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Australian Police Attack Anti-Racism Protest, Defend Anti-Islam Rally: Medics

  • Police say they used pepper spray to quell rowdy protesters, but medics say they provoked further unrest.

    Police say they used pepper spray to quell rowdy protesters, but medics say they provoked further unrest. | Photo: Ali Bakhtiarvandi / Green Left Weekly

Published 18 July 2015
Opinion

Street medics say Melbourne police needlessly used pepper spray against anti-racist protesters, while protecting a rival anti-Islam rally.

Australian medical volunteers have accused police of using excessive force against protesters demonstrating against anti-Islam rallies Friday.

“Possibly more than 100 people needed to be treated today as police indiscriminately fired pepper spray into the crowd, including onto an injured man who was struggling to breathe, was losing consciousness, and was awaiting an ambulance,” a member of the Melbourne Street Medic Collective stated.

Police say they only used pepper spray to prevent protesters from overrunning their lines.

However, the health volunteer continued by accusing police of spraying medics who attended to the injured man. The volunteer condemned the blanket pepper spraying of crowds as “completely unnecessary and provocative,” while adding that anti-Islam demonstrators were left largely unscathed.

 

“The racists didn’t cop any of the pepper spray at all as far as I know, and they got a three-line police escort away from the area,” they said, referring to anti-Islam demonstrators led by Reclaim Australia and splinter group United Patriots Front (UPF).

(The sources of these photographs have not been independently verified.)

Local media largely derided both the anti-Islam demonstrators and counter-protesting anti-racism activists for being responsible for clashes that prompted police deployment of pepper spray.

The conservative Herald Sun claimed both sides were “spoiling for a fight,” while The Age newspaper claimed clashes between the two protest camps began after “counter-demonstrators from anti-racism groups and anarchists attempted to breach police lines.”

“A small number of hooded and masked anti-racism protesters broke through and nearly reached screaming members of Reclaim, which included a man with Nazi tattoos taunting them with calls of 'lefty scum,'” The Age reported.

While not specifically stating how the violence started, a veteran anti-fascist activist known only by the pseudonym “Slack Bastard” stated police “employed pepper spray in a somewhat chaotic fashion” against the anti-racist activists, while doing a “reasonably effective job” of protecting Reclaim Australia and UPF.

Approximately 500 police were present, while estimates of Reclaim Australia protesters range from 50-100, and UPF drew well under 100 according to most sources.

Comparatively, close to 2000 Melbourne residents turned out to protest against the anti-Islam demonstration. Progressive newspaper Green Left Weekly estimated the “far-right protesters were outnumbered 20 to one.”

 

 

 

 

“Despite the pressure of the police and the threats of violence, Melbourne people showed that the racists are the minority opinion,” Green Left's Sue Bolton wrote.

The head of a third far right group, Restore Australia's Mike Holt, admitted the rally had failed to draw “everyday” Australians to the anti-Islam camp.

“I can't believe how small the crowd is. It's terrible,” he told Fairfax.

(The source of this photograph has not been independently verified.)

Similar protests are now set to take place in Sydney on Sunday. The weekend's rallies are the second major attempt by anti-Islam campaigners to mobilize popular support, after their nationwide protests in April were marred by violence.

Campaigning largely against halal foods and picketing mosques, Reclaim Australia is one of the largest far right groups to emerge in Australia in recent years. Both Reclaim Australia and its splinter UPF have been accused of racism and harboring neo-Nazis among their ranks. One of the UPF's leaders, Neil Erikson, plead guilty in 2014 to charges stemming from a series of abusive, anti-Semitic phone calls.

According to the AAP, the judge in the case stated Erikson stalked the rabbi out of “prejudice, if not hatred, toward the victim because of his race.”

For more on the fight against Australia's anti-Islam movement, check out our in depth piece, Rickrolling the Anti-Halal Brigade in Australia. teleSUR went down the rabbit hole of Australia's anti-halal campaign, and things got pretty weird.

Tags

Australia Australasia Racism Politics Policing Police brutality Equality & human rights

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by teleSUR / rmo-TP
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