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Dr Tracy Westerman AM

3 Jul, 10 tweets, 2 min read

Mr Ward respected elder, blew over the limit. Put in a police van & transported 4hrs without A/C. Was literally cooked alive. No charges. If you left your dog in a car & it was cooked alive you would be charged criminality. The AG decided there was no prospect of conviction 1/10

Ms Dhu died in custody of septicemia & pneumonia. Arrested for $2k in unpaid fines. A victim of Domestic Violence. Taken to hospital 2xs but sepsis not detected & she was sent back to custody. Inquest found she was subjected to “inhumane” treatment by police. No charges 2/10

Cam Doomadgee died in a police cell; locked up for being drunk. Died from massive internal injuries incl broken ribs, ruptured spleen, liver cleaved in 2 across his spine. The pathologist compared his injuries to those of plane crash victims. Police acquitted & compensated 3/10

JFW lost consciousness after being held on his stomach during a citizens arrest by a retired police officer; Ms Mandijarra lay dead on the floor of a watch house cell for up to 4 hours before it was noticed she was dead. No charges 4/10

LV went into respiratory failure while being held down, handcuffed & injected with a sedative. Tanya Day arrested for being drunk in public; died in custody as police didn’t conduct required checks& didn’t see her sustain the sig head injury that caused her death. No charges 5/10

Aboriginal women are 10xs more likely to be arrested for public drunkenness. The same day Ms Day died & was arrested for public drunkenness, the same police drove an extremely intoxicated non-Indigenous woman home.
6/10

David Dungay died after guards rushed his cell to stop him eating biscuits, dragged him to another cell, then held him face down and had him injected with a sedative. Before he died he said 12 times that he could not breathe. No charges 7/10

& let’s NEVER forget John Pat a 16 yr old boy beaten to death by police in front of (Aboriginal) witnesses. His autopsy revealed a fractured skull, haemorrhage& swelling, bruising and tearing of the brain. Pat sustained massive blows to the head. Officers acquitted. 8/10

Just some of the horrific cases in 450+ deaths of black ppl in custody. 50% had not been convicted but detained in custody by police; 40% asked for medical assist, didn’t get it. 25% inc in last yr alone of judges not giving bail to black ppl most charged with minor offences 9/10

This is why we need to keep saying loudly that 10/10
#BlackLivesMatter

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More from @TracyWesterman

Dr Tracy Westerman AM

@TracyWesterman

25 Jun

1/6
Flight/fight/freeze are common responses to trauma. The ability to activate all three mechanisms is why people both survive & heal from traumatic events. Much of this ability is genetic & biological (or what we inherit as a stress response mechanism).

2/6 Post trauma occurs when cognitions become altered such that the mind tells the body to see threat everywhere (imagined rather than real). Essentially there’s a “misfiring”; ensuring the flight/fight response is activated regardless of threat. Over time this becomes normalised

3/5 Freeze is an essential “holding pattern” that occurs when traumatic events take a while for the brain to process or “catch up” with what is occurring

Read 6 tweets

Dr Tracy Westerman AM

@TracyWesterman

22 May

In Aust. Ms Dhu died in custody for unpaid fines. A victim of Dom violence. Asked for medical assistance didn’t receive it. No Charges. Mr Ward a respected elder, blew over the limit. Put in a police van & transported 4hrs without A/C. Was literally cooked alive, no charges 1/9

If you left your dog in the car, and it was cooked alive, you would be charged criminality. The AG decided that there was no 'reasonable prospect of conviction' for Mr Ward who was cooked alive in custody 2/9

Read 9 tweets

Dr Tracy Westerman AM

@TracyWesterman

20 Apr

In Aust. Ms Dhu died in custody for unpaid fines. A victim of Dom violence. Asked for medical assistance didn’t receive it. Mr Ward a respected elder, blew over the limit. Put in a police van & transported 4hrs without A/C. Was literally cooked alive, no charges 1/8

LV went into respiratory failure while he was being held down, handcuffed & injected with a sedative. Tanya Day died in custody because police failed to conduct adequate checks and did not see her sustain the significant head injury that caused her death.3/8

Read 8 tweets

Dr Tracy Westerman AM

@TracyWesterman

17 Apr

“Aboriginal Suicide Prevention: Where is the funding going?”
The Fed Government has “allocated” $134M funding into Indigenous suicide prevention. Based on current suicide statistics this crudely translates to $248,000 per suicide death pr yr without adding State & other funding.

2/We have enormous amounts of funding injected into this critical area; yet, suicides continue to escalate. Our youth are dying by suicide at EIGHT times the rate of non-Indigenous children & it is only right that we ask why this level of funding has had little to no impact.

3/As a country facing this growing tragedy, we still have no nationally accepted evidence-based programs across the spectrum of early intervention and prevention activities. This needs to be our first priority.

Read 20 tweets

Dr Tracy Westerman AM

@TracyWesterman

30 Mar

@10

1/A child @10 does not fully understand consequences in the same way as an adult. They are rigid in understanding right & wrong & driven by external fear of punishment. Criminalise them @ this developmental stage & risk moral reasoning ability stagnating @ that level #RaiseTheAge

2/ Ultimately, this means they learn to avoid punishment (e.g. becoming better at
evading law enforcement) rather than developing a greater sense of moral reasoning based
on an internal working model of right and wrong. #RaiseTheAge

3/ They also learn not to rely on close attachments for their emotional needs before they have developed fully as adults. This is significantly damaging as secure attachment bonds with families & parents is strongly linked with positive mental health outcomes. #RaiseTheAge

Read 6 tweets

Dr Tracy Westerman AM

@TracyWesterman

27 Mar

1/A trauma response explainer
Flight/fight/freeze are common responses to trauma. The ability to activate all 3 mechanisms is why people both survive & heal from traumatic events. Part of this is genetic (30%) & biological (ie. what we inherit as a stress response mechanism).

2/The rest is environment-ie. what is modelled; trauma history; the nature of the trauma-personal or sexual assaults increase trauma likelihood; how long the trauma goes on & if you know your perpetrator this increases the odds of developing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

3/Post trauma occurs when cognitions become so altered the brain tells the body to see threat everywhere(imagined rather than real). Essentially there is a “misfiring”; ensuring the flight/fight response is activated regardless of threat.Over time this response becomes normalised

Read 6 tweets

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