Aboriginal community leader Sam Watson called a rally outside state parliament on June 1 to demand a new Royal Commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody.
The rally also condemned the Queensland Police Union (QPU), who have demanded the Queensland government pay the legal costs incurred by Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley during his defence case about the 2004 death in custody of Palm Island man Mulrunji Domadgee.
Watson told the rally: “We as taxpayers should not be paying for the legal costs of Hurley and the QPU.
“All evidence at three coronial inquiries shows that Hurley was responsible for the death of Mulrunji Doomadgee in the Palm Island watch-house on November 19, 2004.
“Yet Hurley walked free from a manslaughter case, despite clear medical evidence of the horrific injuries that caused Mulrunji’s death. Then all the police in that watch-house cooked up a criminal conspiracy to cover up the death.
“The QPU now has the gall to demand the public pay all their legal costs. Chris Hurley and the QPU have the blood of innocent victims on their hands.
“We need to continue to rally, to protest and to maintain our rage, until justice is done for the families who have lost loved ones to police brutality.”
Reverend Alex Gator told the rally: “It is only the people who will bring about change. We will continue to make a noise, to keep protesting, until police and the criminal justice system are held to account for these crimes.”