Australia: police violence against Aborigines also denounced

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The Black Lives Matter movement echoes in Australia, where the denunciation of racism finds a very strong echo among the Aborigines… A demonstration, prohibited for health reasons, took place Friday evening in Sydney to denounce the police violence.

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With our correspondent in Sydney, Grégory Plesse

Despite the ban, hundreds of people marched to Hyde Park this Friday evening in the heart of Sydney to once again denounce the police violence. The Aborigines , more than any other population group, are exposed particulèrement.

"  An Aboriginal person is twenty times more likely to be arrested by a police officer than the rest of the population,  " says Aïcha, a lawyer present at the demonstration. And much more often, they risk ending up in prison.

Higher incarceration rate than African Americans in the United States

Aborigines represent 3% of the Australian population, but 30% of the prison population. This incarceration rate is much higher than that of the African American community in the United States. Aborigines are fifteen times more likely to end up in prison than the rest of the population.

But it is actually even worse for children: 60% of minors in detention - and in Australia, you are legally responsible from the age of 10 - are also Aboriginal. Still marginalized in Australian society, their life expectancy is eight years shorter than the rest of the population.

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• Australia
• Racism

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