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The
Redfern Riots
on 14 February 2004 were started in the inner
Sydney
suburb
of
Redfern
after the death of
Thomas 'TJ' Hickey
, a 17 year old
Australian Aboriginal
.
[1]
The boy was riding home on his
bicycle
from his
girlfriend
's house when he saw a police car and thought it was chasing him. Police were
searching
him, but police have said that the
police
car was looking for a different person. While the chase Hickey lost
control
of his bicycle rode into a
spiked fence
.
Friends and relatives came together at
The Block
to be sad.
Fliers
were given out, which said that it was the
fault
of the police that the boy died and unhappy aboriginal
youths
arrived from other parts of
Sydney
at the Redfern
railway station
. The police closed the
entrance
to the station but the
crowd
had turned
violent
and began to throw
bottles
,
bricks
and
Molotov cocktails
. The violence became into a full
riot
around The Block, during which Redfern railway station was burning for a short time and was heavily damaged. The riot went on into the early morning, until police used
Fire Brigade
water
hoses
to get the crowd apart. One
car
, stolen in a western suburb, was burnt, and 40 police officers were hurt.