I haven’t been particularly interested in politics for a while. Sure, the Arab spring has been interesting, but generally it’s been all doom and gloom. Today I awoke to news that a) Gadaffi was dead and we don’t know exactly how at this moment and b) the Melbourne Occupy movement was being shut down by police. The order had come from the Lord Mayor, who, last Tuesday was personally annoyed on radio by one of the leading occupiers. He ordered the police to perform the job. The Queen is coming here too, which probably had something to do with it. As far as I know the Occupy Wall Street movement which has spread around the world hasn’t been stopped anywhere else.

I listened to a main stream radio show which had a reporter on the scene, who described nothing of what I later learned had really happened. I watched a 24 hour news show on TV but nothing was showing about this police action, before I wrote what I did.

So here is what I wrote then:

As you see on  this video though, it appears that  the police were fairly mild in comparison with their behaviour on all the demos I’ve been on in my life.  I’ve seen plenty of police violence and been subject to it myself. I think back to the Springbok tour while South Africa was still an Apartheid state. The police on horseback lost control of themselves completely. Then there was the Richmond secondary college days. The conservative state government here closed a lot of schools but a couple were occupied. Then the police moved in and there was a picket line outside the gates. Later the police moved baton forwards into the picket. Those people involved all got compensation because of that police action.

Oh and the G8 and S11 protests……………the police were viscious. I remember people were bleeding from baton wounds to their heads. “Tomato sauce” said one of my co-workers at the time. No such luck for the people involved.

The reaction of people in general on talk back radio was different too. After all, 99% of us should be able to identify with the Wall St occupiers. It’s the 1% who own as much as the rest of us put together. So people were generally sympathetic to the protesters in Melbourne, which surprised me because at all other protests there are usually many complaints and abusive statements made about protesters.

Later I learned a few more things by people who I trust who had been there. Here is a report from a friend who was there. He got arrested for taking photos and reporting in to a community radio programme.

The occupy Melbourne protest today was as brutal as I have witnessed in over 30 years. The use of police horses and the special operation group to capsicum peaceful protesters was completely without justification.I was arrested for doing my job of taking photos and broadcasting directly to our radio station .The use of force was directly in contrast to the peaceful protest and the Lord Mayor Robert Doyle and the Victoria police should hang their heads in shame.

 

This was Denis Evans. His blog site where I’m sure he will soon write his version is at http://www.denisevans.com

I have also heard from two other sources that the police would surround small groups of protesters and spray them with capsicum and then remove and/or arrest them. Pressure points were being used to move people too. Police horses galloped through crowds. Police dogs were used.

The point of all this? The mass media does not tell the truth. One had  to be there to witness what really happened. The press cover up police brutality. I fell victim to that. If I can fall victim to it, and I’m a long term socialist who should have know better, then imagine what the general population comes to think?

I now think these young people were very brave in the face of what they stood up against.

Related articles

• Riot police tackle Melbourne protesters (news.theage.com.au)
• Police surround protesters in Melbourne (news.theage.com.au)
• Police surround City Square in standoff (theage.com.au)
• Occupy protesters given eviction notice (heraldsun.com.au)
• Occupy elsewhere, Baillieu tells protesters (heraldsun.com.au)
• We are the 99% Occupy Melbourne: First Look (intentious.com)
• Rally occupies itself in most polite company (theage.com.au)
• Riot Police Brutalize Occupy Melbourne Protesters (buzzfeed.com)
• WATCH: Occupy Melbourne Protest Turns Ugly (huffingtonpost.com)
• ‘Occupy Melbourne’ savaged by riot police (weblog1848.com)