New Report Documents Police Misuse of Power at Weekly Palestine Rallies

At least one NSW Police officer was seen wearing ‘thin blue line’ Australian flag patch at a pro-Palestine rally in Sydney’s Port Botany on Sunday, where 19 people were arrested.

Legal Observers New South Wales (LONSW), who attended the rally to witness and document interactions between activists and police, said “several” officers wore the patches displaying the iconography that has been co-opted by and is now associated with far-right extremist movements.

They reported “many of these officers were the most aggressive with protestors”, who were there to blockade Israeli shipping company ZIM that uses the docks. ZIM has been associated with the Israeli military and its killing of Palestinians in Gaza.

LONSW also accused police of demonstrating excessive force, throwing several protestors to the ground, using restraint techniques associated with restraint asphyxia, and “violently pushing many” before arresting people for disrupting commerce and trade under NSW’s harsh anti-protest laws.

NSW Police told Guardian Australia the force had “not received any reports of an officer wearing the patch which is not part of the standard NSWPF uniform” and that the force respected people’s right to protest at the port.

But NSW Council for Civil Liberties president Lydia Shelly said the policing of protests in NSW was now “out of control”.

“We are extremely concerned that at the Port Botany protest, Legal Observers NSW observed several police officers wearing a patch that is not part of the standard police issued uniform which has been associated with right-wing extremism,” she said in a statement.

“We have called on the Premier, the Attorney General and the Police Commissioner to meet with us to discuss concerns about police conduct towards peaceful protestors and legal observers [and] so far, our requests have been denied.”

Legal Observers NSW has attended 14 weekly free Palestine street rallies in Sydney’s CBD and several actions at Port Botany since October and over those months has complied a eight-page report, documenting police behaviour towards protestors including instances of misuse of police powers.

“The policing of these rallies has been marked by ubiquitous surveillance, police and state pushback and the deployment of higher than usual levels of police resources, including a new protest-focused taskforce ‘Operation Mealing’ and pro-Palestinian activity focused ‘Operation Shelter’, the report reads.

Many incidents of misuse of powers in the report document police violence, but many cases of non-violent misuse of powers are also reported, including police asking protestors to remove face coverings, employing mobile CCTV towers at protests, and stopping cars displaying Palestinian flags, requiring them to remove the flags, then issuing fines for minor infringements such as P plates being tucked under a number plate as the reason for the stop.

The report also notes the NSW Police presence at Sydney’s weekly pro-Palestine rallies is 100-150 officers at the cost of $220,000 a week, despite no incidents of violence or disturbances occurring at the protests.

One example the report singles out is as many as 50 police being deployed to guard the Starbucks on Elizabeth Street despite no incidents occurring in relation to the location.

“The reliance on high visibility policing unduly criminalises protestors and puts them at risk of police assault,” Adam al-Hayek, a spokesperson for LONSW, told VICE.

“The weekly street rallies are well-managed by marshals and do not require the deployment of 100-150 police officers whose primary function appears to be surveilling and harassing protestors.”

NSW Greens MP Sue Higginson said the report painted a dark picture of the state of the police force.

“The findings released in today’s independent observer report are deeply worrying and point to the creeping militarisation and criminalisation in response to peaceful protestors from the NSW Police Force,” Higginson told VICE.

“The highly-militarised state of police deployment we have seen week after week at an event that has consistently been compliant, peaceful and driven by Palestinian community members and families is plainly out of proportion.

“It’s time for our police to work with, not against, all members of the community. We want a policing regime that supports healthy, peaceful, democratic action. To achieve this we must demilitarise and deweaponise our general duty police and urgently begin the serious reforms needed to move us towards a policing-by-consent model that supports the integrity of both officers and community members.”

Aleksandra Bliszczyk is the Deputy Editor of VICE Australia. Follow her on Instagram.

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