airyairyquitecontrary:

cleopatronising:

noted icon and legend, Leilani Clarke

This was a compassionate decision by a magistrate who noted that Ms Clarke had mental health problems, had probably been in a psychotic episode at the time of the latest offending and she (the magistrate) was concerned that she had been self-medicating with alcohol and illegal drugs because she was not receiving the therapeutic help she needed.  Ms Clarke had requested an adjournment in order to be able to provide medical reports but the magistrate was willing to sentence her to a 10 month good behaviour bond without a conviction based on the information she already had.

From the accounts I’ve been able to find of the assault, the police (as you might imagine) badly handled a situation in which Ms Clarke had become agitated and drove her into a panic.  Friends present at the scene tried to tell the officers she had post-traumatic stress disorder.  I am not familiar with the Australian police but here in New Zealand there are frequently problems because police are called to an emergency situation involving someone having a mental health crisis but don’t have any training in dealing compassionately and constructively with mentally ill people, so in an effort to get the situation under control they do bloody foolish things like arresting a suicidal man for cannabis possession.  

Unfortunately, the most detailed article I can find about the whole thing is not even from an Australian source, but the Daily Mail, so it’s reported in a tone of “Can you believe she’s getting away with this, the little trollop?”

Indigenous female activist spits on cop in her fourth police assault – news.com.au, also with a disapproving/scandalised tone.

I can’t find any article with the exact headline from the screencapture above, but I think it may be this one with an altered headline, as news websites will sometimes do – https://www.thenewsto.com/2018/11/08/aboriginal-activist-convicted-of-kneeing-police-in-the-groin-was-deescalating-the-situation/ – and this one provides the extra information that she specifically has complex post-traumatic stress disorder.

I just felt the need to look into the background of the situation as much as I could and find out what the context for these events was.  I hope she’ll be okay.