The following speech was given to the Pride in Protest-organised protest on International Transgender Day of Visibility on March 29.

Earlier this month, only days after Mardi Gras, was the 17th anniversary of Veronica Baxter’s death. She was a Blak trans woman who had been living in Redfern and had been out as a woman for years.

Police raided her home for drug-related offenses and brought her to an all-male prison. There, she was denied access to hormone replacement therapy and calls from her cell were ignored.

On March 10, 2009, she died in custody. There has since been no justice for her or her family and community and no officers have faced consequences for her death.

The same police force was responsible for the highest recorded number of Aboriginal deaths in custody in NSW last year. Police are not “improving” or “working toward reconciliation” or any other progressive claims they frequently make about their supposed inclusivity, to get more funding while sweeping their abuses under the rug.

Police brutality at the protest against the genocidal Israeli president Isaac Herzog’s visit on February 9 was intense. Police violence against protesters has continued as they raid the homes of protestors, arresting one woman as she was sleeping.

Multiple ‘78ers have recounted that the........

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