Frank wrote on Dec 16
th, 2024 at 9:17am:
‘She’s going to die, get off her’: young Indigenous woman viciously assaulted in Katherine
A wave of violence has expanded across the Northern Territory amid calls for emergency measures for Alice Springs to be widened, with bystanders fearing an Indigenous woman would be killed when she was “pounded in the head with a rock”.
The horrific footage, captured in Katherine, three hours south of Darwin, on Saturday reveals the escalating violence that has led federal Labor MP Marion Scrymgour to declare on Sunday that emergency measures need to be widened across the Territory.
It comes as Alice Springs is in the middle of a serious escalation of the crime crisis that has long gripped the NT, after a two-month-old baby was allegedly assaulted by home-invading teens last week who had collectively been charged with almost 300 other offences and bailed 35 times.
That assault, and the alleged rape of a healthcare worker by a 22-year-old last weekend, prompted NT Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro and police commissioner Michael Murphy to race to the region in a police aircraft.
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On Saturday, terrified onlookers were forced to step in in a dramatic attempt to calm the situation in Katherine where women ganged up on each other, leaving one barely conscious on the ground as police arrived.
Terrified witnesses could be heard on the phone to emergency services saying one of the women “is going to die”.
“There is blood everywhere, she is going to die, they’ve used rocks,” one woman could be heard telling emergency services.
“She’s been pounded in the head with a rock.”
One witness later told The Australian the violence and home invasions in the town had escalated recently, and suggested alcohol consumption and a “lack of things to do” were contributing factors.
“It happens every day, mob fights, glassings, bashings, family feuds, stabbing robberies, it’s starting to get out of hand especially when they are fighting at the shops or on streets, being pushed in front of your car, it’s a debate whether you stop for it or call for help and hope someone shows up before someone gets seriously hurt.”
One of the witnesses told The Australian that when police arrived, officers said they were the only unit on shift for the entire town, which has a population of over 10,000.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/indigenous/shes-going-to-die-get-off-her...Where are those proud, respected elders, past present and emerging?
Face down in their pizzas.
Indeed.
Respected Alice Springs elder Benedict Stevens ‘beat partner with Aboriginal tool’
A respected Alice Springs traditional owner and director of a community organisation tasked with stamping out domestic and youth violence in the crime-ravaged outback city beat his long-term partner in an alcohol-fuelled assault earlier this year.
Lhere Artepe Aboriginal Corporation chair and Tangentyere Council director Benedict Stevens was handed a six-month suspended sentence in June after pleading guilty to aggravated assault following a violent incident in which he struck his partner in the head with a traditional Aboriginal foraging tool and left a large gash.
Northern Territory Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro met with Mr Stevens as part of a trip to Alice Springs last week following a huge escalation in violent crime that saw a baby left with a fractured skull after an alleged home invasion and a woman allegedly raped in her sleep.
The Australian understands in the week leading up to pleading guilty, Mr Stevens performed a Welcome to Country for the televised Melbourne v Fremantle AFL game in Alice Springs.
Mr Stevens told The Australian he had changed since the assault, and had learned he “shouldn’t be setting a bad example to the rest of the town”.
“I said to myself as well: ‘What the hell are you doing, Mr Stevens? You’re the TO (traditional owner) of this town, of Alice Springs. Why setting a bad example to them? You should be leading the way, showing respect to women’,” he said.
Mr Stevens is one of 14 directors at the Tangentyere Council, where he has been involved in domestic violence diversion programs.
In the wake of the assault, Mr Stevens volunteered to stand down as the Alice Springs Hospital’s Aboriginal Liaison Officer, he said. He maintains what happened was “an accident”.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/indigenous/respected-alice-springs-elder...He remains a 'respected elder'. Still a proud TO.