By Rebecca Peppiatt and Heather McNeill
The video has shocked Australia – small Aboriginal children sobbing, hands bound with cable ties as relatives hurl abuse at a strident white man.
But it is not the first WA case where alleged low-level criminal offending by Aboriginal juveniles has been met with vigilantism – a toxic brew of social dysfunction, frustration, intergenerational trauma and victimisation bubbling over.
The latest incident has thrown high profile vigilante cases back into the spotlight as police urge the community not to take matters into their own hands.
The incident was live-streamed by a passerby in Broome on Tuesday, after a tradesman apprehended three children and cable-tied their wrists together upon finding them swimming in the backyard pool of a vacant property.
He alleged the children had damaged the house and refused to release them while he waited around one hour for police to arrive.
The man was taken into custody and later charged with three counts of aggravated assault.
The children were aged six, seven and eight.
Social justice advocate Megan Krakouer, who co-ordinated national vigils following the alleged murder of Aboriginal teenager Cassius Turvey in 2022, said while the Broome incident should never have happened, it was nothing new.
“This is something we live with on a daily basis,” she said.
“This is why a lot of Indigenous people are so distrustful, and I know there are some beautiful non-Indigenous people, don’t get me wrong, but there are some that just take the law into their own hands. They treat us like we’re less than human.
“In many cases they treat us like we’re not even citizens of this country.”
WA Police Regional Commander Rod Wilde said the Broome man’s alleged actions were not reasonable or proportionate in the circumstances, and urged community members not to take matters into their own hands.
“We’re aware there’s been juvenile crime issues in Broome, we’ve put a lot of additional resources into Broome as a result and crime has come down in relation to those types of offences,” he said.
“We’re acutely aware of it. We want the community to remain calm around that. If there’s issues, call the police, the police will be there. They’ll attend and they’ll deal with it.”
Krakouer said the focus needed to be on finding a solution to skyrocketing youth crime rates in the Kimberley.
“Let’s put a bit of positivity back into the community and help these little marginalised children,” she said.
“On hot days, let there be free access to the swimming pool, let there be buses that go and pick these little children up and say, ‘Hey, come up to the swimming pool, we’ll give you some lunch, we’ll make you some sandwiches’. Let’s make some beautiful things out of this.”
Prominent Perth lawyer John Hammond said cases of vigilantism being brought before the courts were rare.
“One of the tipping points in deciding whether to charge someone is if young people are involved, the other is what force was used in apprehending the person who is alleged to have committed an offence?” he said.
“When you’ve got very low-end criminal behaviour which is not affecting anyone’s property or life, then you’re going to struggle to say that you were helping to uphold the law.”
Tuesday’s arrest follows a string of high-profile vigilante incidents occurring in WA in recent years.
Woman chased ‘motorcycle thieves’, causing serious crash, avoids jail
In August 2022, a woman took matters into her own hands after her Hillarys home was allegedly burgled by two Indigenous teenagers, aged 17 and 19, in the middle of the night.
Debbie Bute jumped in her car and pursued the teens through Perth’s northern suburbs after they stole motorcycles from her property.
The chase was filmed on a mobile phone by one of the teens, before the trio crashed at a roundabout and suffered serious injuries.
The Kluger burst into flames in the crash. Ronaldo Cockie, 18, inset, was then left fighting for his life in hospital.Credit: 9News Perth
One of the alleged thieves, Ronaldo Cockie, spent 19 days in hospital fighting for his life.
Bute later pleaded guilty to aggravated dangerous driving causing bodily harm and aggravated dangerous driving causing grievous bodily harm but avoided jail over the matter as there was no evidence to suggest she made contact with the teens before they crashed.
IGA owner charged after locking nine-year-old boy in store cupboard
Four years ago, a Perth shop owner was arrested by police after he dragged a nine-year-old Indigenous boy into a store cupboard and locked him in there after he was caught stealing.
Farivar Ronaghi said he was trying to protect his Kelmscott IGA but was instead charged with deprivation of liberty and assault over the incident. The store was trashed in retaliation, and several minors were charged with stealing.
Ronaghi’s charges were dropped 10 months later.
The Director of Public Prosecutions said shop owners were allowed to use reasonable force to detain someone they suspect of a crime.
A statement read: “In this case, there were no reasonable prospects of proving beyond reasonable doubt that the accused’s conduct in detaining the child was unlawful.”
Hammond, who represented Ronaghi in court, said he didn’t believe the shop owner should have ever been charged.
“He was defending his property, and he was subject to very violent attacks,” he said.
Kalgoorlie teenager killed after being run over by vigilante
In 2016, a 56-year-old man was charged over the death of Indigenous Kalgoorlie teenager Elijah Doughty, 14.
Elijah, who was riding a stolen motorcycle, was being pursued at speed through bush tracks by the man in a four-wheel-drive, when he was run over and killed.
Elijah Doughty died after being hit by a ute. Credit: Facebook/@Elijah Doughty
His death led to riots in the mining town the following day after police charged the driver with manslaughter, not murder.
The man, whose identity is suppressed by the courts, said he was “trying to catch up with a motorbike that I know, I think, is mine, and hoping that the rider would go into the bush and fall off”.
The man was eventually convicted of the downgraded offence of dangerous driving causing death. He was sentenced to three years’ jail, but served only 19 months behind bars.
A condition of his parole was that he complete a consequential thinking program.
The death ignited racial tensions in Kalgoorlie, which were magnified by racist anti-crime pages on Facebook “naming and shaming” people and seemingly encouraging residents to take matters into their own hands.
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