herewith the final notice of the friday 14th. february rally and march for the 10th anniversary of the death of tj hickey arising from a redfern police pursuit.
before i begin, there are two mea culpas that i need to make.firstly, in the previous post i stated wrongly that TJ would be 27 this year, in fact, as has been pointed out by some, he would have been 28 six weeks after the 14th. the second is to cheryl and keith kaulfuss whom i inadvertently left off the speakers list in the previous post. my sincere apologies to all concerned.
the article below by danny corvini of the sydney morning herald highlights the tortuous negotiations with redfern police over a three week period that was finally settled at 11am on tuesday morning, when the final document was signed by myself in full agreement of redfern police. basically the sticking point was the march route and the fact that the police did not want us to be marching through the city. whilst their first offer did allow us to march to parliament house it had to be achieved by walking through a park. we did not consider this route to be attractive or safe to the marchers as it was mostly uneven ground and secondly, our sound van and elders vehicles would not have been able to proceed through that park.
the second option given to us by the redfern police was to terminate the march in that park next to central railway station. they were told that this was most unsatisfactory as we had to march to parliament house as we had invited both the attorney-general, greg smith, and the police minister, mike gallecher, to meet with gail hickey and her family at parliament house to allow greg smith to address the issues of the parliamentary apology to the family and also for the police minister to redress the continuing problem of redfern police denying gail hickey the right to affix the memorial plaque for her son to the fence line. see invitations below.
as advised in the previous post we had invited our human rights commissioner, mick gooda and the co-chairs of the first peoples congress, ms kirstie parker and les mazler to attend the rally or to send an endorsement if they could not. to date we have received no word from them at all. we have also not heard back from robbie thorpe in melbourne and the tasmanian aboriginal centre on a representative coming from them.
john pilger has assured us that he will be at the march if it is possible for him to do so.
we are expecting a large crowd to assemble at the fence line on friday at 10:30 and we are informed that representatives will be attending from both melbourne and brisbane. we are currently working on a speakers list as we do have a good list of speakers and we will need to break them up so that some speak at the fence line some at the redfern police station some outside the office of the nsw dpp and finally, at parliament house. after the invited speakers have made their contributions we will be opening the mic to all those who wish to speak. we will be calling 5 two minutes of silence to make 10 minutes for the 10th anniversary of his death.
we now have 3 cars for the elders with the combined capacity of at least 12 people. so we urge all who can and all who wish to join us in commemorating the death of young tj hickey and of honouring both his memory and the tenacity and courage of his family. so please join us at the waterloo fence line, corner george and phillip streets waterloo at 10.30am this friday morning.
Organisers, police at odds over T.J. Hickey 10th anniversary march
February 11, 2014
Danny Corvini
Controversial death: T. J. Hickey. Photo: Tanya Lake
Police and organisers are at loggerheads over the route of the 10th anniversary remembrance march for T. J. Hickey, whose death sparked the Redfern riots.
Ray Jackson from the Indigenous Social Justice Association, which is organising the protest march on Friday on behalf of the Hickey family, has accused Redfern Police Area Commander Luke Freudenstein of trying to minimise publicity for the campaign by keeping it off city streets.
More than 600 protesters are expected to join the march on Friday – a significantly larger turn-out than have marched in previous years.
The association requested police approval to march from the Waterloo fence on which 17-year-old Hickey was impaled in 2004 to State Parliament – the same route as last year. Redfern police, however, have advised organisers to terminate the march in Prince Alfred Park or walk through Prince Alfred and Hyde parks to Macquarie Street. Mr Jackson said travelling through the parks was not practical, as it was planned to carry elders in three vehicles.
In an email to Mr Jackson, Commander Freudenstein said: “The use of pick-up vehicles is going to prevent the police vehicles at the rear stopping traffic and preventing any danger to the marchers.”
An offer by Redfern police to escort the elders in police vehicles was refused. “The route you have chosen, with the amount of people – double last year – is going to cause many issues with safety of your marchers, police and the public,” Commander Freudenstein wrote.
”I have sent a map of our preferred route and this will give you even more distance than what you marched for the previous eight years, which ended up in the Block.”
The rally’s destination was changed to Parliament House in 2013. T. J.’s mother Gail Hickey, who leads the march, has requested NSW Attorney-General Greg Smith meet her outside Parliament House. A coronial inquest found the youth died of his injuries when he was catapulted over the handlebars of his defective bike onto a metal picket fence. The Hickey family believes that a police vehicle struck the youth’s bike, hoisting him through the air. The inquest later found the police were not responsible for Hickey’s death.
If police do not approve the route, Mr Jackson has threatened to take the matter to court this week.
Redfern police did not respond to Fairfax Media for comment.
letter to mike gallecher – copy
6 February, 2014
Mike Gallacher
NSW Police Minister office
Mike
As you would already be aware due to previous posts, we are once again approaching the Anniversary of the death of young TJ Hickey arising from a pursuit of him by Redfern Police on 14 February, 2004, thus making this year the 10th Anniversary of his death.
You may also be aware that as we done last year, the Hickey Family and this Association and many other supporters will be commemorating his death and calling for Justice again this year, the 10th year. Again we will march from the Waterloo fence-line to Parliament House via the Redfern Police Station and the NSW Office of the DPP along the way.
We expect to arrive at Parliament House between!pm and 2pm and we invite you to join us on that day and time to meet with Gail Hickey and her extended Family to personally receive her request that Redfern Police resistance to a Memorial Plaque to give Honour, Respect and Remembrance to TJ be overturned by you thus allowing the Plaque to be finally affixed to the Waterloo fence-line where he became impaled.
It is indeed a common practice for such Memorial sites to be marked by crosses, shrines, etc., throughout this country and the Hickey Family ask that you recognise this custom and practice and to allow them to finally affix the Memorial Plaque to the Waterloo fence-line after 10 long grueling years of seeking Justice and Respect for TJ and his Family.
We look forward to you joining us on the 14 February to allow this humane action to take place.
FOR KOORI JUSTICE
Ray Jackson
President.
ISJA
letter to greg smith – copy
6 February, 2014
Greg Smith
NSW Attorney-General
Parliament House office
Greg,
As you would already be aware due to previous posts, we are once again approaching the Anniversary of the death of young TJ Hickey arising from a pursuit of him by Redfern Police on 14 February, 2004, thus making this year the 10th Anniversary of his death.
You may also be aware that as we done last year, the Hickey Family and this Association and many other supporters will be commemorating his death and calling for justice again this year, the 10th year. Again we will march from the Waterloo fence-line to Parliament House via the Redfern Police Station and the NSW Office of the DPP along the way.
We expect to arrive at Parliament House between !pm and 2pm and we invite you to join us on that day and time to meet with Gail Hickey and her extended Family to personally receive her request for a NSW Parliamentary Apology for the death of her only son ten years previously. A similar Apology has been made by the WA Parliament to Mrs Mavis Pat for the 30th Anniversary of her sons death when 16 year old John Pat was brutally assaulted by WA Police at Roebourne, WA in September, 1983. I can supply you with further details of this action should you require it but it is on the WA Hansard.
The Hickey Family, this Association and the many other supporters of those calling for Justice, Recognition and Respect for the Hickey Family have no wish to wait for a further twenty years for this Apology to occur. As the Parliamentary representative of Law and Jurisprudence in this State we expect you would agree to Gails wishes in this matter.
The Hickey Family looks forward to your involvement in this matter and we will await your presence on the 14 February outside the House.
FOR KOORI JUSTICE
Ray Jackson.
President.
ISJA
ray jackson
president
indigenous social justice association
2013 Laureate
Prix de l’Homme de Francais
(French Human Rights Medal 2013)
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