Why It Won't Work

Is that statement true? It doesn't matter so long as the man holding the sign thinks so.

Howard's great plan for Indigenous Australians won't work because he doesn't get it. I'll just talk about one way he doesn't get it. Sending lots of white cops to communities that have previously only received the gift of a loaned pair of handcuffs is guaranteed to fail. Cops arrest people. It's just what they do. Of course sometimes the best law enforcement relies on NOT arresting people. For example a drunk person sitting under a tree who might later die in a cell in your custody. Or a man who swears at you while you're arresting someone else who also later dies in your custody after "tripping on a step". Like I said. It's just what cops do, arrest people. All that will happen with extra cops is more arrests.

To Howard this is a good thing, show the Abos a bit of basskap and they'll fall into line. This is because measures like that would work for him and most of us. Unfortunately this is a situation where arresting someone gives them a warm cell and a better meal than they've had in a long time. The risk of being accidentally fallen on by a police officer notwithstanding. Prison loses its deterrence value when your circumstances are much worse than prison. More cops also ignores that the fact that when the cops aren't locals, don't talk to locals unless they're arresting them and are hated by the locals it means when someone calls for help the cops won't show up. Or worse, that they will. A bit pointless getting more cops then. It also ignores the fact that there are two justice systems in Australia and that the real problem is the apartheid that Howard doesn't believe exists. I might not be Aboriginal but the people who've called me abo, coon etc. certainly didn't stop to ask me. If it's like that for me in Brisbane imagine what it must be like in Townsville. I've certainly heard enough about Townsville to make me absolutely refuse to even consider working there.

There's little point going into where he'll find enough cops to last longer than 6 months or how he'll get enough doctors to perform health checks on children whose abusive guardians will predictably refuse to give consent. People go on about how the need to save the children outweighs the need to consult before intervening and to intervene only with consent and cooperation or not at all. This is why they're wrong. If you don't have community support the number of cops is irrelevant. If you refuse to listen to pleas to redress injustice, how can you bring justice? This is why it will fail.