Death Penalty

No Australian State has the Death Penalty. Ronald Ryan was the last Australian to be officially executed for a crime and that was on the 3rd February 1967.

However, it has been recorded that, in the last 2 decades, more than 80 people have been shot dead by Australian Police Officers and nearly 50% of those were shot and killed by Victorian Police officers.

Tyler Cassidy was the last person (and the youngest in Australian history) to be shot dead, on 11 December 2008, and even though he was not guilty of any crime, other than bad judgment.

Youngest ever killed by Police

Tyler Cassidy has the unique honour of being the youngest person to have ever been killed by an Australian Police officer. He was just 15 years of age when 4 Victorian Police Officers shot him 6 times, within 3 minutes of meeting up with him, initially in a carpark, located at the rear of the Northcote Shopping Centre, at approximately 9.30pm on Thursday, 11 December 2008, and shortly afterwards at the skateboard bowl, a couple of hundred metres away. He had not been arrested and he had no criminal record.

Not one of those police officers have been charged with any offence.

Not one of those police officers have been suspended.

Not one of those police officers have been named publicly.

Not one of those police officers have been asked to hand in their firearms.

Who was Tyler?

 Let's see if Tyler Cassidy was a monster who deserved to be gunned down as if he was a dangerous mongrel dog.

Physically slight

Physically, Tyler Cassidy was not a big person. He was approximately 5ft 5ins tall (less than 170 cms) and weighed less than 9.5 stone (60kgs). He was only just entering puberty and he had not begun to shave.

High School Student - "achieving enormous success"

Education wise, Tyler Cassidy was, in effect, a High School student, who was studying hospitality at a local College, The Island, a vocational campus of Collingwood College.

Rowena Bailey, manager of The Island, where Tyler had been studying, said he had been achieving "enormous success'' studying hospitality:

"Tyler was a lovely young man. He came to us about six weeks ago,'' Ms Bailey said.

"He was achieving enormous success. He was in our hospitality unit and doing very well, he showed great promise and was doing extremely well.''

"It's a terrible shock because he was achieving. He was very well liked,'' she said.

"He was an easygoing boy, in our environment, very easygoing, and he was very happy. He had a lot of friends and he was very happy.''

Part Time Employment- "great kid...always pleasant to have around"

Employment wise, Tyler Cassidy had a part time job at the Leicester Arms Hotel in Collingwood. The manager of the Hotel, Glen McGee, described Tyler as follows:

"He was a great kid, always on time, always clean, always helpful, asking what else he could do," and

"He was always pleasant to have around and he never showed any signs of aggression."

"White Supremacist" or not ?

Police Media reports released to the Herald Sun newspaper within 12 hours of the execution of Tyler Cassidy reported that he was a "White Supremacist" who belonged to the "racist" "neo nazi" group called "Southern Cross Soldiers" which allegedly numbered 200, and whose members allegedly included skinheads & criminals, according to the Police media Release. The Police Media Release alleged that Tyler Cassidy was their "mascot". This was an outright Police Media Lie. The trouble with the law is that a dead person can be slandered and defamed and there is no cause of action that can be brought against the defamer.

"Southern Cross Soldiers"

There is no "organisation" known as the "Southern Cross Soldiers", as reported by the Police Media Section and reported in the Herald Sun in the 1st edition reporting Tyler's death. Tyler was certainly not the mascot of any such group. There is a loose association of patriotic young Australians who have been educated, since Australia's Bicentennial in 1988, to be proud Australians and that group of young Australians is a multi cultural group; not a racist; white supremacist group. Before Tyler Cassidy's death, there had only been one mention of that name in any Australian Newspaper and that was on 23 November 2008, reporting fears of Inspector Neil Patterson of Moorabbin Police with respect to an alleged rally at a local beach by proud Australian youths . Nothing has ever happened at Moorabbin, either before or since to support Inspector Patterson's fears.

Since then, apart from an editorial in the Melbourne Herald Sun, on 27 January 2009, which was mirrored in the Sydney Daily Telegraph the same day, lampooning a group of youths alleged by the newspapers to be members of the "Southern Cross Soldiers" after Australia Day, apparently because they "wore" Australian Flags around their necks, the only mention of the name, "Southern Cross Soldiers", in newspapers, has been in articles denigrating Tyler Cassidy's reputation.

Judging from Tyler Cassidy's Myspace page, Tyler was proud to be an Australian & proclaimed his pride on Myspace. That pride has been sullied and slandered by Police Media Liaison in an attempt to justify the execution of Tyler Cassidy. However, it is not a crime to be a proud Aussie and such a stance does not attract the death penalty; except, it seems, in Victoria!

Father died of Cancer

Tyler Cassidy did not have a father. His father had died 4 years earlier, on 1 December 2004, of Lung Cancer when Tyler was 11 years of age. When his father died, Tyler Cassidy was inconsolable. On the night of his execution, Tyler Cassidy was grieving the 4th anniversary of his father's death.

Parish Priest - "Tyler looking for answers"

Tyler's parish priest, Fr Salvano said that, four weeks after his father's funeral, Tyler came to Mass alone, sat near the front, listened and left.

Fr Salvano thinks the shattered boy was looking for answers about life and death.

A good kid having a bad day

The Assault

The events leading up to Tyler's death appear to have unfolded in the following manner.

Early in the evening on the night that Tyler Cassidy was killed, it seems that he had been assaulted while travelling home on the train, after having been visiting with friends that day. Perhaps Tyler knew who his attackers were because his mother reports that, when he got home, he was visibly upset but went straight to his room, without telling her what had occurred to upset him.

His mother reports that he was on his computer in his room for about 30 minutes or so before coming out of his room, in an extremely agitated and angry state. He tried to grab a couple of kitchen knives as he was leaving the house but his mother, Shani, took them off him and Tyler stormed out of the house.

It is possible that Tyler knew who his assailants were and had, perhaps, been communicating with them on his computer but had been challenged to a fight by his assailants, a challenge that Tyler unwisely accepted. One thing is clear. Tyler left home that night, in an agitated and aggressive state.

When Tyler left the house in his agitated state, his mother, Shani, who trusted the Police to do the right thing, telephoned the Northcote Police Station and asked them to keep an eye out for Tyler and to call her if they intercepted him so that she would know that he was safe.

The Execution

Less than 30 minutes later, Tyler lay dead, in a bloody mess, at the foot of a skate board bowl in the, ironically named. "All Nations Park", shot dead by the very same Police Officers who Tyler's mother had telephoned shortly before, with 6 Police Bullets in his body.

CLEARLY, Tyler Cassidy was no monster. This is evident from the testimony of his employers; teachers and his friends.

CLEARLY, Tyler Cassidy did not deserve to be shot dead. He had not even physically developed into a man and was still just a kid...a good kid, having a bad day.

Who killed Tyler & why has nobody been charged?

It seems that the Victorian Attorney General and Victorian Police Minister are unaware that Victorian Police Officers are subject to the Law. It is unlawful for them to use force that is out of proportion to any threat posed by an alleged perpetrator. It is clear that the 4 Victorian Police officers used excessive force which was out of proportion to any threat posed by Tyler Cassidy when they killed him.

Tyler Cassidy was only slightly built. According to newspaper reports, 2 police vans with a total of 4 Police Officers were dispatched to Northcote Shopping Centre where they confronted Tyler who had obtained 2 kitchen knives from a store in the Shopping Centre. The Police Officers then doused Tyler twice with Capsicum Spray, before chasing him into the 13 hectare All Nations Park beside the Shopping Centre. Less than 3 minutes later, they shot Tyler dead after allegedly shooting him twice in the legs which, according to the Police Officers, still did not stop Tyler. Tyler would have been blinded by the capsicum spray and, as experienced Police Officers, those 4 Police officers would have known that fact. In the circumstances, it should have been a relatively simple matter for the 4 trained Police officers, one of whom was an experienced Senior Constable, to overpower Tyler, without any body being harmed. It may have taken longer than 3 minutes to do so, but it should have been possible. They were in a 13 hectare park. There were no members of the public around; there were 4 highly trained and heavily armed Police Officers on the one hand and a slightly built, agitated and half-blinded teenage boy on the other.

The question that must be answered is why did 4 trained Police Officers fail to subdue a slightly built, inexperienced and partially blinded teenager, other than by shooting him 6 times and killing him!

Surely, it would have been a simple task for one of the Police Vans to be dispatched to collect Tyler's mother and bring her to the All Nations Park to talk to him while the other Police Officers kept an eye on him. These questions and more will need to be answered when the Coroner's Inquest into Tyler's execution is held in 2010.

Justice must be seen to be done

Both the Victorian Attorney General and Victorian Police Minister should either resign, because they are incapable of upholding the responsibility of their offices or, alternatively, they should ensure that the 4 Police Officers are charged with the offence of manslaughter so that the Justice System can dictate the eventual outcome.

"… it is not merely of some importance but is of fundamental importance, that justice should not only be done, but should manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done." ¹

^{1. Lord Hewart from Rex v Sussex Justices; Ex parte McCarthy}