Episode 821
Death of Ms Dhu
Sun, 2019-Aug-04 00:32 UTC
Length - 3:04
Direct Link
Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day where we read the summary of the featured Wikipedia article every day.
The featured article for Sunday, 4 August 2019 is Death of Ms Dhu.
Julieka Ivanna Dhu (commonly referred to as Ms Dhu; her first name was generally not used in media reports out of respect for Aboriginal naming customs) was a 22-year-old Australian Aboriginal woman who died in police custody in South Hedland, Western Australia, in 2014. On 2 August that year, police responded to a report that Dhu's partner had violated an apprehended violence order. Upon arriving at their address, the officers arrested both Dhu and her partner after realising there was also an outstanding arrest warrant for unpaid fines against Dhu. She was detained in police custody in South Hedland and was ordered to serve four days in custody to clear part of her debt.
While in custody, Dhu complained of pain and was taken to the Hedland Health Campus hospital twice. Medical staff believed her complaints were exaggerated and suspected drug withdrawal. On 4 August, Dhu reported that she could no longer stand. Police officers, who accused her of faking her condition, handcuffed her, carried her to the back of their van and returned her to the hospital; she was pronounced dead shortly after arrival. The official cause of death was an infection due to her partner's breaking of her ribs three months earlier.
An internal police investigation found that 11 officers had either failed to comply with regulations or were otherwise guilty of misconduct. They were given written and verbal warnings. A coronial inquest found that she had suffered "unprofessional and inhumane" handling by police and "deficient" treatment from hospital staff. It also established that police and hospital staff had been influenced by preconceived ideas about Aboriginal people. The inquest recommended that the justice system should stop imprisoning people for unpaid fines and introduce a Custody Notification Scheme (CNS). In October 2018, Attorney-General of Western Australia John Quigley stated he would introduce legislative amendments to cease jailing people for unpaid fines in 2019, and the following month it was announced a CNS was expected to be operational in the first half of 2019. As of July 2019, the CNS is not operational and Western Australians are still being imprisoned for unpaid fines.
This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:32 UTC on Sunday, 4 August 2019.
For the full current version of the article, see Death of Ms Dhu on Wikipedia.
This podcast is produced by Abulsme Productions based on Wikipedia content and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
Visit wikioftheday.com for our archives, sister podcasts, and swag. Please subscribe to never miss an episode. You can also follow @WotDpod on Twitter.
Abulsme Productions produces the current events podcast Curmudgeon's Corner as well. Check it out in your podcast player of choice.
This has been Nicole. Thank you for listening to featured Wiki of the Day.
|
|
Buy WotD Stuff!!
