Pope's visit - July 2008
The visit of the Pope to Australia led to a number of protests, including the main one held on 19 July 2008 at Taylor Square, Sydney, in what has become known as the heart of gay Sydney.
This page covers the July 19 protest, the successful Federal Court challenge to the "annoyance" regulations and photos of police officers not wearing identification.
The rally and march of about 1,000 people attracted varied interest groups, from socialists to cross-dressers to atheists and others, opposed to the Pope's teachings on contraception, sexuality, abortion and his characterisation of masturbation as a "sin."
Many of the groups formed a coalition to plan the protest, the No To Pope coalition.
There were several atheist groups, representing a broad rang of opposition to the Pope's visit and the variety of people at the protest.
Copwatchers
At the request of protest organisers, about a dozen Human Rights Monitors (as we were known before our name-change) attended the protest. Given the media publicity surrounding the Pope's visit and an attempt to pass a law making it an offence to "annoy" pilgrims, many felt that protesters would be intimidated from participating.
Police horses
We were concerned at the presence of police horses. Being animals, they are unpredictable and can cause injury by standing on people's feet. This photo shows police using horses to push the crowd forward from the rear, as police presumably considered the crowd to be moving too slowly (from people dancing). This practice risks foot injuries.
Copwatchers were concerned at the very heavy police presence, at what was a relatively small protest which was light-hearted and which indicated a very low risk of public disorder. A Catholic pilgrim was arrested at the protest after allegedly attacking a protester.
Human Rights Monitors received a report of two older protesters who were almost knocked over by the horses.
We were advised “Two older ladies at the back of the march on the return to Taylor Square were reported as being “a bit flagged” but progressed bravely. A police officer on horse directly behind one of the women was quoted as saying “hurry up or you'll get stepped on."
"When a marshal tried to reason with the officer saying they were going as fast as they could she replied "well, they'll just have to go faster."
"I spoke to a (horse-nervous) foot police officer at the side of the march and was able to reason with him that it wasn’t good PR for a police horse to trample two elderly ladies. He assisted them to the side out of the way of the horses. I've had some success negotiating with foot police over the use of horses. I think that this is less the good will of the police and more that they are nervous of being trampled by the horse as well because unlike cops horses don't discriminate."
Arrests
Human Rights Monitors observed an arrest take place of a Catholic pilgrim who broke though police lines and allegedly assaulted a protester. Despite what was said to be an unprovoked attack on a peaceful protester, there was a media report that no charges were brought against the Catholic pilgrim (see Anti-Pope protest leads to arrest in City News 26 July 2008 page 4).
Regulation
Just prior to the main protest against the Pope, a regulation making it an offence to annoy visiting pilgrims was ruled void by the Federal Court.
Overview
A special Act of Parliament was passed for the Pope's visit - the World Youth Day Act 2006 and an additional Act in 2007.
Under these laws, Ministerial regulations were passed - published in the Gazette of July 27 (scroll down to page 5815). These regulations included making it an offence to "annoy" Catholic pilgrims. These Regulations were challenged in the Federal Court, with the Court unanimously holding that the provision in relation to "annoying" people was invalid.
The Court argued (the established legal position) that if Parliament intended a Minister to have the power to breach (what the Court called) "the fundamental value of free speech" then it must clearly say so. The Court case was brought by two actvisits, Rachel Evans and Amber Pike.
The challenge received extensive coverage, including
Rules 'would ban giving water to faithful' by Jano Gibson Sydney Morning Herald 12 July 2008.
Anti-annoyance regulations irk judges by Michael Pelly The Australian 12 July 2008
Court dumps 'annoy' law by Malcolm Brown 15 July 2008 Sydney Morning Herald.
An analysis of the laws can be found in an article in The Australian's Legal Section, World Youth Day 'anti-annoyance' law be damned: appalled barristers quick to fight state by Michael Pelly The Australian 18 July 2008 (no apparent link).
The Court judgement itself is interesting reading - Evans v State of New South Wales [2008] FCAFC 130 (15 July 2008).
Rather than relaxing in their new-found victory, No To Pope organisers received a letter on the morning of July 17 from NSW Police. The letter attemped to impose "conditions" on the planned protest which in many ways would have duplicated the regulation which had just been ruled invalid by the Federal Court.
Police asked organisers to promise to obey directions as to movements and to self-censor placards and posters. At a meeting held that evening at 6.00pm, the protesters refusal to abide by any "imposed" conditions left police with the choice of doing nothing or making an application to the Supreme Court for a "prohibition order" under s25 Summary Offences Act. Perhaps realising their weak position, police backed down.
Badgeless police officers
For those who may not have seen one, this is a correctly uniformed police officer. Note the blue badge (viewer's left) on top of the yellow vest. The identification badge itself is small and of limited use, but is useful in identifying misbehaving police officers.
Ref: Pope 1
This was the first of several police officers failing to wear appropriate identification at the protest. Complaints to the police have led to no action being taken, and the Ombudsman's office has approved the police inaction as being reasonable.
Ref: Pope 2
Do you know any of these police officers? We are keen to pass the information on to NSW Police as they have obviously lost their badges and are having trouble finding them.
Ref: Pope 3
And another.
Ref: Pope 4
And another.
Ref: Pope 5
And another.
Further reading
Condoms all around as annoying laws dashed by Malcolm Brown Sydney Morning Herald 16 July 2009.
Stealth the weakness in attempt at ban: analysis by Tim Dick Sydney Morning Herald 16 July 2009.
SBS video showing an overall view at http://news.sbs.com.au/worldnewsaustralia/
colourful_protesters_gather_to_annoy_wyd_pilgrims_552211
Another SBS video at http://video.sbs.com.au/player/news/index.php?chid=12
Green Left article at Pope protest celebrates civil liberties win by Jay Flecther and Kerry Smith Green Left Weekly 19 July 2008.
Raw video giving a feel of the protest when it reached Moore Park at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObbxF7PR8uM
For still photos http://flickr.com/photos/c23gooey/sets/72157606256458471/show/
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/friendlysocialist/NoToPopeRally/photo
#s5224642445201441138
More still photos (note: the audio background may offend some viewers).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgzLdalvfsg
