Chris
Content Warning: These stories are about violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation and may include references to suicide or self-harming behaviours. They may contain graphic descriptions and strong language and may be distressing. Some narratives may be about First Nations people who have passed away. If you need support, please see Contact & support.
Chris has a range of medical issues and disabilities that cause him significant pain and limit his vision and mobility. He lives in community housing and recently had an altercation with his neighbour, which resulted in him being arrested and spending a night in police custody.
Chris told the Royal Commission there were no witnesses to the altercation between him and his neighbour. He had gone around to the neighbour’s house to try to ‘clear the air’, but the neighbour responded with anger. Nobody was seriously hurt, but the neighbour threatened to kill Chris.
Shocked and scared, Chris started to ‘binge drink’ because he ‘wasn’t thinking straight with the adrenaline and hypertension’. The next thing he knew, the police were there. The neighbour had accused Chris of assaulting him and the police were arresting him.
The police handcuffed Chris. He blacked out as he was being dragged out of his house, and awoke to find himself lying on the ground in a pitch black room. He was in ‘searing pain’, his hand was broken and his shirt was soaked in urine.
He didn’t know whose urine it was as his own pants were dry. ‘At first it took me a minute or two to get my bearings,’ Chris said, ‘and I honestly thought I was in a horror movie situation.’
Eventually a police officer took Chris to ‘a regular cell’. He left the urine-soaked shirt behind and spent the rest of the time in just his shorts.
In the new cell, Chris called for medical attention for his hand and his medications for blood pressure and diabetes, which were overdue. The police denied both requests.
Eventually, after banging on the cell glass for a while, a duty nurse came to see Chris. He was explaining his medications to the nurse when the officer interrupted, offering him a coffee.
Chris responded, ‘you really wanna give me coffee, a stimulant when I am hypertensive and without my medication, are you trying to kill me?’ The nurse and officer left the room at that point.
‘Shortly after this,’ Chris said, ‘I started getting taunts over the intercom saying "you wanna coffee, you wanna coffee" … and I could hear others giggling in the background.’
‘Then the taunts got even more bizarre as they added "black lives matter", in a sinister and sadistic tone. The next day I learnt my friends had come to check on me and they are Aboriginal.’
Still having received no medical treatment or his medication, Chris was taken back to an isolation cell and spent the rest of the night in just his shorts on the ground with no blanket. ‘The cell has night vision cameras so the guards would have clearly seen my distress as my body shook and began to cramp up from the cold,’ Chris said.
Chris was released mid-afternoon the following day, in just his shorts, with a bag holding his possessions, including the medication they had withheld.
‘I could not walk further than a few metres given my disabilities and the damage done in custody without my walking stick, I could not get a taxi with no shirt and stinking of urine, so I had to sit outside the police station for an hour waiting for my friend.’
The following morning, in distress and pain, Chris went to the hospital. He was found to have tachycardia – a very fast heart rate – and a complete fracture in his hand.
Chris is furious about the way the police treated him and that while he was ‘being tortured’, his attacker was ‘nice and cosy at home’. Meanwhile Chris is still facing an assault charge against the neighbour.
Disclaimer: This is the story of a person who shared their personal experience with the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability through a submission or private session. The names in this story are pseudonyms. The person who shared this experience was not a witness and their account is not evidence. They did not take an oath or affirmation before providing the story. Nothing in this story constitutes a finding of the Royal Commission. Any views expressed are those of the person who shared their experience, not of the Royal Commission.