s0metim3s writes:

"Another Riot in Another Town"

Following on from the recent riots in Australia on Palm Island and Redfern, rioting at Macquarie Fields entered its fourth night (as of March 1st).

In each of these cases (Palm Island, Redfern and Macquarie Fields), rioting was sparked by local anger at extrajudicial killings: deaths in custody and deaths as a result of police chases. This follows the wave of riots in Australia's extrajudicial internment camps of 1999-2000 -- and parallels the expansive resort to violence and direct coercion against poor people generally by the Australian state. Changes to welfare conditions have denied welfare to many young people while forcing others into work-for-the-dole schemes. Police violence has been legitimated by recourse to racial stereotyping, including in this more recent case of Macquarie Fields, where many of the residents are 'white' (but apparently not 'white' enough). The Labor Party has backed police and called for 'compulsory citizenship training' in schools, various media commentators have talked about the residents as 'hardly human'.

Below is a GLW interview with a local resident of Mac Fields.

GLW: You and your wife Barbara, are both longtime residents of Macquarie Fields and know many of the residents, including some of the youth being targeted by recent police action?

Peter Perkins: Barbara and I have lived here for 20 years and we know most of the community of one or two thousand, including the young people who are in revolt against police harassment. Our 20-year-old grandson, Jesse Kelly, is being hunted by police and has being falsely branded by the media as a dangerous criminal.

GLW: Can you describe the events that led to the recent clashes between youth in Macquarie Fields and police?

Perkins: There has been a very sharp hardening of the police stance in the area, a new-style, paramilitary, policing with coppers being bussed in in large numbers from outside.

This new approach began about two months ago, at the same time as it was taking place in other poor outer-Sydney working class suburbs like Claymore and Airds. The first signs were raids on residents' homes in the early hours of the morning. They stuck guns through windows and set police dogs on people. They'd cordon entire areas off for half a day at a time, using police in full paramilitary kit. So tensions had been building up. The initial spark of the riot when residents allege that police actually caused the deaths of two youths in a car pursuit. A stolen car had been under surveillance for three days and the cops had bugged in it. The chase started when three youths drove off in the car at about 11pm, last Friday February 25). The car crashed and Dylan Raywood, 17, and Matt Robertson, 19, were killed. Local residents came out and starting pelting police probably in anger at past provocations and also to help the driver get away. Similar clashes with police took place over the next four nights and Macquarie Fields was placed under police seige. At night the suburb was sealed off.

GLW: The police are now hunting for your grandson, who they allege was the driver of the car.

Perkins: Jesse is in hiding. He's afraid for his life. We've told him, if he surrenders on his terms it's going to be much safer than if he's picked up down a back alley or just disappears.

Jesse and his friends are popular among other local youth. They were renting a rundown private house from a speculator and it had become a sort of gathering place for youth. They played their music and played football outside. All the youth from the neighborhood used to go there. Many of the young homeless kids were fed there and given beds for the night. Some of these youth may have been involved in petty crime but not all.

The young people people here are loyal to their community, such as it is. "MFB", which stands for Macquarie Fields Boys they call themselves. It gave them a self-esteem that sustained them in a tough life. They had respect for the community and they understood the harsh predicament the community was in. For example, they looked after young kids who couldn't get social security, protected them from police harassment and helped a bit around the neighborhood. Even the proceeds of their petty crimes were shared around. None of them lived the high-life.

GLW: ALP Premier Bob Carr has said that the cause of the clashes was not the social disadvantage of many residents but simply the work of "bad people" - what do you say to that?

Perkins: He's talking rubbish, right-wing rubbish. All social scientists say that it has been proved beyond doubt that poor social conditions cause crime. It is ridiculous to deny this.

All the youth facilities have been slashed back, and suburbs like Macquarie Fields are hit hardest by the cutbacks in social services. Carr says there are all these fantastic facilities for youth out here but it's not true. There are two tennis courts and a billiard hall that's about it.

I know of very few young people have permanent jobs in the area. Probably half the kids drop out of school at 15. The tightening of social welfare payments in this high unemployment area drives many people to rely on petty crime for an income.

Many young people here don't see it as morally wrong to steal from those who have more than them in order to survive. They simply have no real alternative. Some steal cars simply to get around because there is no public transport after 8pm and very limited services on Sundays. Some have had jobs where they have been ripped off by employers. Sometimes they've worked for small builders for a couple of weeks, as labourers, and have not been paid. Jesse and the two boys who were killed had casual jobs lined up in the Royal Easter Show. So they took jobs when they could get them. But they couldn't meet the impossible requirements to get unemployment benefits. There simply aren't the job interviews here that they have list on their social security forms.

Public housing is run down and there is a $650 million dollar backlog on repairs and maintenance for the public housing according to the papers the papers today. The Carr government is running it down as an excuse to bulldoze [see note below] the public housing and sell the land to private developers. It is the same as in Redfern.

[This interview was then cut off by a police visit on the Perkins' home at 11.30am. It was resumed at 1.30pm]

Perkins: Four detectives tried to convince us to stop talking to the media. They urged Barbara and me to organize from for our grandson to surrender himself. One detective intimated that it would be more dangerous if Jesse was cornered by some hyper young coppers. A Channel Seven reporter just rang us and said that the Police Commissioner would be prepared to come and personally help hand over of Jesse. I think they are feeling the heat but they are not going to stop us from speaking out because unless we speak out do the real problems here are not even going to be begun to be addressed.

We need and full and independent public inquiry into the situation into policing methods, including police pursuits and into the state of support services (including education, youth services, public transport and housing). There is the federal by-election coming up in this area for former ALP leader Mark Latham's seat of Werriwa. And this community has no faith in the major parties to represent us. Latham and Moroney like to boast that they came from poor working backgrounds in this area but most of Latham's peers are struggling. He had his education paid for by the ALP branch so he could climb ladder of opportunity. Not everyone here gets such a hand up. Most don't.

[Note: "Bulldoze (etymology) 1876, originally bulldose 'a severe beating or lashing,' lit. 'a dose fit for a bull,' a slang word referring to the beating of black voters (by either blacks or whites) in the 1876 U.S. presidential election. A bulldozer was a person who intimidates by violence until the meaning was extended to ground-clearing caterpillar tractor in 1930."]"