Excerpts taken from ‘Zach Rolfe my Story”;” Even as a kiddy Zach had a predilection for brown shirts, his mummy would have them pressed and ready for kinder‘……all his life Zach wanted to do good and earn some shiny medals for glory in a far-off land that required civilizing”.
Here’s another crystalline dispatch from Frank.
In this- un he questions the justice meted out to one of our heroes who served gloriously in Afghanistan. Serving gloriously to keep the IMC (The Industrial Military Complex) going and allegedly as part of the trickle down effect to assist the odd Afghani, who might be civilized. The Afghanistan conflict was on any real terms a colossal failure. But that’s what gives it a touch of ‘the Gallipoli’s’!
As a little boy he exulted in tales of brave soldiers determined to win at all costs and gift oppressed people’s the world over with the enlightenment of ‘ Anzackery’!
We relish military failure and celebrate those who in spite of the stuff ups, emerge with shiny medals and tales of Derring Do. That’s why we promote Australia’s finest; ‘Benny Boy’, Roberts Smith as our pcbycp pin up boy.
We immortalise him in our long running feature and if he ever needed replacement in our fictionalised non fictionalised series we’d offer up Zach. Another fine figure who’s skills were honed in Afghanistan so that he could transfer those skills to Australia, to also KILL with IMPUNITY!
Glory to Anzac, and glory to anyone who stands up for civilization and draws a line against those who refuse the bounty of what we, (as a civilized nation) have to offer. And that’s not just Sports Bet 24/7 and The high-flyers lounge at Barangaroo, but the promise of fully integrated birth to grave corrective services for our First Australians.
Fitting then that we re- release this dispatch on “AUSTRALIA DAY”!
(Sound of massed bands, thunderous applause and the sound of (non lethal) exploding skyrockets).
‘Then, as he grew up Zach swapped his predilection for brown shirts for BLACK SHIRTS! It gave him a sense of power and prestige’!
Frank writes;
Amici,
The day after Constable Rolfe was found not guilty of murder by a jury in Darwin, Forrest Holder circulated the following:
An anatomy of a killing that turned out to be “non-crime”
AKA the killing of Mr Walker of Yuendumu, Northern Territory, Australia.
This was a tragedy that was guaranteed to happen.
On or about 20 November 2020; in the Aboriginal community of Yuendumu, Northern Territory; Zachary Rolfe, a serving NT police officer, shot and killed Mr Walker. Walker was a 19-year-old Warlpiri man. Yuendumu was his home community.
At that time Walker was under parole conditions which required him to stay in Alice Springs and to wear an anklet device which monitored Walker’s location. Walker had removed this device and travelled to Yuendumu to attend the funeral of a relative. This was Walker’s crime and the police had a warrant for his arrest.
Rolfe, accompanied by serving police officer Constable Adam Eberl, entered a community house to arrest Walker. Walker resisted arrest and attempted to stab Rolfe in the shoulder with a small pair of blunt nosed surgical scissors. In response Rolfe shot Walker three times, each shot was to Walker’s chest area.
Zach knew that in good time he would earn shiny medals, for being on the side of RIGHT!
Immediately after Rolfe fired the first shot Eberl forcibly pinned Walker face down to the ground. While Walker was thus subdued Rolfe shot him two more times.
Some five days later, Rolfe was charged with murder, later Rolfe was also charged with two lesser charges.
Ok folks, none of the above facts were disputed by Rolfe nor his defence team. The defence agreed with the Prosecution that Rolfe had killed Walker, they agreed he had shot Walker three times. The defence disagreed with the Prosecution’s charge that the second and third shots were not necessary and should not have been fired.
Yesterday Rolfe was found not guilty.
There are many, many direct and not so direct causes for this tragedy. I’m going to start with Sections 148A and 148B of the NT’s Police Administration Act.
These sections guarantee that a serving police officer cannot be civilly or criminally liable for anyth
ing they do in the exercise of their job provided that they act “in good faith”.
“Anything” includes killing someone.
But note!!!! Under these sections all that Rolfe had to do to guarantee he be found not guilty was to state to the Court he truly believed in his own mind that Walker remained a serious threat to his and his partner’s lives even after having been shot in the chest and then immobilised and pinned face down to the ground.
It is normal in the law in Australia and many places in the world that the “reasonable person” standard is applied to help determine if a use of force was excessive and or unnecessary. In many jurisdictions other than the NT, Rolfe would have been judged by asking if a reasonable person acting reasonably under the same circumstances would have done the same as Rolfe.
If a reasonable person acting reasonably would not have done the same because Walker was no longer a threat then Rolfe would have been judged to have acted in reckless disregard of Walker’s life. Rolfe would have been guilty of a serious crime.
‘And perhaps one day be recognised as a REAL WAR HERO’!
It is very clear to me that Sections 148A and 148B of the NT’s Police Administration Act have to be amended to ensure that an objective test of “acting in good faith” is applied. If it were, then serving officers would know that their actions would have to meet an objective test of reasonableness. They would know if they fail that test, they would be liable to prosecution for committing a serious crime.
The power of life or death is an awesome power to be vested in a person. We would have some measure of certainty that such a power is acted upon reasonably if and only if the people bearing that power know full well, they can and will have their actions and decisions put to determined investigation and judged upon reasonable grounds.
Checks and balances must be applied to the exercise of such a power.
In the NT, in the killing of Walker the actions of Rolfe were not; and could not have been, subject to such a test. He and all serving officers in the NT face no effective checks and balances that would otherwise force them to be judicious in their use of force.
‘To return from Afghanistan knowing that he’d KILLED RIGHTEOUSLY’!
That’s really fucking scary.
I know many of the relatives of Mr Walker, I know most of the elders of the Warlpiri people. I share their sorrow and my thoughts and condolences are with them.
I don’t know what was in Rolfe’s mind, perhaps he was truly fearful for his and Eberl’s lives. What matters I believe is that irrespective of what he thought, his actions should have been tested on an objective basis, not his subjective frame of mind. The power he and other serving officers have in the NT must be subject to reasonable checks and balances if we are to have any hope of preventing another tragedy like this one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRrlFYg2QkI
‘And knocked off would be evil-doers without trial or right to anything written in the Geneva Convention because he alone stood for CIVILIZATION’.
Forrest has since elaborated and updated his thoughts on this tragedy, but his immediate response to the verdict, I think, hit all the nails on the head. He makes it clear that Sections 148A and 148B of the NT’s Police Administration Act enables those responsible for enforcing the law to act with impunity. Just as Rolfe was found not guilty, so too those unnamed Don Dale guards were able to pull down Dylan Voller’s trousers with impunity.
‘
My father told me that during the Second World War the Germans would shoot victims in the back and record such deaths as “Auf der Flucht erschossen‟ (shot whilst fleeing) . Googling I found that this was all too common. Officers resorting to use this euphemistic device, did so with impunity.
The colonial settlers in Australia were able to rob the land, perpetrate the rapes and massacres with impunity resulting from the since discredited fraudulent doctrine of Terra Nullius.
‘How he yearned for those days when his AUTHORITY was UNQUESTIONED’!
I could easily put you all to sleep with countless examples of impunity, such as Duterte’s war on drugs, and Parliamentary Privilege, but I won’t.
In the latest mail we received a heavy parcel. It was the Warlpiri Encyclopaedic Dictionary. All 1400 pages of it, all 87 square meters of it. Including 270 small photographs of contributors on the covers.
What a monumental labour of love!
I’ll keep it handy. As a weapon. Should anyone within reach speak disparagingly about Australian Aboriginal languages I’d hit them over the head with it.
I looked up the word ‘Impunity’
In Warlpiri. It doesn’t exist.
Shalom,
Frank
PS- In case you haven’t seen it- “Not to lose you my language”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic4lC4GyyhQ&t=645s
(Yuendumu 1975- 8:20 to 16:10)