135
Hit-run driver Jake Danby spared jail time by NT Supreme Court after describing victim as an 'oxygen thief' (www.abc.net.au)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/australia@aussie.zone
26 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

A 24-year-old man who hit two Aboriginal pedestrians with his car and sped away, later bragging to his friends he'd run down an "oxygen thief", has been spared actual jail time

The court heard Danby sent a series of "disgusting" text messages to his friends in the hours after the crash, in which he labelled the crash victims as "dogs" and "n***ers".

No jail ? Lucky he didn't run Charke Kirk down I guess.

#EDIT: an update for those interested#

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-18/family-of-man-killed-in-darwin-hit-and-run-speak-out/105787700

The family of an Aboriginal man run down and killed by a hit-and-run driver in Darwin last year have voiced their "disgust and dismay" at the lack of a prison sentence for the offender.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 16 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Australia still treats its native population horribly.

Fair. Though this has been steadily improving and continues to improve.

Nazi style horribly.

No. While this was once true, it has not been true for about a century. Even the scandalous Stolen Generations, which was effectively an attempt at cultural genocide, was approached with the intent of improving the lives of Aboriginal peoples. The worst Australian policies of 50 years ago were not about rounding up and mass-murdering aboriginal people. If you throw Nazism around everywhere, you dilute the word. There is plenty of room for criticism of Australia's treatment of Aboriginal people but don't go overboard or you weaken your argument.

Nazism is illegal here:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-15/qld-man-charged-nazi-salute-at-afl-game-banned/105773522
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-04/vic-camp-sovereignty-charges/105732982
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/pm/neo-nazi-leader-arrested-in-melbourne/105727024

But it is also present and we are fighting a war against it:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-01/authorities-condemn-anti-immigration-rally-perth-neo-nazi/105722068

Every single piece of news about the aborigines has been bad for decades,

You probably only see the stuff that makes your feed globally and yes, there is plenty of news that is bad. But there's lots that isn't as well. The last piece of news I read before this article was about Cathy Freeman being inducted into Stadium Australia's inaugural Hall of Fame list. Here: have some news that is nicer:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-16/cathy-freeman-ian-thorpe-stadium-australia-hall-of-fame/105777908
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-04/binar-futures-basketball-adam-desmond-perth/104653506
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-28/uni-program-pairing-first-nations-business-owners-students/103896464
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-13/intense:-stolen-generations-survivor-recounts/103458314
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-04/school-program-aims-to-keep-pertame-language-alive/102810296

with little or no social assistance in any way.

Again, let me correct you here:
https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/payments-and-support-for-indigenous-australians?context=60078
https://www.niaa.gov.au/our-work/grants-and-funding
https://www.health.gov.au/our-work/indigenous-australians-health-programme
https://www.indigenous.gov.au/grants

Look, I'm not saying we're perfect on this front. Hell, I don't even think I'd go so far as to say we're good on this front. But we're trying, ok?

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 6 child comments
    •
  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago* (2 children)

    Fyi there is no "attempt" at cultural genocide. Genocide is a crime in the act itself, regardless of the success of lack thereof in the outcome.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    You aren't wrong, but they didn't think like that at the time. The racism was off the charts by today's standards. It's ghastly to look back on and the psychological damage this policy did is immeasurable and ongoing. But beyond all that, they truly were attempting to improve the lives of "the savages" as they saw it.

    "The Board may assume full control and custody of the child of any aborigine, if after due inquiry it is satisfied that such a course is in the interest of the moral and physical welfare of such child. The Board may thereupon remove such child to such control and care as it thinks best."

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    Oh yeah I get it. They didn't think there was anything wrong with what they did at the time. I was merely addressing one part of your own comment:

    which was effectively an attempt at cultural genocide

    There's no such thing as "an attempt at...genocide". If the act was carried out with the intent to eradicate (even if, as was the case in Australia, they believed the eradication was in the best interests of the individuals), then the action is genocide, whether or not the targeted group actually ceases to exist.

    If you think about it, that has to be the case. Otherwise we would say there has never been a genocide in history. The Nazis only attempted genocide against the Jews, Roma, gays, etc. But we don't say that, we say what the Nazis did was genocide, even though Jews, Romani, and gay people still exist today. (And likewise, the genocide Israel is currently perpetuating against Palestinians is a genocide, not an "attempted" one, which is why the common genocide denialist's attempt to point to numbers killed as a sign that it's not genocide is irrelevant.)

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    The stolen generation continues under other names, Indigenous familes are still regularly torn apart in the name of child protection, Grand Mothers Against Removals is a group that works to keep children in community, you can read some more about them here

    https://www.foe.org.au/grandmothers_against_removals

    I'm not going to spend the time responding to every one of your points, but you might need to take a step back and think about you were so quick to ardently defend an imperialist settler colony

    p.s.

    something that is really irking me lately is the implication that the state banning racist hand gestures, and nazi flags is going to solve anything.

    Banning nazi symbols only means nazis now march under the australian flag, the australian flag was already a colonial symbol, it comes from a time when the state was explicitly white supremacist. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 9 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I have absolutely no idea how you can read the words "scandalous" and "cultural genocide" and think I was defending anything. I was saying that comparing the worst of government policies to literally rounding up every man, woman and child and outright murdering them is damaging to your argument. They are terrible failures in policy, but they are not comparable to Nazi policies.

    the state banning racist hand gestures, and nazi flags is going to solve anything.

    What exactly do you propose the government do instead? We can't lock people away for what they think. We can only prosecute them when they do something like hate speech, waving Nazi flags or doing Nazi salutes.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
    • load more comments (-1 replies)