Four Nights of Violence in Macquarie Fields, Australia

On February 25th 2005, three young boys from Macquarie Fields, NSW were in a stolen car and were chased by police down Eucalyptus drive, the boys lost control and hit a tree on the winding road at high speed killing two of the boys Dylan Raywood 17 and Mathew Robertson 19. The 20 year old driver Jesse Kelly fled the scene on foot.

The sound of the crash echoed through the usually quiet town and people rushed from their homes to see what had occurred. Flinders oval directly opposite the crash scene soon filled with local residents, already knowing the identities of the boys that had been killed. Police, ambulance and fighter fighters had already roped off the area and were working to get the boys out. on Eucalyptus drive itself a single youth rushed up to the police tape yelling in grief knowing that his brother, his friend were already dead, police detained him and placed him in handcuffs to prevent him advancing onto the scene. as this lone boy sobs quietly on his knees with his hands behind his back in cuffs a young police officer approached him. After telling him to stop several times the police officer removed his torch from his belt and hit the young grieving child in the back of the head. The local community were outraged and began yelling at the police and throwing rocks and other objects at the police cars and officers at the scene. what followed was four nights of violence that shook this community to its core and in the process set in place a reputation of those that live here. but is this reputation Justified? and was this really just an act of unruly teenagers out to riot?