Latest / The Front / Vigilante rage in Alice Springs: Our reporter’s eyewitness account

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Vigilante rage in Alice Springs: Our reporter’s eyewitness account · The Front

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  Speaker 1: Today's biggest News from the Australia Unclaire Harvey with the
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  Speaker 1: Front's afternoon headlines.
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  Speaker 2: Police have brought in even more resources. They are incredibly prepared.
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  Speaker 2: I'm told that even if the smallest group starts forming,
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  Speaker 2: they are going to get that incredibly hard.
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  Speaker 3: A murdered child and a community wild for justice, that's
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  Speaker 3: the explosive mix. In Alice Springs, where our reporter is
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  Speaker 3: Liam Mendez. On Sunday night, a little girl disappeared from
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  Speaker 3: one of Australia's most troubled settlements, the town Camps outside
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  Speaker 3: Alice Springs, where Aboriginal people live in public and community
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  Speaker 3: housing and a permanent state of crisis, serious alcohol and
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  Speaker 3: drug abuse problems, overcrowding, unsafe dwellings, transient populations, unemployment and violence.
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  Speaker 3: That's where serial domestic violence offender Jefferson Lewis washed up
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  Speaker 3: last weekend. And it's also where a five year old
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  Speaker 3: girl was trying to sleep in the early hours of
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  Speaker 3: Sunday morning when Lewis allegedly stole her away and murdered her.
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  Speaker 3: The child's family has asked that she now be known
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  Speaker 3: only as kumany little Baby in accordance with the Aboriginal
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  Speaker 3: practice of giving a respectful new name to deceased people.
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  Speaker 3: On Thursday, little Baby's body was found not far from
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  Speaker 3: old Timers, the camp where she'd been staying. Just hours later,
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  Speaker 3: police were called to the badly beaten Jefferson Lewis. They
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  Speaker 3: took him to Alice Springs Hospital, where violence erupted on
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  Speaker 3: the street, with people throwing large rocks at police and
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  Speaker 3: paramedics Outside the hospital. The government flew Lewis thirteen hundred
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  Speaker 3: kilometers north to Darwin, imposed alcohol restrictions and sent in reinforcements.
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  Speaker 3: And now the town is exhausted and bracing for what's next. Liam,
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  Speaker 3: What do we know about the kind of life this
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  Speaker 3: child was living before she died.
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  Speaker 2: There was a horrific condition. So we're hardly any beds.
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  Speaker 2: There was one bed that she'd been living in that
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  Speaker 2: had been propped up against the wall. It was stayed.
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  Speaker 2: There's no linen anywhere. There's another dirty mattress in the
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  Speaker 2: laundry of the houses. Writing on the wall. There were
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  Speaker 2: empty bottles of jim Bean bourbon displayed up on a mantelpiece.
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  Speaker 2: Now we're not telling this story to shame or embarrass anybody.
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  Speaker 2: Her family wants the world to see this. They want
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  Speaker 2: to see the conditions like she's again, she shouldn't have
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  Speaker 2: to be living in this There's other children that are
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  Speaker 2: living this way and they shouldn't be living this way either,
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  Speaker 2: And they believe that if now is not the time
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  Speaker 2: to talk about this, then when is. And we were
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  Speaker 2: very very grateful and very very lucky that Robin Granite'z,
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  Speaker 2: her grandfather, led us into the home and to see
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  Speaker 2: what it was like. How do you feel when you
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  Speaker 2: kind of look at this way, it's hurting. It's a
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  Speaker 2: hurt feeling.
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  Speaker 3: It's really hurting me looking at the side of that
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  Speaker 3: she'd been taken away from. He was a very dignified
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  Speaker 3: older man. He was very articulate.
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  Speaker 2: Liam.
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  Speaker 1: He was very kind to you, I thought, in welcoming
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  Speaker 1: you in in ways that journals are not often welcomed
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  Speaker 1: in febrile situations like this. The situation only accelerated after
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  Speaker 1: her body was found. Members of the community then allegedly
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  Speaker 1: found the man who's accused of murdering her and beat him.
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  Speaker 1: He was found in a state where he was allegedly unconscious,
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  Speaker 1: then made it to hospital, and then a riot happened.
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  Speaker 1: Tell Us what your night was like. You barely had
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  Speaker 1: any sleep?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. So when he was arrested, words spread
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  Speaker 2: incredibly quickly throughout Alice Springs and people just made their
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  Speaker 2: way to the hospital. There was a police escort escorting
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  Speaker 2: the ambulance that he was being transported in, so there
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  Speaker 2: were three police cars. A witness who I spoke to
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  Speaker 2: said they'd never seen anything like this. Before I got
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  Speaker 2: there was a smaller crowd that was yelling, there was crime,
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  Speaker 2: there was weeping, they were yelling at police, but it
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  Speaker 2: wasn't violent, and then it progressively got a lot more
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  Speaker 2: violent throughout the night, as we've seen in these videos
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  Speaker 2: that we've captured. You know, the police had to really
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  Speaker 2: get on and work incredibly hard to push this group
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  Speaker 2: back who they were incredibly angry at police because they
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  Speaker 2: felt that police were harboring the accused in the hospital
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  Speaker 2: when they should be the lines giving him justice. And obviously,
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  Speaker 2: as we know, the police do have a duty of
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  Speaker 2: care against Jefferson Lewis, who is a man accused of
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  Speaker 2: these horrific crimes. We're going to.
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  Speaker 4: Fucking earth screen not placed, but not Pophart of the
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  Speaker 4: fucking god.
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  Speaker 2: Leam.
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  Speaker 1: You've covered Alice Springs and community violence a lot. You've
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  Speaker 1: been in lots of scary scenes. How does the riot
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  Speaker 1: overnight on Thursday compare.
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  Speaker 2: Ah, this is certainly one of the more tense situations
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  Speaker 2: I've been named. That's the biggest risk. The biggest warrior
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  Speaker 2: was that we were going to get skipped by uh
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  Speaker 2: these bottles of alcohol that were being thrown. There are
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  Speaker 2: firecrackers being thrown.
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  Speaker 4: Dagly mobby really starting to turn on police. Wopples work
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  Speaker 4: quite a lot harder than it is well, but police
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  Speaker 4: have had to replace back and large rocks have been throwing.
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  Speaker 2: At police cars.
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  Speaker 4: Police have moved about five meters behind them warning out
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  Speaker 4: a very large rocks are being thrown at police.
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  Speaker 2: Media also got a spread by police and it looked
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  Speaker 2: at some point that police were aiming there less than
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  Speaker 2: lethal shotguns at us. Thankfully, to my knowledge, no one
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  Speaker 2: got hit. But these less than lethal shotguns they hurt,
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  Speaker 2: and that is what they were using to really get
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  Speaker 2: the crowd and pushing them back. And it was incredibly
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  Speaker 2: tense for about two hours. And the angry group were
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  Speaker 2: also healthying rocks and they've got it. I've got an
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  Speaker 2: incredibly strong arms like these rocks are going hard and
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  Speaker 2: if someone was to get hid in the head, it
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  Speaker 2: could be a life or death scenario.
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  Speaker 3: Vice is Territory Police Commissioner Martin Dole.
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  Speaker 5: I think it's quite clear to us now the fact
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  Speaker 5: that he was able to avoid any kind of detection
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  Speaker 5: since Sunday right through until Thursday night, that somebody knew
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  Speaker 5: where he was and somebody was assisting him. And my
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  Speaker 5: message for those people is you better watch out because
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  Speaker 5: when we find out who you are, we'll be coming
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  Speaker 5: for you as well.
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  Speaker 1: Everyone in town now is exhausted. The accused murderer has
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  Speaker 1: left Ellice Springs and is now in Darwin, but things
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  Speaker 1: could still kick off again overnightly and the police are
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  Speaker 1: imposing restrictions on alcohol sales. What do you think is
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  Speaker 1: going to happen tonight?
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  Speaker 2: Look, I think police have brought in even more resources.
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  Speaker 2: They are incredibly prepared. I'm told that even if the
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  Speaker 2: smallert groups starts forming, they are going to hit that
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  Speaker 2: incredibly hard. So look, I'm pretty confident that the police
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  Speaker 2: are going to be able to be on the front
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  Speaker 2: foot and they're going to really they're not going to
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  Speaker 2: hold back if they need to disperse crowds. It's not
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  Speaker 2: going to be like last night, where the crowds were
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  Speaker 2: able to slowly grow and then outnumber police, and the
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  Speaker 2: police had to bring in more reinforcements, and the police
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  Speaker 2: didn't have protective equipment, and then they had to bring
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  Speaker 2: in more helmets for themselves, and they are going to
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  Speaker 2: be so much more prepared tonight than they were last night.
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  Speaker 3: Lea Mendez, stay safe and thanks very much.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks.
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  Speaker 3: Bern William's reporting.
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  Speaker 1: Is just part of the Australians coverage of this rolling story,
• 8:13
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