We should be vigilant when paying attention to the different information spread on social media and other mass lines. It is imperative that Papuans filter all news content very carefully. You must then respond wisely, intelligently, and proportionally so as not to be accused of being a member of a group of disseminators of misleading information”.
Meanwhile, as Governor Enembe awaits the outcome of the case against him, he has already missed his medical appointments in Singapore. This could unleash unprecedented protests throughout West Papua if or when his health fails him due to him being blocked by Jakarta from leaving the country.
A failure to protect the Governor while he is caught up in the limbo of the Indonesian legal system, would have catastrophic consequences for Jakarta. Papuans have already warned Jakarta “don’t try [to detain him] during the protests.”
As of today, the Governor’s and his family’s bank accounts remain blocked, a decision made by the state without their knowledge a few months ago, that has led to the current crisis.
Who is Governor Lukas Enembe?
Governor Lukas Enembe is a symbol of pride and an icon for the sons and daughters of the Koteka people of the highlands of Papua. He is often referred to as “Anak Koteka” (son of Koteka).
Governor Lukas Enembe … a bold style of leadership and deeds indicate a deep longing in his heart for justice for Papuans. Image: West Papua Today
Koteka as a horim, or penis gourd or sheath, traditionally worn by males in Papua’s Highlands, where Governor Enembe comes from.
When he is called “Anak Koteka” it means that he is a son of cultural groups that wear this traditional attire. Knowing this is critical to understanding how and why this man became such a central figure in West Papua.
Before he became Governor of Papua in 2013, the Koteka people of the Highlands faced many kinds of racial prejudice and discrimination. Wearing the koteka was seen as a symbol of primitiveness, backwardness, and stupidity.
Lukas Enembe turned the symbol of the koteka into hope, pride, courage, leadership, and power when he became governor for two consecutive terms. He broke barriers no one else had crossed, exposed cultural taboos, and used his ancestral wisdom to unite people from every walk of life.
As the Highland’s first Papua Governor (2013 -2023), he upended stereotypes associated with his cultural heritage.
Governor Enembe was born in Timo Ramo Village, Kembu District, Tolikara Regency of Papua’s Highlands on 27 July 1967. His biography A Statesman from Honai, by Sendius Wonda, states that Lukas grew up in a simple family.
He attended elementary school in Mamit (1974-1980) and junior high school in Sentani (1980-1983). He then attended senior high school in Sentani from 1983-86.
Sacred building for sharing wisdom
In Highlands Papua, honai is a traditional hut, but it is more than just a hut; it is a sacred building where ancient teachings and wisdoms are discussed and preserved.
Honai shaped him into the person he is today. In the 1980s, he was one of only a handful of Papuan Highlands village children to study in urbanised coastal regions.
His determination to continue his studies was already noted by his peers. In 1986, he took the selection examination for admission to Indonesia’s State Universities and was accepted as a student at Sam Ratulangi University (Unsrat) Manado Indonesia.
As a fourth-semester student at the FKIP Campus, Enembe majored in political science at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences in Manado. After completing his studies in Manado in 1995, Lukas returned to Papua.
As he waited for acceptance of his Civil Service Candidates (CPNS) he lived in Doyo Sabron, Jayapura Regency with his wife, Yulce Wenda, and his family. The following year, he was accepted as a civil servant (PNS).
He aspired to become a lecturer at Cenderawasih University, Jayapura, where he earned 22 citations for local government lectures. The promise of being a lecturer ran aground during the pre-service announcement, and Enembe was assigned a position as a civil servant at the Merauke Regency Socio-Political Affair’s Office instead.
During 1998-2001, Enembe was sent by a missionary agency to continue his studies for two years at the Cornerstone Christian college in Australia (Dubbo, NSW). Upon returning from Australia in 2001, he participated in the Puncak Jaya regional election, but his dream of becoming a regent was dashed.
‘Papua rising’
From 2001-2006, he served as Deputy Regent of Puncak Jaya alongside Elieser Renmaur. In 2006, Enembe was elected chair of the DPD of the Papua Province Democratic Party. In that year he also attempted to run for Governor of Papua by collaborating with a Muslim couple, Ahmad Arobi Aituarauw.
He lost the vote, however, and Bas Suebu-Alex Hasegem won. Last but not least, he participated in the 2007 Puncak Jaya regional election and was elected Regent of Puncak Jaya along with Henock Ibo.
In 2013, Enembe and Klemen Tinal ran as candidates for Governor of Papua in the 2013 Papuan Gubernatorial Election.
The General Elections Commission (KPU) appointed Lukas Enembe and Klemen Tinal to lead Papua between 2013 and 2018. In 2018, he was re-elected along with Klemen Tinal to serve as Governor of Papua for the period 2018-2023.
“Papua rising, independent, and prosperous” was Lukas’s vision for leading Papua through the landslide victory.
As Governor he gave 80 percent of the special autonomy funds to regional and city areas, and 20 percent to the provinces. In his view, 80 percent of the special autonomy funds are managed by districts or cities which is where most people in Papua live.
Papua has undergone a lot of development during Enembe’s governorship, including the construction of a world-class sports stadium that has been named after him, as well as other major projects like the iconic Youtefa Bridge in Jayapura city.
Papua has undergone a lot of development during Enembe’s governorship, including the construction of a world-class sports stadium that has been named after him, as well as other major projects like the iconic Youtefa Bridge in Jayapura city. Image: APR
Papuans ‘need to live’
Many Papuans opposing Jakarta’s activities in West Papua consider him to be a father figure. When asked about the conditions his people face on national television, Governor Enembe responded by saying “Papuans do not need development, they need to live.”
Such bold statements, along with others he made directly challenge Indonesia’s mainstream narrative, since Jakarta and Indonesians at large regard “development” as a panacea for West Papua’s problem.
Jakarta is also suspicious about the hundreds of Papuan students sent abroad under the scholarship scheme he designed using Special Autonomy Funds.
His boldness, style of leadership and deeds indicate that there is a deep longing in his heart for justice and for better treatment of his fellow humans. His accomplishments distinguish him as a pioneer, a dreamer, a fighter, a survivor, and a practical man with deep compassion for others.
It is this spirit that keeps him alive and strong despite the physical and psychological intimidation, threats, as well as clinical sickness he has endured for years.
The rest of his term (2022-2023) is one of the most critical times for him. After more than 20 years as Indonesia’s top public servant, the strong man of the people is facing his greatest challenge as he enters his final year in his career.
How that final chapter of his career ends will be determined by the outcome of this corruption allegations case, which could have significant consequences for Papua and Indonesia as well as for Governor Enembe.
Jakarta must think carefully in how they handle the governor, son of Koteka.
Yamin Kogoya is a West Papuan academic who has a Master of Applied Anthropology and Participatory Development from the Australian National University and who contributes to Asia Pacific Report. From the Lani tribe in the Papuan Highlands, he is currently living in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
When discussing the topic of government electronic surveillance, I often reflect on the time during a significant AFP Counter Terrorism investigation that we had cause to install a hidden camera in the bedroom of a terrorism suspect. The surveillance device was crucial for the evidence it obtained, and ultimately assisted in bringing serious terrorism charges…
HELP
We just supported this case! 
(@copwatcher) 
It's one month since Chris Kaba was shot dead by the police. 
