The 2004 Redfern riots took place on the evening of Saturday, 14 February 2004 in the inner Sydney suburb of Redfern sparked by the death of Thomas 'T.J.' Hickey, a 17-year-old Indigenous Australian.
Hickey was riding home on his bicycle from his mother's house when he was supposed to have spotted a police car and assumed it was chasing him. There was an outstanding arrest warrant in his name, but police have consistently maintained that the patrol car was searching for a different individual, wanted in connection with a violent bag snatch at Redfern railway station earlier the same day.
Shortly thereafter, Hickey lost control of his bicycle while turning a corner and was impaled in a 2.5-metre high metal fence causing penetrating injuries of the neck and chest.[1] According to the police, they arrived at the scene quickly, but were unable to save him as "The injury was probably non-survivable."[1]
The Hickey family and supporters fiercely dispute this version of events, however. They claim that witnesses saw Hickey's bike clipped by the police car, thus propelling him onto the fence, a claim supported by the testimony of two Aboriginal Liaison Officers to a NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into the death.[2] Neither of the Aboriginal Liaison Officers were present at the scene and one of the Aboriginal Liaison Officers, Paul Wilkinson was later judged as being 'well-versed in deception and motivated by self-interest' when receiving a 28 year custodial sentence for murdering his pregnant girlfriend and burning her body in the house he shared with his wife.[3] Despite this new evidence leading to calls to re-open the coronial inquest, the New South Wales government has refused to do so.[2]
Doubt remains over the veracity of some of the additional evidence, however, with one of the Aboriginal Police Liaison Officers, Paul James Wilkinson,[4] later admitting to the murder of his pregnant girlfriend five months prior to making the allegations.[5] Wilkinson pleaded guilty to murder on 12 November 2008.
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Friends and relatives gathered at The Block to grieve. Fliers were distributed blaming police for the death and discontented aboriginal youths gathered from across Sydney. The police closed the Eveleigh Street entrance to the station but the crowd had turned violent and began to throw bottles, bricks, used fireworks as missiles and Molotov cocktails. The violence escalated into a full-scale riot around The Block, during which Redfern railway station was briefly alight, suffering superficial damage. The riot continued into the early morning, until police used fire brigade water hoses to disperse the crowd. One car, stolen in a western suburb, was torched, and 40 police officers were injured.
A memorial service was held on 19 February 2004, in Redfern, and in Walgett, New South Wales (Hickey's hometown), on 22 February 2004. Commemorative rallies have been held every year on the anniversary of the incident at the site of Hickey's death.
In 2005, the University of Technology Sydney's students' association donated a plaque with TJ's portrait, with an inscription reads: "On the 14th February, 2004, TJ Hickey, aged 17, was impaled upon the metal fence above, arising from a police pursuit. The young man died as a result of his wounds the next day. In our hearts you will stay TJ." Police, the NSW government and the Department of Housing have refused to allow the plaque to be placed on the wall below the fence where Hickey was impaled unless the words "police pursuit" were changed to "tragic accident", which the family has refused to do.[6]
The parents Gail and Ian Hickey divorced in late 2006 two years after the death of Thomas Hickey.
Hickey supporters also claim that police have continued to harass the Hickey family, including the arrest of several family members and friends on 4 September 2010.[7]
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