2 days ago
Nationwide rallies call for justice after death of Indigenous man in custody in the Northern Territory
Warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains reference to Indigenous people who have died.
Australians across the country have flocked to the streets to demand justice following the death of an Indigenous man in police custody in the Northern Territory.
A 24-year-old man was restrained by two police officers at an Alice Springs Coles on May 27.
Police said there had been reports of an altercation between the man and a security guard.
He stopped breathing while on the ground at the shopping centre, and he died about an hour after he was restrained, the NT News reported.
There have been 12 Indigenous deaths in custody this year, while there have been 597 since the establishment of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody in 1987.
A string of rallies have been planned across the country following the 24-year-old's death, demanding an investigation independent of the NT Police force, for CCTV and body cam footage to be released to the man's family, and a public apology from NT Police.
Crowds gathered outside Town Hall in Sydney's CBD on Saturday night, holding up Indigenous flags.
Signs printed with 'Stop black deaths in custody' were also held up among the large crowd.
Police could be seen on horseback at the protest.
Lawyer George Newhouse, representing the man's family, said he was 'angry there are mothers grieving' in the Northern Territory, according to reports by the ABC.
'I am angry there was a disabled young man calling out for his mother in Coles last week,' Mr Newhouse told the crowd.
An organiser of the Sydney rally, Paul Silva, called for justice in a post to Instagram.
'We demand truth. We demand accountability. We demand justice,' Mr Silva posted.
Independent senator Lidia Thorpe called for justice for the 24-year-old in a post to X on Friday.
'Justice for Warlpiri Mob, and the Yuendumu community, who are grieving yet another young man's life taken,' Ms Thorpe wrote.
'No one should live in fear of being killed by police and in prisons.'
