The Gold Coast Bulletin

Death posts ‘racist’

‘Vile’ social media comments on drowned Aboriginal teens

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THE drowning of two Aboriginal boys in Perth’s Swan River after diving in to evade police has attracted social media comments that are “worse than discrimina­tion”, according to the chief executive of Aboriginal Legal Service.

Chris Drage, 16, and Jack Simpson, 17, were among five boys police chased following reports of teens jumping fences after a house had been ransacked and burgled in Maylands on Monday afternoon. Four of them jumped into the water and two were captured but Jack and Chris were seen struggling in the middle of the river and did not resurface.

Aboriginal Legal Service chief executive Dennis Eggington said some of the social media posts were vile and constitute­d racial vilificati­on.

“It proves to me there is this underlying current of extremism – what I call entrenched colonial racism,” Mr Eggington said yesterday. “It’s worse than discrimina­tion, it’s something much more evil.”

Mr Eggington said the posts were a repeat of offensive social media comments that followed the death of Aboriginal boy Elijah Doughty in 2016. The 14-year-old was riding a stolen motorcycle near Kalgoorlie when a man chased him in a ute and ran him down.

Mr Eggington said social media should be better moderated and had provided a platform for people to air and cultivate hatred.

“It propagates, it perpetuate­s this type of thinking,” he said “Young kids in particular are all across Facebook, so they’re being influenced by another generation of Australia that denigrates Aboriginal people.” A coroner will hold an inquest into Chris and Jack’s deaths, which will be treated like a death in custody because police were present.

Mr Eggington urged the WA Government to fast-track the inquest so as to not prolong the suffering of the families.

“They need some closure. They deserve the truth and nothing but the truth,” he said.

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