Updated Oct 7, 2012 – Family and supporters of Kwementyaye Briscoe, an Indigenous man who died in police custody have staged a noisy protest after being excluded from a meeting about alcohol problems at Alice Springs. Video  In Climate of Death, an opinion piece in the National Indigenous Times, reporter Gerry Georgatos interviewed Nyoongar Elder, Ben Taylor.

"We have to get rid of racist cops. I don't want to dwell on the past but I have grown up bitter." ~ Ben Taylor, a member of the Deaths in Custody Watch Committee of WA and 2011 winner of the NAIDOC award for male elder.

Meanwhile, a recent study has linked a rise in Alice Springs booze prices to a reduction in the assault rate. Aboriginals feel the the government is using this study and other measures to support the undermining of local businesses, to strengthen support a Banned Drinker's Register, and to justify violence against the aboriginal community. They aren't alone.

The sheer volume of protective custodies in Alice Springs was emphasised by Coroner Greg Cavanagh in his Briscoe Inquest findings, with Alice Springs accounting for nearly half of the NT’s protective custodies in the 12 months ending April 30 2012. Mr Cavanagh described the statistics as “one of the boldest indicators of the resource drain caused by excess consumption”. He described as “simply unacceptable”  the situation where “Police Officers in Alice Springs spend half their time on duty picking up ‘protective custodies’”. This was the demoralising, depressing backdrop to the events leading to the death of Kwementyaye Briscoe.