Media statement: Grossly excessive policing of protesters likely infringed on human rights
11 September 20244 minute read
11 September 2024
Melbourne Activist Legal Support (MALS) fielded a team of 20 independent legal observers to monitor the policing of protests against the Land Forces Exposition between 6.00am and 1.00pm, Wednesday 11 September 2024, at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC) in Melbourne.
Legal observers witnessed multiple incidents of excessive use of force by police including:
- OC spray deployed at persons moving away from police lines
- Rubber bullets deployed at short-range
- Indiscriminate use of OC spray upon large crowds
- Use of tear gas, rubber bullets, and flash-bangs against idle persons including persons with hands raised and those attempting to move away from police lines
- Excessively violent arrests by PORT members
- PORT members punching people
- PORT members slamming people’s heads against walls whilst arresting them
- Riding of horses into crowds resulting in injuries.
MALS noted the chaotic behaviour of many protesters, which included in some circumstances, objects being thrown at or over police lines, yelling and abuse, the setting alight of a bin, and some physical assaults by protesters against attendees attempting to enter the MCEC. The context has been considered in each use-of-force incident noted above. Legal observers noted that in most circumstances, protestor behaviour became heightened after and in response to a coercive crowd control manoeuvre by the police or the use of police weapons.
The behaviour of individual protesters does not justify excessive force against others nor the use of force against entire crowds. The size, nature, or political context of a protest does not change the obligations upon police to act lawfully.
Incidents of excessive force documented today by legal observers may constitute unlawful assault by police.
MALS is currently examining evidence collected to determine infringements under the following international and domestic legal frameworks:
- The International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)
- The Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act (2006)
- The Victorian Police Manual (VPM);
- Police powers, legal rights and protections are contained in the Crimes Act (Vic), Victoria Police Act (Vic), the Summary Offences Act (Vic) and common law.
Treatment of medics and legal observers
Legal observers noted police assaulting and OC spraying medics, and obstructing them when attempting to treat injured people.
Police were observed continuing to fire directly at medics as they escorted people away from police lines with OC spray, and tear gas, and charging at them using batons and shields.
The MALS Legal Observer Team itself was subject to gross violation of its independent and internationally recognised role.
On multiple occasions, legal observers, themselves were assaulted, OC sprayed, pushed and grabbed by police.
On one occasion, three MALS legal observers were at a location to safely view injured people in police custody. The observers were grabbed by members of a PORT Evidence Gathering Team and forcibly moved away. Two of these observers were able to return to the area to document injuries and police actions.
MALS had communicated to Victoria Police senior command ahead of the event to remind them of their legal obligations when interacting with protesters and to alert them to the presence of independent legal observer teams during the week of protests.
Quotes attributable to Melbourne Activist Legal Support spokesperson
‘The policing we observed today was so grossly excessive that we struggle to comprehend any legal justification available to defend the violence, misuse of weaponry and mass injury caused by Victoria Police. The size, nature, or political context of a protest does not change Victoria Police’s obligations to act lawfully.’
‘Protesting is an essential function of a healthy democracy, and the Victorian Government must recognise that protest comes in many forms. We urge the Victorian Government to hold their police force accountable for unlawful use of force observed at the Disrupt Land Forces event.’
‘An urgent, independent investigation of today’s policing operation is required. We look forward to submitting our evidence and findings to such an investigation. The increasingly violent culture of protest policing in Victoria must be reversed.’
‘The granting of special powers to police under anti-terrorism laws has clearly been to afford them the ability to violently suppress this protest action with as many resources as they have available. We call on the Victorian Government to withdraw these additional powers immediately.’
‘The violent assaults of legal observers, as well as medics, by Victoria Police, is a serious violation of human rights as it obstructs the legal and medical rights of persons participating in the demonstration as well as the rights of those performing their duties. Legal and medical roles in the context of public demonstration are globally recognised under international law. Victoria Police are not a power unto themselves, and must not act as if they are.’
Background
MALS has been monitoring public order policing for over 13 years and with a network of solicitors, barristers and human rights advocates has extensive experience in analysing policing and human rights.
In July 2024, the United Nations Human Rights Council called upon all States ‘to pay particular attention to the safety and protection of those observing, monitoring and recording protests, including human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists and other media workers, taking into account their specific role, exposure and vulnerability.’
The legal observers present are registered volunteers with the Melbourne Activist Legal Support (MALS). Legal observers are identified by pink, high-visibility vests that are clearly printed with the words “Legal Observer” across the back and a Legal Observer identification card in the front breast pocket.
Important links:
https://mals.au/2024/01/13/oc-spray-legal-info/
https://mals.au/2020/11/25/victoria-police-weapon-id-guide/
Protecting The Merchants Of Death: The Police Effort For Land Forces 2024 – OpEd
First Published in the EurasiaReview.com
September 11. Melbourne. The scene: the area between Spencer Street Bridge and the Batman Park-Spencer Street tram stop. Heavily armed police, with glinting face coverings and shields, had seized and blocked the bridge over the course of the morning, preventing all traffic from transiting through it. Behind them stood second tier personnel, lightly armed. Then, barricades, followed by horse mounted police. Holding up the rear: two fire trucks.
In the skies, unmanned drones hovered like black, stationary ravens of menace. But these were not deemed sufficient by Victoria Police. Helicopters kept them company. Surveillance cameras also stood prominently to the north end of the bridge.
Before this assortment of marshalled force was an eclectic gathering of individuals from keffiyeh-swaddled pro-Palestinian activists to drummers kitted out in the Palestinian colours, and any number of theatrical types dressed in the shades and costumery of death. At one point, a chilling Joker figure made an appearance, his outfit and suitcase covered in mock blood. The share stock of chants was readily deployed: “No justice, no peace, no racist police”; “We, the people, will not be silenced. Stop the bombing now, now, now”. Innumerable placards condemning the arms industry and Israel’s war on Gaza also make their appearance.
The purpose of this vast, costly exercise proved elementary and brutal: to defend Land Forces 2024, one of the largest arms fairs in the southern hemisphere, from Disrupt Land Forces, a collective demonised by the Victorian state government as the great unwashed, polluted rebel rousers and anarchists. Much had been made of the potential size of the gathering, with uncritical journalists consuming gobbets of information from police sources keen to justify an operation deemed the largest since the 2000 World Economic Forum. Police officers from regional centres in the state had been called up, and while Chief Commissioner Shane Patton proved tight-lipped on the exact number, an estimate exceeding 1,000 was not refuted. The total cost of the effort: somewhere between A$10 to A$15 million.
It all began as a healthy gathering at the dawn of day, with protestors moving to the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre to picket entry points for those attending Land Forces.
Over time, there was movement between the various entrances to prevent these modern merchants of death from spruiking their merchandise and touting for offers. As Green Left Online noted, “The Victorian Police barricaded the entrance of the Melbourne Convention Centre so protestors marched to the back entrance to disrupt Land Forces whilst attendees are going through security checks.”
In keeping with a variant of Anton Chekhov’s principle, if a loaded gun is placed upon the stage, it is bound to be used. Otherwise, leave it out of the script. A large police presence would hardly be worthwhile without a few cracked skulls, flesh wounds or arrests. Scuffles accordingly broke out with banal predictability. The mounted personnel were also brought out to add a snap of hostility and intimidation to the protestors as they sought to hamper access to the Convention. For all of this, it was the police who left complaining, worried about their safety.
Then came the broader push from the officers to create a zone of exclusion around the building, resulting in the closure of Clarendon Street to the south, up to Batman Park. Efforts were made to push the protests from the convention centre across the bridge towards the park. This was in keeping with the promise by the Chief Commissioner that the MCEC site and its surrounds would be deemed a designated area over the duration of the arms fair from September 11 to 13.
Such designated areas, enabled by the passage of a 2009 law, vests the police with powers to stop and search a person within the zone without a warrant. Anything perceived to be a weapon can be seized, with officers having powers to request that civilians reveal their identity.
Despite such exercisable powers, the relevant legislation imposes a time limit of 12 hours for such areas, something most conspicuously breached by the Commissioner. But as Melbourne Activist Legal Support (MALS) group remarks, the broader criteria outlined in the legislative regime are often not met and constitute a “method of protest control” that impairs “the rights to assembly, association, and political expression” protected by the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities.
The Victorian government had little time for the language of protest. In a stunningly grotesque twist, the Victorian Premier, Jacinta Allan, defended those at the Land Forces conference as legitimate representatives of business engaging in a peaceful enterprise. “Any industry deserves the right to have these sorts of events in a peaceful and respectful way.” If the manufacture, sale and distribution of weapons constitutes a “peaceful and respectful” pursuit, we have disappeared down the rabbit hole with Alice at great speed.
That theme continued with efforts by both Allan and the opposition leader, John Pesutto, to tarnish the efforts by fellow politicians to attend the protest. Both fumed indignantly at the efforts of Greens MP Gabrielle de Vietri to participate, with the premier calling the measure one designed for “divisive political purposes.” The Green MP had a pertinent response: “The community has spoken loud and clear, they don’t want weapons and war profiting to come to our doorstep, and the Victorian Labor government is sponsoring this.”
The absurd, morally inverted spectacle was duly affirmed: a taxpayer funded arms exposition, defended by the taxpayer funded police, used to repel the tax paying protestors keen to promote peace in the face of an industry that thrives on death, mutilation and misery.
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Binoy Kampmark
Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. Email: bkampmark@gmail.com