Supporters of Palm Island man Lex Wotton rallied outside the Aboriginal Health Service in Nicholson Street, Fitzroy today before marching to the Fitzroy Police Station. Their demands were for the dropping of charges of “riot with destruction” brought following the protests on Palm Island after the verdict in the case of Mulrunji, killed while in police custody. (For background, see this posting on Sydney Indymedia:
http://sydney.indymedia.org.au/story/drop-charges-against
-lex-wotton-melbourne-speakout). Speakers were Alison Thorne from the Indigenous Social Justice Association in Melbourne, Inala Cooper Dodson, and Dave Cushion of the MUA. MC was David Dryden, who also put out the message to people on the streets as the march made its way up Johnston Street and along Brunswick Street to end at the Police Station, a progress which involved blocking a major intersection for several minutes, including one minute’s silence to remember the dead. Lex Wotton has pleaded not guilty to the charges, and is due to face the District Court in Brisbane later this month; another rally is planned in Brisbane at the opening of the trial.
Video of the rally and march, in two parts: