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News Story 1 – Aboriginal Issue
Indigenous residents of Kalgoorlie are enraged by a not-guilty ruling on the case of Elijah Doughty which reduced the case from manslaughter to reckless driving.
Indigenous human rights lawyer Hannah McGlade complained that the incidence was a sign of the growing vigilant behaviour directed towards Aboriginal youth and it shows how people are taking law into their own hands.
“This verdict reduced Elijah’s death to a mere traffic office under the Road Traffic Act,” She said.
“It seems to be open season for vigilantes in Western Australia because the criminal justice system is no longer a refuge for the Indigenous communities.”
Bringing Them Home foundation CEO, Jim Morrison, said that this was a growing trend in the poor relationship between Aboriginal communities and the criminal justice system where the justice never prevails even when there is enough evidence to sustainable a guilty verdict.
“The not-guilty manslaughter verdict in Elijah’s case gives a licence for other rednecks to do as they wish since they can protection under the law and nothing will happen to them,” he said.
Ms McCarthy, an Indigenous human rights activist said that the Aboriginal communities are treated as lesser human beings than others even when the country has a clear criminal justice system that calls for equal rights for all people living in Australia.