An inquest into the police shooting death of Northern Territory man Kumanjayi Walker has been told “negative interactions” with Indigenous Australians could to lead to “normalised” racism within the police force.
Walker, 19, was shot three times by the NT police constable Zachary Rolfe during an attempted arrest in the remote Northern Territory community of Yuendumu in November 2019. Rolfe was found not guilty of murder and two alternative charges after a six-week trial in the supreme court in Darwin earlier this year.
A three-month inquest is examining the events surrounding the Warlpiri man’s death.
The inquest on Thursday heard from Sen Const Lanyon Smith who worked in Yuendumu and a number of other remote communities, including Alice Springs, over a decade.
Smith had a number of interactions with Walker while stationed at Yuendumu in 2019 and was one of the officers Walker allegedly threatened with an axe the day before he was shot by Rolfe during the attempted arrest.
Smith told the inquest that he had experienced mostly “negative interactions” with Aboriginal people throughout his policing career.
The junior counsel assisting the coroner, Patrick Coleridge, read out some text messages between Rolfe and other serving police officers, where Aboriginal people were described as “coons”, “niggas” and other racist slurs.
Coleridge asked Smith: “Have you ever heard or expressed a view like that to someone in your patrol group?”
“No,” Smith replied.
The inquest was told “violence and domestic violence” were common in a number of the remote communities Smith worked in, and, under questioning, Smith said between 90% and 95% of his interactions with Aboriginal people were negative.
Coleridge: “Do you think that there is a risk that if expressions of that kind of frustration go unchecked they normalise expressions of racism?”
Smith: “I could see they could, yes.”
Coleridge: “Could expressions of frustration about Aboriginal people and domestic violence over time lead to expressions of frustration about niggers or coons or bush coons?”
Smith: “Yes.”
Smith said he had not himself heard racist slurs by police officers but agreed working in towns and communities with large Aboriginal populations could lead to generalisations.
Coleridge: “Do you think all of these experiences that you had, of violence, alcohol and abuse, negative experiences with Aboriginal people, over time affect the way that you think about Aboriginal people.
“Yes, I could see that,” Smith replied.
On Wednesday, Sgt Anne Jolley told the inquest the derogatory texts by Rolfe referring to Aboriginal people by offensive slurs were “racist and disgusting”.
Continuing her evidence on Thursday, Jolley, who has spent 16 years in the NT police force, several of them as a community or “bush” police officer at Yuendumu, said she had never heard serving officers using racist slurs and she had never perceived “systemic racism” in the force.
Rolfe’s barrister, David Edwardson KC, asked: “So the private, appalling messages that were read into the transcript are not, in your experience, a reflection of the way any police officer in your presence has behaved in all the years you’ve been in the force?”
Jolley: “No.”
The inquest delayed hearing from Smith and Jolley for two days after objections from Rolfe’s legal team over the scope of the inquest, including systemic racism and the hearing of the texts but the coroner ruled them admissible.
The inquest, before Coroner Elisabeth Armitage, also heard of the challenges for officers working in communities, including fatigue and resourcing issues dealing with overnight callouts staffed with only a few officers.
