Freedom to protest
Pictured: an estimated 250,000 people crossed the Sydney Harbour Bridge for the Walk for Reconciliation, May 2000.
The freedom to protest has come out of difficult struggles over many years. The freedom is reinforced each time people come together to protest.
The law relating to protest is dealt with elsewhere, including the law relating to public order and the laws relating to special areas of Sydney.
The Notice of Intention procedure in the Summary Offences Act provides a defence to being convicted with obstruction or unlawful assembly. The police use many tactics to overcome their powers contained in legislation, and examples of that appear below.
Police tactic 1: pretending to have powers they don't have.
Rather than trying to facilitate protest, even senior members of the police force try to bamboozle protesters by pretending to have legal powers that they do not have. An example of this is a letter sent in May 2009 from The Rocks police imposing a number of "conditions" on a protest by the protest group Stop the War. Protest organisers refused to sign the acknowledgement and negotiations were suspended till the letter was withdrawn. The letter was withdrawn and the protest continued successfully.
A copy of the May 2009 letter can be found below.
The law relating to protest is dealt with elsewhere, including the law relating to public order and the laws relating to special areas of Sydney.
The Notice of Intention procedure in the Summary Offences Act provides a defence to being convicted with obstruction or unlawful assembly. The police use many tactics to overcome their powers contained in legislation, and examples of that appear below.
Police tactic 1: pretending to have powers they don't have.
Rather than trying to facilitate protest, even senior members of the police force try to bamboozle protesters by pretending to have legal powers that they do not have. An example of this is a letter sent in May 2009 from The Rocks police imposing a number of "conditions" on a protest by the protest group Stop the War. Protest organisers refused to sign the acknowledgement and negotiations were suspended till the letter was withdrawn. The letter was withdrawn and the protest continued successfully.
A copy of the May 2009 letter can be found below.
| conditions_letter.doc |
Police tactic 2: unnecessary arrests
The criteria for an arrest is quite high. It is to be regard as a last resort (see s(99(3) Lepra). Copwatch can not comment on particular incidents, but there does seem to be a pattern of police officers using arrest to remove protesters withuot lawful authority.
An example of this is APEC 2007. Some of the best known people in Australia, comedians from the ABC were searched and detained when they could have been issued a Court Attendance Notice. After several court appearances, charges were evenutally dropped.
The criteria for an arrest is quite high. It is to be regard as a last resort (see s(99(3) Lepra). Copwatch can not comment on particular incidents, but there does seem to be a pattern of police officers using arrest to remove protesters withuot lawful authority.
An example of this is APEC 2007. Some of the best known people in Australia, comedians from the ABC were searched and detained when they could have been issued a Court Attendance Notice. After several court appearances, charges were evenutally dropped.
Police tactice 3: unnecessary charges
Copwatch can not comment on particular incidents, but by the number of people who are charged and charges are then dropped or people acquitted. This suggests that they should not have been arrested and charged in the first place.
An example of this is when two dance performers known as the Tranny Cops were arrested with such aggression that an elderly bystander was taken to hospital. They were humiliated (being released from police detention, being to wear thick paper clothing) but the Tranny Cops were eventually acquitted.
The owner of a satirical "Popemobile" was charged with an offence in relation to a protest against some of the Pope's teachings during his visit to Sydney in 2008. The charges were later withdrawn.
Copwatch can not comment on particular incidents, but by the number of people who are charged and charges are then dropped or people acquitted. This suggests that they should not have been arrested and charged in the first place.
An example of this is when two dance performers known as the Tranny Cops were arrested with such aggression that an elderly bystander was taken to hospital. They were humiliated (being released from police detention, being to wear thick paper clothing) but the Tranny Cops were eventually acquitted.
The owner of a satirical "Popemobile" was charged with an offence in relation to a protest against some of the Pope's teachings during his visit to Sydney in 2008. The charges were later withdrawn.
Police tactic 4: exhaust those charged if they plead not guilty
A criticism of the criminal justice process is that with multiple adjournments of court proceedings, a not guilty verdict can result in many months before a trial is held, and there may be large costs associated with paying for legal representation or travel costs to and from the court venue. Known in the academic literature as being "the process as punishment", the tempation for an innocent person to plead guilty to "get things over with" is very high.
A prominent example of this was the arrest of several protesters in 2007 against a memorial service being paid for by public money for the late Kerry Packer. Charged with miner public order offences, many of the protesters said they pleaded guilty to some charges because of the time and money that would be involved in defending them.
Many of those charged with offences during the G20 protests in Melbourne in 2006 pleaded guilty to charges for similar reasons.
Police tactic 5: arresting for intelligence collection
Police have been known to use large-scale arrests as a method of gathering people's names and addresses. This occurred at a protest outside of Sydney ACM in 2002, a company which was then contracted to run some of Australia's immigration detention centres. Many dozens of protesters were arrested, had their name and address and photograph taken, and were then immeidately released. A complaint by Human Rights Observers to the police about this practice was dismissed by police, and this course of action was approved by the Ombudsman's office.
Police tactic 6: manipulating the crowd to identify people to arrest
One apparent tactic used by police in crowd control situations is to pressure a protest with unnecessary (and possibly illegal) aggression and violence so that individuals react. These individuals are seen by police as "leaders" or "troublemakers" and are then targeted for arrest.
An example of this tactic failing was at a protest in Sydney in May 2009, where about 500 people from the Tamil community occupied both lanes of George Street in front of the Town Hall, during the Friday evening peak period. Despite a large police presence with members of the riot squad present, protesters occupied the street as a single unit, and left as a single unit at the end of the protest. As there were no obvious candidates for arrest, the police arrested no one. Another possible factor detering police from becoming aggressive was the large number of children and elderly people who were sitting on George Street.
A criticism of the criminal justice process is that with multiple adjournments of court proceedings, a not guilty verdict can result in many months before a trial is held, and there may be large costs associated with paying for legal representation or travel costs to and from the court venue. Known in the academic literature as being "the process as punishment", the tempation for an innocent person to plead guilty to "get things over with" is very high.
A prominent example of this was the arrest of several protesters in 2007 against a memorial service being paid for by public money for the late Kerry Packer. Charged with miner public order offences, many of the protesters said they pleaded guilty to some charges because of the time and money that would be involved in defending them.
Many of those charged with offences during the G20 protests in Melbourne in 2006 pleaded guilty to charges for similar reasons.
Police tactic 5: arresting for intelligence collection
Police have been known to use large-scale arrests as a method of gathering people's names and addresses. This occurred at a protest outside of Sydney ACM in 2002, a company which was then contracted to run some of Australia's immigration detention centres. Many dozens of protesters were arrested, had their name and address and photograph taken, and were then immeidately released. A complaint by Human Rights Observers to the police about this practice was dismissed by police, and this course of action was approved by the Ombudsman's office.
Police tactic 6: manipulating the crowd to identify people to arrest
One apparent tactic used by police in crowd control situations is to pressure a protest with unnecessary (and possibly illegal) aggression and violence so that individuals react. These individuals are seen by police as "leaders" or "troublemakers" and are then targeted for arrest.
An example of this tactic failing was at a protest in Sydney in May 2009, where about 500 people from the Tamil community occupied both lanes of George Street in front of the Town Hall, during the Friday evening peak period. Despite a large police presence with members of the riot squad present, protesters occupied the street as a single unit, and left as a single unit at the end of the protest. As there were no obvious candidates for arrest, the police arrested no one. Another possible factor detering police from becoming aggressive was the large number of children and elderly people who were sitting on George Street.