Friends of the Earth Melbourne/Australia condemn the brutal attacks by NSW Police on anti-racism protestors in Sydney on Monday evening.
Videos circulated online show Police punching and kicking people, attacking people engaged in peaceful prayer and using pepper spray indiscriminately. Police also employed escalatory, intimidating and dangerous crowd-control tactics, including kettling and crowd-rushing.
These scenes of police brutality are part of a long-running escalation of police tactics that are increasingly intimidating, violent and dangerous. Across so-called Australia, police violence against peaceful protesters and marginalised communities has steadily increased for decades, driven by expanding anti-protest laws, police powers and weaponry.
Australians have the right to protest. Australia must not imitate increasingly authoritarian regimes in the United States and Israel by escalating state violence against anti-racism protestors and marginalised communities.
Everyone should feel safe to express dissent in public spaces in Australia. Police tactics such as those used on Monday suppress political expression, endanger people’s health, their safety and even their lives, and undermine the integrity of our democracy.
This instance of Police brutality came in response to protests against the invitation and visit of Isaac Herzog, President of Israel, who was named last September by the United Nations Commission of Inquiry as having incited genocide against the Palestinian people. Genocide is the greatest of racist crimes.
Anti-Jewish hate, anti-Muslim hate, and colonial violence are all deadly forms of racism. Social cohesion and community safety require us to stand up against all forms of racism and racist violence. We must speak out against those who incite and enact racist violence, murder and genocide.
It is appalling that the Federal Labor government and the NSW government led by Chris Minns chose to stoke racism and division by inviting Isaac Herzog, and then to violently suppress dissent against his visit.
Police violence must stop. Anti-protest laws must be wound back. We must restore people’s right to assemble peacefully without fear of assault by police. We must reject racist hate in all its forms.
Friends of the Earth Australia joins civil society organisations in calling for the immediate establishment of an independent review into the policing of Monday’s protest, and a broader inquiry into protest policing practices in New South Wales.