APEC protests: Richard's observer's report

The Australian Police are tonight saying that they averted violence. Actually they attempted to create it. I think their ultimate aim was to clear a public park of happy celebrants of democracy before the Chinese convoy retired to the pub across the road from Hyde Park.

I came to Sydney to be one of Webdiarist Dale Mills' Human Rights Monitors. Our role was to provide witnesses to any violations of procedure against protesters by Police. There were plenty, and the report that Dale is compiling will be more than interesting reading when it comes out.

For starters, the breaking of banner poles. The police didn't do it of course. They grabbed one end of a banner, informed the holder that it was a proscribed item if longer than one metre, and that it would be confiscated unless it was snapped. You'll have seen pictures by now of people doing so. It was illegal to have such things in restricted zones, but not in front of town hall or on the rally route. So many people were upset at having to destroy the emblems of their sentiment, but they did so rather than surrender them.

The organisers said from the stage that they believed ten thousand to be present, by the way. Other reports have said five. I've previously read five and fifteen, and believe it was around ten.

I made a point of staying ahead of the march, to see what would happen. While StopBush co-ordinator Alex Bainbridge had already said on ABC morning radio that there was a hope to do so, the police seemed quite surprised when the protesters sat down in the middle of Park St. At least, that was how it sounded on the message relayed on police radio. No, I didn't have a police radio, just good ears.

The atmosphere along the way was a mixture of revelry and rebellion. After the sit-down, the marchers moved up Park Street to the corner in front of Hyde Park. The only really sad incident I heard of was of the two fellows who, having had trouble with their banner in the wind, had moved aside to put holes in it with a pocket knife. When they rejoined the protest they were surrounded and arrested, one bashed over the head by police with his banner pole.

At the Hyde Park corner, though, there was a sense of utter dismay. The prison-bus was too slow to block the view of the water cannon and the riot cars, and everyone was shocked to see the show of force sitting on the sidelines. After a while, that posse turned and disappeared en masse. I've since heard that their departure was in response to a telephone call to a radio station about the unnecessary display of aggression.

Every part of the corner, bar the entrance to Hyde Park, had a prison bus and a row of police blocking it. Nonetheless the intersection was filled with grannies, kids, teenagers, smiling, playing drums, happy that they'd made the march. There was a lad with red hair and kilt posing in front of the police line with a banner saying "I Just Want To Get Laid!" which created much laughter and photos. He explained to me later "My parents are tree-huggers from way back, and I've been going to these things since I was in nappies. This time I thought it was time to have some fun."

There was a little sit-in at the park gates. "Whose streets, our streets, whose world, our world" taken up as a chant, the word world metamorphosing into war through a gesthaltic "chinese whisper". Billionaires For Bush, in tuxes and evening gowns (and of course cigars) chanting "We're billionaires united, we'll never be defeated" provided some mirth to what was becoming an air of peaceful pageantry. The protest organisers asked for the sit-in to move on, as it was blocking the stage and the P.A. from getting to the Park. Everone happily complied and meandered inwards.

Then it got really ugly. The police moved into the centre of the intersection and formed an outward moving circle, forcing the protesters to the curb. I ended up trapped amidst protesters and media, shepherded into a corner with armed and mostly unidentifiable police (many police on the day had no ID badges, and I have footage). Nowhere to move to, and cops in riot gear moving in behind them, and the chopper overhead, I was beginning to get scared.

While meghaphoners voiced their protests, in an inciteful way that made me worried and angry, protest organsers placed their own people between the police and the protesters, facing away from the police, suggesting that we shouldn't fall for provocative tactics and instead move into the park to hear the speeches. The trouble was that with all the bloody cameramen behind us there was nowhere to go. Eventually a path was cleard over the flower beds, over which, from what I saw before I moved, most people trudged.

Inside the park there was an air of gaiety. I'd missed the speeches of course, but there were rappers, drummers, grannies and a sense of festivity. This lasted till about three o'clock, when the local journos went to file stories for the newspaper editions and the evening news. The only major problem had been someone with a sound system in a wheelie-bin who had been searched three times. He was still allowed to wander through the park.

The Human Rights Monitors were about to call it a day and head back for a debriefing when someone told me the police were gathering at the park entrance near the Sheraton, where President Hu was staying. As I ran down there a cadre of police dove into the park and grabbed a protester and bodily carried him out of the park. In the process a (female) camera operator was knocked to the ground, and two others grabbed and arrested.

It turned out that the protester who had been grabbed was Paddy, the Melbourne G-8 protester who had been banned from restricted areas. As the people in the park gathered to chant "let him go" he was released, and of course explained to media what had happened. Watching the police saying on Nine how they had targetted protest organisers in their arrests, all I could see was a young man controlling his emotions, an underlying shock written all over his face, explaining how the police had seized him in ignorance of their legal inability to do so.

More and more police arrived. There were now seven prisoner vans, clusters in riot gear, several with whar was identified to me as tear gas equipment (unusual in Australia). I could hear the beating of a tempo from behind the vans as police moved like Star Wars storm troopers, forming lines and marching up to the footpath in front of the flower beds in which we were now (unfortunately) standing. We were ordered back. Somebody took a step into the flowers. Swoop, grab, gone.

This new front line were not local cops, they were Australian Federal Police. Behind them more stormtroopers marched into another line, more paddy vans appeared. By now the megaphoners had long disappeared, and there were quiet conversations amongst the hundred or so still gathered, apart from the hundred or so media.

The only loud sounds in the air were the police helicopter overhead and the barking dogs. An Irish lady beside me was telling me how she'd lived in Belfast in the eightes, and that "at the height of The Troubles no-one ever saw as many police as this."

The AFP line was replaced by locals, many again with velcro strips where their ID badges should have been and holstered pistols on display. An officer marched in front of them, saying " if any of you are marshals you should marshall your people out of this area." Then the cops took five steps forward.

I thought I was moving back calmly, but I'm told I ran. I'm not ashamed of this. I nearly browned my trousers.

Several times they advanced. By then most people had gone.

Idiotically, until around then I had been so focussed on what was in front of me that I hadn't looked behind me. Round about twenty cops. It was time to go. A group of teenage girls who had returned to the park hours after marching were asking me about the legalities. I told them that now was not the time to ask, and that they should go.

Although feeling it was totally inappropriate, I went across the street to the Starbucks, to watch the area with a beautiful muzak-soundtrack of Frank Sinatra. The glass walls enabled a good view of the area.

About half an hour later, motorcade cars arrived and departed from the Sheraton. Not long after that the prison vans went, and the paddy vans, and the bicycle cops. It was over.

Whoever they'd dropped off at the Sheraton had been delivered without a mob of protesters watching. How considerate of PM Howard, I thought to myself.

Hu knows, perhaps the timing was coincidental.

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APEC Police Inquiry Outvoted 31-4

Submitted by Richard Tonkin on September 27, 2007 - 1:57pm.

There's the end of it. No-one wants to know. I wonder how many ADF personnel were disguised as unbadged police officers?

Definitely time for new number plates- "NSW, The Police State."

Bulldust, Mr Police Commissioner !!

Submitted by Richard Tonkin on September 19, 2007 - 4:12am.

I cannot for the life of me understand why Police Commissioner Scipione is going to such pains to vindicate the non-wearing of I.D. badges by police officers, given that what he says is untrue.

I'm going to be forwarding my tape to Dale tomorrow. It clearly shows police officers faces, zoom out to full body, zoom in to badge location, zoom move down to gun... those sort of shots.

While around half of the police I saw had velcro patches where their badges should be, the other half had clearly solid badges affixed.

For this reason I'm surprised at the audacity of Mr Scippione's statements in this morning's SMH:

[extract]

Operational Support Group officers from outlying areas of Sydney were called in at the last minute to assist with crowd control because mounted police were not available because of the outbreak of horse flu. The officers were not issued with cloth name tags, which for safety reasons were to be worn instead of plastic badges with pins.

"Those officers may not have been as well prepared," Mr Scipione said.

But they were not directed by any senior officer not to wear name tags, he added.

Mr Scipione said the pin or velcro-backed hard plastic badges usually carried by police could have been used as stabbing or cutting devices. "It's not just the matter of the pin, the pin is an issue but it's more than that - if you feel one of these tags, they're quite sharp and they can be used almost like a plastic-type knife," he said. "In the past we've seen them used as weapons in their own right."

Mr Scipione said this was not a problem during ordinary policing. But APEC was considered "extraordinary".

While the internal inquiry did not investigate individual officers, the identities of badge-less police could be confirmed through the photographs taken by people attending the protest, Mr Scipione said. The photos were "far better than any name or any number. They weren't trying to hide their identity, they were too well-known."

Mr Scipione said he would not take any action against those police. "I'm dealing with this on an organisational level and I'm doing it in the belief that this will not happen again."

Look, I've watched this tape time and time again, and I'm looking at lots of solid badges. Did Scipione think that everybody was so busy photographing the badgeless police that the wouldn't photo, or notice, what the others were wearing. Well, not this little black duck!.

The SMH also reports that the NSW Ombudsman has received seven complaints of inappropriate police behaviour, and that the two protesters that were arrested in Hyde Park just in case they entered a restricted area are considering legal action. This is all only just beginning to warm up.

Scipione has actually confessed that the police were in breach of their own requirements on NSW Police Online:

[extract]

Mr Scipione said there was no order approving the practice of not wearing ID and he rejected any notion that it was an attempt on behalf of individual officers to avoid identification.

In future all New South Wales OSG Police officers rostered for protest operations will be issued with cloth identification tags, attached to their overalls by way of Velcro. Steps are now being taken to ensure supplies are available.

[Lots of the unbadged officers, by the way, were not were overalls Have a look at those photos in the SMH on Monday Sept 10.]

“The wearing of identification tags is a requirement of the NSWPF and we have no issue with them being identified as they carry out their duties,” Mr Scipione said.

Eliot's insinuation that the Human Rights Monitors were trained by protesters is rubbish. We were trained by Dale Mills, the Webdiarist who (ABC News reports) personally took photos of over 200 badgeless officers. The training was in a workshop environment, and as much time was spent on the ethics of our independent role, as legal observers present at the request of protest organisers, as was spent on practical note-taking matters and multiple viewpoint observation role-plays. We were all left with a clear understanding that our role was to observe the police. Dale was a brilliant teacher, and followed this up by keeping in close contact with us all on the day, providing us with advice and assistance where necessary, while quietly taking his damning photos.

The numbers of expressions of gratitude we received from marchers for our presence on the day bears testimony to the sentiment of non-aggression that permeated the air that day. Dale deserves an award for what he's been doing. The Police Commissioner should consider resigning after demonstrating an evasiveness of public accountability.

The usual sauces

Submitted by Eliot Ramsey on September 18, 2007 - 6:42pm.

Richard Tonkin says:

The Commissioner, Mr Scipione, has not released the full report and the process - of the police investigating the police - is inherently flawed where there is such an obvious conflict of interest.

But clearly there was no "obvious conflict of interest" among the "human rights monitors" who accompanied the protest organisers to the demonstration. And who were trained by them.

Talking of which...

Angela Ryan says:

Oh and Eliot, I think the protester with the tomato sauce may well use provocation as justification for squirting tomato sauce at a luv-in sign for war criminals.

Oh, I don't doubt it. But it was an egregious waste of fake blood before the main event, nonetheless, and he should be billed for it.

I note the guy the "peace" activist threw the tomato sauce at didn't retaliate.

Would the "human rights monitors" have accepted throwing the sauce at him as "provocation" had he in turn thrown something right back at the "peace" activist?

We Did Nothing Wrong At APEC- Police. HR Monitors Publishing Pic

Submitted by Richard Tonkin on September 18, 2007 - 5:09pm.

The matter of the banners, discussed in the Human Rights Monitors Media Release below, is something I haven't yet touched on. Inside APEC areas it was illegal to carry a pole longer than a metre. Such was not the case at the front of the Town Hall, where the police were threatening to confiscate banner poles if they were more than 1m long, unless they were broken to comply with the height requirement. Many people sadly did this, rather than surrender there poles to the police.

Human Rights Monitors say they will publish photos

Human Rights Monitors are disappointed, but not surprised, by the announcement by the NSW police commissioner that police did nothing wrong during APEC policing.

The Commissioner, Mr Scipione, has not released the full report and the process - of the police investigating the police - is inherently flawed where there is such an obvious conflict of interest.

Dale Mills, coordinator of Human Rights Monitors, said

“Mr Scipione has suggested that a few of the extra officers brought in to replace the absent horses didn’t have enough time to get their new Velcro name tags.

“But Human Rights Monitors have the photos of over 200 officers where it is not possible to identify who they are. I saw many officers who could have been wearing name tags but decided not to. No investigation into individual wrongdoing has been undertaken by the report.

“The idea that police have removed their badges to avoid the risk of being pricked by a pin is a figment of a police officer’s imagination.

[I heard this idea being used by Police Minister David Campbell on Sydney's ABC-702]

"We also have photos of members of the media asking police officers for their name and station, and those officers refusing to say. Does Mr Scipione defend that as well?

"There is a report that Mr Scipione has said that a photo is the best evidence in respect of police wrongdoing. Mr Scipione must know that when such photos are sent to the police in relation to a complaint, the response is usually that without the officer’s name and location, it is impossible to locate individual officers. This is especially the case when officers from many stations are brought together, as was the case with the APEC protest."

Additionally, the report failed to investigate

- the crash tackling of individuals arrested for minor charges such as offensive language

- confining thousands of people to Hyde Park without using the “authorisation” procedures of state terrorism legislation or the “Cronulla Riot” powers, thus possibly rendering the procedure unlawful. Civil actions in relation to this could cost the NSW taxpayer hundreds of thousands of dollars.

- the arrest of two persons (Paddy Gibson and Dan Jones) for being in a declared area when they were not in such an area.

- the confiscation of banner poles of longer than a meter at Town Hall without lawful authority.

Telephone calls to the Commissioner’s office to raise these issues have not been returned.

"Only an objective enquiry by someone unconnected with the police can get at the truth. By not doing so, the police are giving the impression that they have something to hide. What are they hiding?"

Comrades from days of yore

Submitted by Eliot Ramsey on September 17, 2007 - 3:05pm.

Angela Ryan says:

Thanks Eliot again, as usual, from the days of telling us about the Kurds to the Khmer Rouge horror days, you have brought something out of left field to consider,something not quite what is on the international agenda and something that indeed should have more prominence.

So, Angela? Why do you think the fate of the Khmers doesn't get enough prominence on the international agenda?

Could it be for the same reason the Sydney Khmers and Buddhists weren't part of the main anti-APEC protest?

Alga Kavanagh says:

Richard, I believe history shows us failed ideologies can't be reborn.

Indeed. They just get re-packaged as The Greens.

Will They Ever Learn? Not Lilkely

Submitted by Richard Tonkin on September 17, 2007 - 11:23am.

Human Rights Monitors sent out this media release on the weekend:

Human Rights Monitors expresses concern about the cost of saturation policing

A small rally of about 30 people in Martin Place today was policed by Stuart Bell of City of Sydney Central Local Command, assisted by 19 general duty police officers, three police cars and two vehicles with personnel from the Public Order and Riot Squad.

At an estimate of $90 per officer for 3 hours (including back-up, administrative costs, supplies, factored in vacation and sick leave, return travel and swap time to other duties) and with 25 officers in total, the cost of policing the 20-person rally to the NSW South Wales taxpayer was just under $7,000.

Also affected was the Cafe Courtyard at the MLC building, where police blocked off the Martin Place approach, for no apparent reason.

The rally was addressed by Sylvia Hale, Greens Upper House MP

What the hell is going on here. It looks like NSW authorities are going to continue to badger protesters until they get a "result" to vindicate their APEC heavy handedness,

In the meantime, how long will it be before NSW bans protests altogether. If these kinds of police actions continue, it can't be too far off.

Pete Seeger's song will have a new verse- Where Have All the Protests Gone?

Absolutely

Submitted by Marilyn Shepherd on September 17, 2007 - 3:48am.

Not a word is ever written by Paul Walter.

I write my own letters

Submitted by Marilyn Shepherd on September 16, 2007 - 11:57pm.

I state with certainty that Paul Walter does not dictate my letters - I writes them all meself ats me trusty computer and sends them off.

Richard: ... from start to the finish?

Howard To Cop APEC Security Flak- BBC

Submitted by Richard Tonkin on September 12, 2007 - 3:23am.

Maybe, in the days when the event was organised, the PM thought that the kudos for APEC would be a pre-election poll-booster. I can't wait for post-"festivities" polls to come out.

In the meantime, enjoy this from BBC News:
[extract]

Prime Minister John Howard, a proud Sydneysider himself, may pay a political price for Apec, even though many of the security arrangements were put in place by the Labor-controlled New South Wales state government.
Trailing badly in the polls, he hoped the summit would boost him ahead of the upcoming federal election.
With the signing of the Sydney Declaration, a rather vague statement on cutting greenhouse emissions, improving energy intensity and increasing forestation, John Howard has gained some much-needed green credentials - even if environmentalists claim the statement is largely worthless because its targets are non-binding.
But he has also done a very dangerous thing: hosted and been the figurehead of a summit which was deeply unpopular with the residents of Australia's largest city, where his own increasingly marginal constituency resides.

Paul Wlalter, thanks for the kind words. I'd be interested to see what you think of my missive in the Advertiser's letters page today.

the robber bride

Submitted by Paul Walter on September 14, 2007 - 10:38pm.

Yep, got a read of them today in library. No sign of the Thursday issue with "A. Robb" (A. Robb...Algernon...Anthea...?).

Apart from the fact that the letters are actually there (Shepherd also gets her stuff published although its actually me dictating because I learned years ago that the press considers me too dangerous to publish and Mary J's payoff is the public adulation for being published in her own name), one point stood out.

The police had instructed demonstrators to assemble in a certain location and then attacked them, sort of like a killing ground? Wow!

The NSW government was never going to go "soft" on security. Why would it? It knew blame for any stuff -ups of an incendiary kind would be blamed straight back onto it exclusively as a convenient scapegoat regardless of its efforts. Yet if things got stroppy that was ok, because of the perverse reason that people would see the conference as Howard's rather than the NSW government's show. That is, the Howard government chose to impose the conference and chose to impose it on Sydney, with all the problems that entailed. If demonstrators were injured it would be because of Howard's stubbornness, so in a funny way Howard was again hoist on a petard of his own making because the NSW looked good for being tough and efficient, but Howard was the humbug who had imposed the thing.

Democracy In Action

Submitted by Richard Tonkin on September 16, 2007 - 11:46am.

I was quite happy with the Robb-bot reaction to me, Paul, as it gave me a chance to make the point that an entire community should not be punished for the actions of individuals who conceal themselves within it.

Yep, the point about the police control has become clearer to me during the week. The cops went through all that "play" in the Supreme Court to determine the route, pre-judged (as his Honour refused to) that protesters would commit criminal acts, and then came to an agreement on the march route. This, as we know, included permission for the event to me fulminated in Hyde Park.

Then, in yet another application of the APEC powers for restricted areas outside of the zone, they mounted attacks on the crowd, seized people who had broken no law on the presumption that the were going to and did everything but forcibly remove them from the area. No, there was no formal order, but a "suggestion" made by a commanding officer in front of a line of police inside the park, behind which are assembled riot police, arrest vans, dogs and a gas sprayer definitely constitutes a "direction"

They let us gather there, then they drove us away, just in time for a motorcade's arrival. There's Australian democracy in action for you.

Public Adulation For Adelaide Letters Writing...NOT!

Submitted by Richard Tonkin on September 16, 2007 - 11:21pm.

If Mary J is indeed "channeling" your thoughts into the Tiser for public glory then, no offence Paul, she must be hard-pressed for attention seeking tactics. I used to get excited to get one published, soon realised how small a population percentage read them. But the odd one who comes out of the crowd to say thanks makes it much more worthwhile. However, nobody's going to be sheathed in garlands of glory.

I write my letters (usually just a couple a month, and the extreme majority are published) in the hope that one or two folks might get the gist and pass it on. I've seen a couple of things happen that have made me wonder a little, but that's all.

I don't know how it goes in other states, but I always consider it a letter writer's obligation to sell the previous day's edition to those who didn't buy it, before plugging a point.

Here I was thinking that Mary J and I had a synching thing going on while the Haneef story was still about- a couple of times it looked like a Webdiary bloc, especially one Saturday. Now you tell me it was a menage a trois kind of thing? Brrr...;)

I like to think that if you try and work out what the journos would like to say but (for various reasons, not necessarily sinister) can't, there's a fair chance of the missive being published.

Hey, APEC had disappeared from print, and yet in the letters pages there were an extra three days. It's not a bad way of trying to keep a story alive beyond it's timespan of "newsworthiness."

Get rid of the wheel

Submitted by Alga Kavanagh on September 11, 2007 - 8:03pm.

Richard, I believe history shows us failed ideologies can't be reborn. It also shows us how ideological societies ascendancy and rein, has been diminishing rapidly with the passage of time and as humanity has evolved.

Get rid of the politics of the square wheel, not reinvent it or re-tyre it. How many times does the wheel have to fall of, or the tyres collapse from neglect and abuse, before people realise they've been sold dud after dud by all political parties. This is a new century, recent history shows us our present system and direction has failed.

Do we have time to find a way to re-jig the present political debacle that completely disenfranchises the people and does nothing but harm, for the future of all life on earth. I don't think we have the time, environmentally, sociologically or materially.

Only one solution

Submitted by Alga Kavanagh on September 11, 2007 - 4:00pm.

Anthony Nolan, I admire your analysis. The lib/lab totalitarian coalition can only be stopped in one way, that's for their entire removal and restructuring of the present voting and political system. Thereby making it impossible for political parties to get control, or even exist. Until the people do that, replacing it with an accountable responsible governmental approach, giving the people direct power over decisions or the directions of this countries future, or its social structure. Then things will only get worse as the academic elite are just programmed clones with no sense no viable direction, or reasonable future outcomes.

We are not living in the past when people were uneducated or had little access to information and knowledge, this is the 21^st century and it's being held back by the ideological and religious of the world, desperate to continue with their failed ignorance and ideologies.

We have one chance left at this coming federal election to stop them in their tracks, if we don't, freedom in this country is lost. Already they are demanding you work until you die and you start at birth, to be programmed and indoctrinated into economic enslavement at any cost. If we don't curtail the lb/lab monopoly now, forget about an enjoyable sustainable future. As all we will get is hell, total suppression under a right wing religious, academic dictatorship and complete environmental collapse.

They just want us to become like the rest of the world, fearful, easily controlled and manipulated. Thats' why they encourage the immigration of incompatible cultures and ideologies into the country, it gives them more fodder to make profits and excuses, to create unrest and imposed draconian restrictions in the name of false security. Yet it is the lb/lab coalition, who have presided over every aspect of our failed society and created the false need for stronger security. Is it not the academic legal profession, who holds power over our justice and law system, the drawing up of legislation and laws? They also make up a large number of our politicians and we see the results. Everything these fools touch becomes a disaster for the people and only a benefit for their elitist masters.

Thank you Alga ...

Submitted by Anthony Nolan on September 11, 2007 - 10:33pm.

... for your kind comments. However, I do see it as important to distinguish between Liberal and Labor and not to paint them all with the same brush in terms of their relation to capital and power. There are substantial differences between the parties!

You made some comments on academics to which I want to respond and hopefully others will also see the joke...

Which is this ... the public sector and state provision of services have been under attack from neo-liberalism since Keating opened the door. Under these conditions it is incumbent on public sector workers to defend the industry in which they work as a top priority. Nurses have been outstanding at defending the public health system as have teachers and TAFE teachers at defending public education in straitened times.

Other public sector workers have done a reasonable enough job although the main reason we still have a public rail system is the utter terror that Australian capital experiences when it contemplates the fact that the only source of employees for privatised rail services would be heavily unionised ex-public rail employees!

As for academics, amongst whom there would be more Marxists, anarchists, Maoists, socialists, Pabloites and God-knows-what sort of ideologies on a per-capita of workforce basis than any other industry sector in Australia...they have entirely failed to defend the tertiary education sector. Entirely failed. Seen anyone's HECS debt lately? Australian academics (amongst whom I was immersed for a decade) are only too ready to prescribe how social life ought to be, in other words to tell others how they should live, but have a proven track record of utter cowardice when it comes to putting their money where their mouths are.

So, read the theory, which is always a good idea, but do not look to academics for leadership. Test the theory in the ambit of your own life, but do not look to academics for solidarity, for they know not what it means.

Cheers

C'mon Rudd, sort out the HECS fees, stop wedging universities

Submitted by Angela Ryan on September 17, 2007 - 12:41am.

Hi Anthony, I hope your daughter enjoyed her being called to the noble bar of The Demonstrator. They say the first time is not always an impressive experience but I reckon she had a great introduction to some harsh realities. I am still stunned by the Canadian experience with the violent protesters being proven to be police provocateurs. Yep, another NeoLiberal government. I hear they voted with us against the UN Rights of the Indigenous Peoples resolution, with the US and NZ. Where was South Africa? Irony of history., things change even in the worst of places.

And didn't they, the old Apartheid regime (no, not Israel, silly), teach the world how to police protests! And most every other fascist method of population control. This change is a glimmer of hope and we see it many times when such regimes are toppled eventually, but sadly after the people have greatly suffered.

I greatly admire you for going. I hope you all speak out and condemn the actions of the violent, omnipotent police. For some in our community the image of protester is still that of unemployed irresponsible louts who are violent, I kid you not, that is the level of understanding that so many of the shopping mall mentality have. I nearly fell over at the pool when the attendant said that sort of thing while watching the news about APEC. And she is a John Laws fan. There is a limit to the educational potential of so many yet how simple to teach how to follow current affairs and question. That celebrity knowledge is so avidly followed and analysed with such precision and not such is a signal our voters are easy to lead down paths, whatever paths those media chose...

You know the police have really bitten off more than they can chew when they arrest an accountant (in front of his child) with such aggression and violence. I think that that simple violent overkill and the "officer" wearing the "Aim to please, shoot to kill" hat has particularly symbolised what is wrong. A terrible attitude problem in our servants. Yes, the State in democracy is under the control of the people, and the employees are their servants and paid by us. I would be using the (unfair? in this case?) dismissal laws to remove all those police who seem to have watched too many movies and forgotten that we are not 2020 in the Bronx but 2007 in Sydney. A police who plans to shoot to kill is not the kind who should be employed and if such is just a terrorising message then again so.

All the same, haven't heard much about any investigation, public or otherwise. Internal, yes, wipe your feeties on that (polite control of metaphor) but perhaps we need a public forum to debrief the people who were present and involved ? Sounds like a state funded psychological service may be needed for trauma counselling.

It seems the media have run from this one as far as news reporting and is Howard just inventing controversy again to distract from the real issue of totalitarian-like actions by police? Just like the fly down to Tas to distract from the debacle by Andrews and the AFP in the Haneef case...both situations the public were angered enough to be talking of it on the airways and writing in. Pretty scary for those used to apathy and getting away with murder and war crimes.

Finally, I agree with your criticism of the University Academia; however, please remember it is the TAFE system that is about to fall apart and be replaced with private colleges as well as the universities having funding crises and certain rather dubious Federal practices as far as funding issues, and the concentrating of research now to six centres, further punishing regional and such centres. Playing wedge politics with the purse is a pretty powerful way of subduing both Uni and TAFE, and neither are particularly well unionised, particularly the former.

Both nursing and schools are still under state control, and well unionised in national bodies. And I think you said the two regimes, State Labor and Federal Liberal, were not to be painted with the same brush as far as capitalism and power. Once schools and hospitals have to start competing with each other for funding from Canberra you can bet that some will start being more acquiescent, and be rewarded for such with better funding. I know that staff at private schools are not allowed to identify themselves as from that particular school, nor do I see any individual school stand up to any of the steps to fascism we see. Perhaps I am wrong and the CHS or ICS did do something as a body?? It is always dangerous to bite the hand that feeds you.

HECS fees are appalling. What will this generation of graduates be planning on their leaving of Uni? It won't be buying a house or further study. First it will be a long time paying off up to 150 grand fees. I hear medicine is going up further. We made enquiries about full fee paying places last year and were stunned at the cost that so many are paying already. There are a lot of female grads who may not have paid off their degree before having children, or may keep postponing it, already a problem in such professions, until too late.

And an arts degree? So much cheaper but so much less first year wage. How much does a taxi driver earn? Even science degrees the same problem. I remember, being determinedly independent as a student, working as a cocktail waitress to pay my way despite family protests, and how upon graduating, I made more each shift in the student job than in the week as a graduate. It was almost more fun too.

I think if Rudd sorts out the HECS fees he will get a vote from parents as well as students...anyone out there listening??

Cheers

Let's be a bit more specific, Alga

Submitted by Richard Tonkin on September 11, 2007 - 6:35pm.

Does everything need to refer back to the Lib/Lab coalition and the tearing down and rebuilding of the political system. Can't we improve on what we have now. At least then we could see changes within our lifetimes.

I'm suggesting for example, that SA takes its former Auditor General's advice and make sure it doesn't happen here again. NSW might be about to modify its use of police confrontation for political gain. The other states could be heed the warning being given by the backlash from APEC.

Instead of reinventing the wheel, why not change the tyres? Objectives may be somewhat more achievable that way.

A Journo's APEC Testimony

Submitted by Richard Tonkin on September 11, 2007 - 12:19pm.

This extract from the Herald-Sun's John Ferguson sums up my point of view succinctly:

Having witnessed the treatment of some protesters during an otherwise peaceful afternoon in Sydney's Hyde Park on Saturday, some police would be lucky to escape either disciplinary or assault charges.

Maybe both.

Don't expect any investigation, however, for brutal force was exactly what police and the NSW Government were looking for.

On the surface, the police on the ground were simply following orders from their commanders.

And yet it is hard to imagine the police hierarchy encouraging elderly people to be jostled, peaceful protesters to be targets and arrested with well-rehearsed and brutal precision, or allowing heads to be jammed into concrete and bitumen.

Well, that would be the hope.

Add to the mix snipers hanging out of helicopters and hiding on CBD buildings for a week, a wall of steel and concrete ringing inner Sydney, police dogs roaming, heavily armed water police scouring the harbour and a picture emerges of security overkill.

This view will no doubt be countered by authorities, who will argue that a lack of violence is evidence of a success of the summit's security strategy.

Which would be simplistic nonsense.

The real danger for Australia is that the APEC operation will be seen as the template for future large-scale events.

This would be a mistake.

Just because NSW Police and the AFP have the tools to bully protesters doesn't mean they should be used elsewhere, certainly in Melbourne.

Melbourne might have made mistakes when it hosted the G20 meeting last year but, by comparison, the Victoria Police effort was preferable to the draconian show of force in Sydney that may change the face of protesting in Australia.

The Melbourne protesters who committed violence at the G20 were
a disgrace.

But no one who saw the worst of the police behaviour in Sydney could seek to defend it either.

Indeed, you could see the look of guilt on the faces of some of those officers who were "holding back" a small group of tree huggers.

For a shameful hour at least, it was the police who encouraged violence by using unprovoked, rough-house tactics.

One man was arrested and thrown with abandon on to the road for the wicked crime of uttering the F-word.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In South Australia the former Auditor General Ken Macpherson has this week called for an inquiry into the accountablity by local police of the use of their powers. Perhaps a national assessment is needed?

Small projectiles and their Freudean under-pinnings

Submitted by Eliot Ramsey on September 10, 2007 - 2:58pm.

Michael de Angelos says

The manner in which police without their badges were photographed and filmed so expertly is a wonderful example of how technology can be used back on those who are suppressing dissent .

Suppressing dissent?

The anti-APEC (actually mostly just anti-American) protesters were all over network television, radio, internet and in newspapers and magazines for weeks up to and during APEC robustly expressing dissent with all the usual flair for hyperbole, exaggeration, megalomania and self-pity associated with the Failed Left.

The only thing they were denied was the usual ecstatic frisson that accompanies convulsive violence, apart from those few souls who did manage to whack a constable or two with wooden poles or other small projectiles.

Their dissatisfaction therefore owes more to Freud than Marx.

Maybe street protesters should wear identification badges, too, instead of hiding behind balaclavas and scarves?

I bet protests would go a lot more peacefully then.

I watched a very effective protest at which the Police didn't even attend.

The Sydney Khmer community, along with a few dozen saffron-robed monks, staged a good sized demo in Victoria Park opposite the T-intersection of City Road and Cleveland Street. They were protesting the abuse of human rights in China and anti-Buddhist persecution elsewhere.

They didn't get their faces all over television, though, but hundreds of motorists passing by the intersection tooted car-horns, waved and cheered their colourful gathering.

Human rights ,but not free trade

Submitted by Angela Ryan on September 11, 2007 - 12:02am.

Thanks Eliot again,as usual, from the days of telling us about the Kurds to the Khmer Rouge horror days ,you have brought something out of left field to consider,something not quite what is on the international agenda and something that indeed should have more prominence.

Who are the Sydney Khmer Community? This website tells much about them and also gives a terrific ,if partisan, view into Cambodia as it is now. .h

So the Kmer Krom are people caught on the wrong side of the border,a bit like the West Papuans, and are ethnic Cambodian people from the Mekong Delta,initially put into South Vietnam in 1949 to much protest from Cambodia at the time. After Vietnam invaded to remove Pol Pot, the area was again annexed it seems.

Here is a bit about them from an American woman who married one:

"...It sounded like something right from my high school American history books, relating to the losing battle the Native Americans fought against the Europeans. It horrified me but it also motivated me to dig deeper into this crisis that is practically unknown to the world.

"Over the next three years, I would learn so many unbelievable things about the Khmer Krom that will never be erased from my mind. It angers me that the Vietnamese government, to this day, does not consider the Khmer Krom as civilized.

"The Vietnamese believe they are doing them a favor by shoving their beliefs, teachings, and language down their throats as if they are spear-throwing savages. But, what they fail to mention is that the Vietnamese government is denying the Khmer Krom any affordable health care. They have also forbidden the publishing of their own books in their own language, the celebration of their holidays, their teachings and have even defrocked several Khmer Krom monks who dare to speak against this unfair government...."

So the protesting was against the Vietnamese government and it's policy of cutlural suppression.

Well done ,Eliot for widening out the sphere.

I do not think the Cambodian government would really like free trade, as due to the favoured country status with the US the major industry is the garment industry ,emplying 80% with tariif protection.

cheers

Different Frequencies

Submitted by Richard Tonkin on September 10, 2007 - 8:06pm.

Your smearing of protesters didn't wash with me before the event and it certainly bloody well won't now.

If the crowd there were as you paint them to be, the situation would have been reduced to mass violence at several instances.

The first was when they were corraled in Park St and able to see the water cannon and riot vans. The outrage was palpable, and justifiably so. I'm glad somebody took the hint (I heard that outraged calls were being made to radio stations) and moved them out of view.

Police Minister (sorry to err before) Campbell also said this morning, in what I considered an attempted soft-soap) that the timing of the acquisition of the cannon just before APEC was a mere coincidence. It's to late for that sort of rubbish. If so then why was the thing there at all? At the very least it should have been out of sight a few blocks back, instead of being used as an intimidation and provocation.

If what you, Eliot, call union thugs hadn't stepped in between the protestors and police (facing the protestors) and urged them not to be conned by the provocation and go into the park peacefully, I am quite sure that things would have boiled over her.

And in the park, when teams of police were invading and literally running their victims out, the anger so quickly turned to shock. Everyone was in a state of disbelief. There were no projectiles, no attackers, even the narks filming from the back ( one with a sticker on the back of his cap bearing the inflammatory message "aim to please, shoot to kill" was never in any danger. I think, but the arrogance of his demeanour, that he was an incitement tool. It didn't work, we were wise to him.

Everyone, as the police marched to assemble into lines and advance towards and into the park (this including a row of Feds) which was not a restricted area, talked quietly amongst themselves. The predominant noises were that of the helicopter and the barking police dogs. Again if these were publicity seeking militants things could easily turned to violence.

Instead people decided that here and now was not the place to remonstrate against the brutality and questionable legality of this mass demonstration of aggression by police. As I said in the piece, it was time to go, and we went.

The general public showed unified non-violence in the face of dumbfounding aggression. It has restored my faith in human nature. It was a situation that bonded many together, and I was proud to be amongst those people.

So Eliot, your words are, to me, point-scoring iotas of meaninglessness. That a couple of idiots with questionable motives were with that group does not mean that they were a part of us. We were a unified collective of horrified nonviolents. That you have witnessed all this occurring and still take your stance implies to me that you have not absorbed the event in any meaningful way at all.

I have.

Shock and Awe in Sydney

Submitted by David Curry on September 10, 2007 - 2:46pm.

We’ve all obviously missed the point, people - the police are taking their cues from US (and Australian) foreign policy. In SMH today from Howard:

"I think the [Police] Commissioner has done a first-class job.

"A decision was clearly taken - the right decision - that pre-emption and forward action was better than retaliation, and Commissioner, it worked brilliantly, it really did."

De-badged !

Submitted by Michael de Angelos on September 10, 2007 - 12:22pm.

The manner in which police without their badges were photographed and filmed so expertly is a wonderful example of how technology can be used back on those who are suppressing dissent .

I'm also surprised how the mainstream media has been fairly responsible this time with their reporting - maybe with misleading and sensational headlines but they have reported the peaceful demo well.

As for that water cannon truck - unused as I wrongly predicted - what a waste of money and the menacing manner in which it is painted black with a huge RIOT sign is almost comical. These water cannons were used repeatedly in Japan during the 80's but for what reason I don't know. All they did was disperse the crowd to re-group elsewhere and continue with their activities.

As a writer to a newspaper today suggested-donate it to the rural fire services.

Police Commissioner and Badges As Weapons

Submitted by Richard Tonkin on September 10, 2007 - 11:14am.

Dale Mills has been doing a spectuclar job getting the message through about the badges, both on ABC News last night and on news bulletins this morning. I notice that nobody is mentioning that many of the unbadged officers were wearing pistols.

NSW Police Commissionrer David Campbell said that due to all the complaints there would be ian internal investigation. Dale is calling for an inquiry and saing that the police should welcome one if they have nothing to hide.

Campbell's defence of the lack of ID has been that protesters might have ripped them off and used their pins to attack officeer. The only trouble is that the badges were adhered (or not) with velcro.

Badges

Submitted by Alan Curran on September 10, 2007 - 8:48pm.

Richard Tonkin, "I notice that nobody is mentioning that many of the unbadged officers were wearing pistols". I cannot remember ever seeing a police officer without a pistol, except once whilst playing in a police golf day. I would certainly want to wear a pistol when facing "ironbar wielding and dart throwing peaceful protesters"

This, Alan, was no mere protester

Submitted by Richard Tonkin on September 10, 2007 - 9:15pm.

He was a kook with a vendetta, a suspended sentence for having done the same thing before, disguising himself (well not really, with the goggles and whatnot) within a peaceful throng to do a better job this time.

Hardly representative of the thousands, Alan, so it's not like you've scored a point.

Footage

Submitted by Jacob A. Stam on September 9, 2007 - 3:10pm.

L. Ferguson, ninemsn has some gritty footage of the violent incident related in her column by Comrade Devine.

A 'big show', says truther Miranda

Submitted by Jacob A. Stam on September 9, 2007 - 1:34pm.

Miranda's hitherto hidden left-wing leanings are laid bear where she says:

The stunt [by The Chaser comedy troupe] demonstrated that the security overkill in Sydney was just a big show, designed not to protect anyone from terrorists but to stymie protesters.

Thus has Ms Devine divined The Real Agenda of the APEC conspiracy thingy. It's to be hoped that she will vigorously pursue The Truth about this $330 million Big Show to her last breath.

Miranda ain't impressed

Submitted by Jacob A. Stam on September 9, 2007 - 12:27pm.

Miranda Devine: Pumped-up cops are stepping over the thin blue line

The forcible arrest, handcuffing and jailing of a respectable, bespectacled, middle-aged accountant in a Hawaiian shirt in the middle of Pitt Street on Friday just goes to prove what Sydneysiders have suspected all along.

The NSW Police are incapable of stopping the real criminals - the thugs who launched the 2005 revenge attacks on Cronulla, for instance.

But they are real tough guys on the soft targets - a 52-year-old father from Neutral Bay taking his 11-year-old son for yum cha on the APEC public holiday.

...

This is what happens when you appoint underwhelming neophytes, David Campbell as Police Minister and Andrew Scipione as Commissioner.

It's a sign of an emasculated, rudderless police force, with systemic small-man syndrome, acting like bullies in an attempt to cover up weakness, and chronic dysfunction.

Miranda supporting left wing values at last....actually democrat

Submitted by Angela Ryan on September 9, 2007 - 12:44pm.

Miranda!

I love it when issues cover both sides of politics.One gets the right wing toadies dropping their spleens upon left wing leadership when they can, even if it means condemning it as right wing behaviour.

Or has Miranda discovered that some democratic values are not in the rah rah club domain of right and left wing teammanship/womanship. Proof will be in the pudding.

Yay, Miranda.

Angela, Devine and

Submitted by Paul Walter on September 11, 2007 - 1:25am.

Angela, Devine and Shanahan got flogged by Media Watch for deliberately sexing up the flaccid Iraq "surge", in another failed Tory media beat up for Howard and Bush using Chaser-aborted APEC, so she probably knew she'd be exposed and was softening her image a little, beforehand, with the heroinic demonstrator democracy-defender victimhood schmooze.

A skunk never changes its stripe.

Blowin' In The Wind

Submitted by Richard Tonkin on September 11, 2007 - 2:44am.

From what you've brought up, Paul, it looks like our foreign minister is using the "information" gathered by these journos as "evidence" of coalition success in Iraq.

[SMH extract]

AUSTRALIA has expressed hope that the United States will soon be able to start reducing troop numbers in Iraq as the result of what the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer, yesterday described as the success of the so-called surge in American personnel during the past eight months.
Mr Downer's comments came as the commander of US forces in Iraq, General David Petraeus, prepared to report on the results of a 30,000 increase in personnel to more than 160,000.
There have been unconfirmed reports that at least 4000 personnel could be withdrawn by January. But such a small reduction could be necessitated anyway, by logistical requirements due to pressures, on individuals and overall sustainability, resulting from extensions in tours of duty

I'd prefer, instead of the likes of Miranda, to use the mood of Boston Legal as a thermometer. The show presents a snapshot of the US Democrat mindscape, and with the US fall season being aired here concurrently in an attempt to minimise the revenue loss of downloading) we can be more in tune with contemporary manstream US sentiments.

Next week's episode concerns the case of a dead 18 year old boy who had been forced to stay longer than his tour. His grieving sister wants to sue the government.

As prespin for Petraeus' report begins, we're already learning that Petraeus is going to allow Bush to bring some troops home before Christmas as a feelgood. He is, however, going to ask for a six months time extension on any decision regarding further troop reductions. The last bit smells rotten.

To combat such thoughts here, Downer has utilised the Nelson-organised propaganda to create an air of confidence that Bush might be able to use as self-justification when he appears fresh from his Australian visit. At least the option is there if needed, a free card laid on the APEC table by the brown-nosing Howard and Dolly.

Like the government (both federal and state) spin on the declaration of martial law in the middle of Sydney, it is another indication of the underrating of the intelligence of the Australian public.

How many deaths does it take till we know
that too many people have died?

sensei

Submitted by Paul Walter on September 11, 2007 - 11:34pm.

I remain in awe of you, Richard. Truly. That was twenty y.o. pure highland malted.

Yes, the fact the news gets all its stuff "off the line" has been a worsening headache for a government that wants things quiet in Iraq. They were going to sex it up something rotten, but elsewhere people are suggesting that Beattie coordinated his resignation to fit this time in the electoral cycle, to deny oxygen to the coalition while they are the current stage of their suffocation. In the wake of Beattie and MW, instead we get Downer trying to explain away panic in the ranks as the first thing that grabs the electorate's attention on their return to election focus.

The "looks" have all been out of whack, out of synchronisation. No tarted-up Pamela Anderson image, just an old fat broad with the wig off, smeared mascara and a pot belly, metaphorically-speaking.

Here isn't the news

Submitted by Jacob A. Stam on September 9, 2007 - 11:33am.

Late yesterday afternoon there was an ABC news item that as originally published was headed 'Police praise anti-APEC demonstrators'.

A google search on 'abc news police praise protesters' yields the following result:

Police praise anti-APEC demonstrators - ABC News (Australian ...
Police praise anti-APEC demonstrators. Posted September 8, 2007 18:25:00 ... Police estimate about 3000 people attended the protest march to Hyde Park, ...
abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/09/08/2027617.htm - 15 hours ago ...

Hit the link and we're taken to an item headed: '17 charged following APEC protest'.

It appears that, about a half hour after the original headline, the document had been changed to something a little meatier.

Oh, and more in keeping with governments' narrative about protesters...??

State gov for riot squad, execssive force and improper arrests .

Submitted by Angela Ryan on September 9, 2007 - 12:38pm.

I think it is very important that violent actions are made accountable, whether it be true violence at a protest, staged violence, police violence and provocation, verbal violence, terrorist violence or state terrorist violence.

When our paid public servants behave to we, the employers, it is time to use the dismissal powers we now have :)

Unlabeled police is clearly wrong.

Failure to give directions when asked? What game were they playing?

How about violence towards a dad, a North Shore accountant, no less!

In a free society it is critical that the police have our respect and trust. Without that how can we entrust our personal liberty and safety to them? I think there is a real issue in the Riot Police Group with too much sadistic power hungry members. Arresting someone should not be a physical punishment in it elf as the person is guilty of nothing until before the courts. Resisting arrest cannot be thrown around or it loses significance as a real action and becomes just a smash em down cathartic energy release for riot police with personal issues about others who may be defending democracy in ways they have forgotten about and with rights they obviously trivialise.

Oh and Eliot, I think the protester with the tomato sauce may well use provocation as justification for squirting tomato sauce at a luv-in sign for war criminals.

Footage

Submitted by L.Ferguson on September 9, 2007 - 1:45pm.

Richard, I wonder whether you got any footage of the 2 idiots that bashed a policemen over the head with an iron bar, and another policeman hit with a dart. Is this your idea of a peaceful protest?.

Richard: If those two drongos out of all those thousands is the worst of aggression, then yes I do. Not exactly rioting "leftists" smashing windows and defacing cenotaphs, was it? And for all you know those two could've been "plants" to mar the reputation of all the good people who were there.

A prediction.

Submitted by Alga Kavanagh on September 9, 2007 - 10:26am.

You can almost guarantee 95% of those who are disgusted by the events of the last few days in Sydney, at the coming election, will give their vote to the lib/lab coalition. Either by direct vote or via their preferences.

History shows us no matter how suppressive the incumbent regime is, like slaves to the slaughter, peoples fear of change will overcome their fear of reality. This coming federal election is the last chance the people have of staving of suppressive totalitarianism. It's no longer a joke for this country, but a glaring fact. Rudd is 150% behind APEC, conservative economics and religious control. No different to his coalition factional opposite.

The politicians now know they can do whatever they like, as the people are so enslaved to the fear of change and insecurity. To enforce their control, they have installed despots in charge of the security forces of the country and given them unprecedented, unrestricted, unaccountable powers and the weaponry to enforce and suppress the populace.

That APEC protest

Submitted by Anthony Nolan on September 11, 2007 - 1:26pm.

I am one of the army of 'grey hairs' who attended the APEC rally on Saturday accompanied by my sixteen year old daughter. What I saw shocked me profoundly and I've been ruminating on it ever since. We were present from 10a.m. until about 2 p.m. when I had to leave for work. I've never experienced such a contrast between the overwhelmingly friendly and peaceful marchers and the overwrought, indeed hysterical, Police presence.

It appears to me that the climate of fear generated by Howard reached a climax over the APEC week. Policing policies have effectively constructed peaceful, democratic protest as a criminal or potentially 'terrorist' activity.

Citizens need to challenge this Police and state mindset with calm resolve in order to protect our fundamental freedoms including and especially our right to assembly. I am looking for people to participate in discussions aimed at generating an ongoing movement of non-violent civil disobedience aimed at the repeal of oppressive Police powers and directed towards asserting citizens' right to assembly in public places for legitimate purposes of protest free from the sort of intimidation and harassment that we witnessed on Saturday.

At this stage I propose two initial objectives:

1. The demilitarization of the NSW Police Force;

2. The sale of the water cannon.

The paramilitary appearance of the Police is profoundly intimidating and entirely unacceptable in a state and nation with a long history of peaceful protest. The water cannon is a plain insult to citizens. The atmosphere created by the Police on Saturday was proto-fascist. This is an alarming development that demands a considered and very resolute response from Australian citizens.

Richard: Hello Anthony. Welcome to Webdiary, and thanks for the opinion. It was a shocker of a day, wasn't it?

A horrible day.

Submitted by Anthony Nolan on September 11, 2007 - 10:36pm.

Richard, I felt very frightened for my children, really, that was the issue. My daughter's first major rally as a young adult (rather than a kid in a pram) and it had all the hallmarks of Santiago all those years ago. First they 'proscribe' you, then they 'disappear' you.

Richard marches forth...about they who must not be named

Submitted by Angela Ryan on September 9, 2007 - 1:51am.

Thanks Richard, well done, I salute you. They were armed to the teeth.

Hard to have any respect for any of that bunch. I used to think of the police as there to help us,protect us, but not anymore after that little display of a clearly aggressive agenda.

Soo, sounds like a class action to me, whatcha think Margo? No badges, false arrests, terrorrising, damaging people's property, dry cleaner bill for pants?

Hmmm.

Should be enough eyewitnesses to brown some of their police pants. I know a public inquiry always has the corridors slippery and the loo doors slamming. And what of the government's election hopes if a few spill the beans that they were directed to terrorrise peaceful protesters, Grannies and WD writers?

Hmmm.

Expect nothing from Rudd, he and his lot are terrified of the terrorism card being played like in the last two events (Bali for Iraq war and Jakarta for the fed and Indonesian elections) and by staying harsh this actually makes such a card become a weak one, and may not be played. It is the Greens and Dems who can reap election rewards here.

Iemma,you need to step in and clean out your men. You have a bunch of nasty brutes there with a sadistic streak. And I would put the water canon in the hands of the women during the right time of the month.

Can't wait to hear the official explanation of "no badges" etc.

Cheers oh hero.

Onya Richard!

Submitted by Jacob A. Stam on September 8, 2007 - 11:52pm.

Splendid on-the-ground coverage and personal impressions. Nothing else to say really, just wanted to congratulate you on your intrepidness and stamina.

Well okay, maybe the observation occurs that the whole approach taken by the police seems to have been inspired by, or fed off of, the PM's remarks a couple of days ago denigrating protesters, equating them with violence, etc. etc.

The grans and kids you observed are so obviously useful idiots of Mr Howard's personae non grata (is that the plural?). Non-battlers. Non-mums'n'dads. Non-persons. They should just shut up and shop.

Don't get off the bus, Gus

Submitted by Richard Tonkin on September 8, 2007 - 11:33pm.

Eliot Ifrom previous thread):Also, Richard, did you see the television news report on the complaint by Melbourne anti-APEC demonstrators against police who stopped and searched their busses on the way to Sydney?

I'd been waiting for you to gloat. All day yesterday in fact. Did you enjoy your APEC day off? Very few around the site bar you disappeared for the Sydney public holiday, and I missed our normal Friday arvo tete-a-tete.

Apparently it was a busload of Melbourne-based Young Socialists, who I'd never heard of.

As Webdiary's inquistor of busloads, I suspected you'd be interested.

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