Legal Observer Report: The Policing of the Disrupt Land Forces (DLF) Protests
Melbourne Activist Legal Service – MALS – completed this comprehensive report following Land Forces 2024. We appreciate their work very much. It should be noted that they also assisted greatly with coordinating general legal services to the people harmed, maimed, arrested and charged.
Wage Peace with many people on the ground in Naarm coordinated activist care and support.
Summary
The Land Forces Exposition (the expo) took place at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC) from 11 to 13 September 2024. The expo is promoted to be the “largest defence industry event ever held in Australia”.1 It invites international military, defence and weapons contractors and manufacturers to demonstrate their products and services to thousands of individuals in the defence, government agency, business, academic, scientific and other related weapons sectors.
The Naarm-Melbourne anti-war community organised to protest the expo from 10 to 13 September in a movement known as Disrupt Land Forces (DLF). The coalition comprising of over 50 organisations and independent individuals used a variety of mediums, including attempting to create traffic disruptions in the streets around the MCEC, picketing and blockading the expo, marches and rallies, music and artistic performances, and candlelight vigils.
Melbourne Activist Legal Support (MALS) fielded trained legal observer teams at multiple protest events across each of the four days. Anti-war protests and resistance are not new to Naarm-Melbourne. From the moment that the expo was announced to be held, negative and sensationalist responses from the Victorian government, Victoria Police, and media paved a stigmatising platform to justify extraordinary levels of force to be used by police against protesters. This preemptive response included invoking special weapons and anti-terrorism legislation to equip police with broad powers.
Commentary by the media, politicians, and police—specifically events on Wednesday 11 September 2024—have overwhelmingly focused on the actions of protesters engaging in violent or confrontational behaviours. There has been minimal scrutiny or focus on the use of force and violence by police, including coordinated tactical manoeuvres, and the disproportionate levels or forms of violence facilitated by an arsenal of weaponry, with state and media sanctioning. There has also been a dearth of commentary and analyses by these institutions on the tactics and decisions by the police and their impacts on creating, instigating, and escalating violence and tensions in the events that occurred on Wednesday 11 September 2024. This includes the increased levels of risk of harm to members of the public that arise from uses of force and violence by the police, including the use of weapons, chemical irritants, and potentially lethal weapons.
This report details MALS areas of concern from observations across the four days of protests, including police use of force and weaponry, special powers, arrests, treatment of legal observers, media narratives and strategic misinformation.