2025-04-23
The Victorian Greens mourn alongside the family, friends, and community of Abditafatah Ahmed, a beloved son, brother, and community member who was killed by Victoria Police on Thursday.
Quotes attributable to the Victorian Greens spokesperson for Anti-Racism and Multiculturalism, Anasinia Gray-Barberio:
Our hearts are with Abditafatah Ahmed’s family and community, who are grieving an entirely preventable tragedy.
Time and again, it’s Black, Brown, and First Nations communities who bear the brunt of over-policing and police violence. Abditafatah’s death is not an exception - it’s the result of a system that prioritises punishment over care.
Police are not social workers, mental health professionals, or housing providers. Yet what Abditafatah needed was support - not force.
For multicultural communities, police presence too often escalates rather than protects.
While an investigation is underway, police cannot and should not be trusted to investigate themselves. There is a dark history of racism within Victoria Police which is why we need an independent Police Ombudsman with real power to hold police accountable and expose systemic racism.
As police budgets balloon, frontline mental health and housing services are left under-resourced and overwhelmed. This is the cost: lives lost, communities harmed, trust shattered.
Abditafatah should still be alive. His death is on the hands of a system that’s becoming increasingly focussed solely on criminalisation, not care. That system must end.