The fallout over the police shooting of two Indigenous youths driving a car at speed, and on footpaths, through Kings Cross on Saturday night continues. Footage shows one of the shot youths being dragged from the car covered in blood, thrown to the ground and punched.
One of the youths was 14-years-old and has been ‘in trouble with the law since he was eight’. He and the other boy are in a coma.
As Fairfax reported:
The Deputy Opposition Leader, Linda Burney, who is Aboriginal, said the fundamental question was about how a 14-year-old came to be driving through Kings Cross with five others at that time of day.
She said glaring social problems such as poverty and homelessness were behind the issue, but also parental and community responsibility – or lack thereof.
The Police Minister called for calm and asked for the community to wait until an investigation concluded.
Here’s what else is causing a buzz:
1. Reports this morning Matthew Newton has been arrested again, this time for the battery of a hotel employee in Miami. Sky News is reporting the actor knocked the employee to the ground and chased them around the lobby.
Top Comments
Am I the only one who fails to see how a car on a footpath full of people, in a built up area, is any safer with a driver who has been shot at?
3 shootings in less than a fortnight by police is terrifying! Police are being defended and even applauded for shooting 14 year olds, plus they have guns, tasers and batons. Some police officers are in their early 20s. How long until all these factors crescendo into a serious tragedy like those you see in America?
So what you are saying then is the police shouldn't have stopped the car? Better to injure innocent bystanders?
There are no winners in this situation but I just can't make sense of your comment. At least one of the other shootings recently involved a male who was having a psychotic episode and who was threatening other people's lives. Police have tasers and yet they recently killed someone using it. Who are you going to call on if someone is threatening your life? A police force who won't use their resources?
My comment is pure practicality; if a car is driving on a footpath, I fail to see how shooting the driver makes it any safer. The car is still on the footpath, in a built up area, the driver just has no control over it. Therefore surely it would most likely crash and injure more people?
Consider - if a man approaches a police officer with a gun threatening to shoot them, then your reaction is to act in self-defence because their life is threatened. But what about if that man is using a young child as a shield? Then should you shoot them?
My point is that the actions of the police could well have injured innocent bystanders. This is a phenomenon that happens all the time in the US, for example.
I'm really surprised most people supported the actions of the police. Firstly, the teenager who was shot, wasn't fighting the police when he was dragged out of the car so bashing him further was completely unnecessary.
Sadly, race is always a factor. Would the driver have been shot if he was caucasian? Probably not. Also, more people would have been against the police actions if he hadn't been Aboriginal. Also, it would have been no more dangerous to shoot out the back tyres of the car which would have stopped the car almost instantly, then shooting inside the car. Innocent bystanders could have been hurt either way.
Agreed! Poor readers below don't really get that. I guess if it was their kid they would be happy to see him shot, fair enough.
If he was my kid...he would be at home in the middle of the night..not hooning around stealing cars and running people down.
If he did..and the cops didn't shoot/bash him...I probably would.
Spare a thought for the girl that was injured not those little hoodlums.
How terrifying to have been in the way of that car, essentially a murder weapon.
Spare a thought for our cops, who have to tolerate scum like these every single day of their working lives.
But most of all...spare a thought and wonder how you would feel if it was YOUR daughter they ran down.
@ Anonymous.
Rubbish!! absolute rubbish!
It's people like you who make these things racist.
I'd better shut up while I'm still being polite.
Couldn't agree more Susan. My stepdad is Aboriginal and he said race wasn't a factor, they got what they deserved!