Melbourne braces for violent protests with police to deploy major response
Victoria Police have warned protesters they will swarm Melbourne’s CBD in anticipation of violent behaviour at a “Put Australia First” rally on Sunday.
Police say they have “no choice” but to saturate the city with officers ahead of what is expected to be another violent city rally.
Victoria Police expect the crew who were accused of throwing rocks, glass and rotten fruit at last month’s protest to attend the CBD on Sunday.
Hundreds of anti-immigration protesters are tipped to gather for the “Put Australia First” rally, which will attract hundreds of counter-protesters.
Superintendent Troy Papworth said he believed those counter-protesters were the ones accused of assaulting police at the violent October 19 rally.
He said that intelligence had forced police to deploy extra, beefed-up resources in and around the city on Sunday.
He said that police were expected to be hit with the violence.
“Police have had no choice but to put in place a significant operational response to those protests,” he said.
“If you come into the city and you act violent, you will be caught as you may spend time in a police cell.
“The counter-protest group has targeted police before (and) have been violent to police before.
“Melburnians too are also fed up with that behaviour.”
He said extra police would have the power to request people remove their face masks or face huge fines.
It would be an extremely difficult task in a volatile and potentially violent situation.
“Offenders can be removed from the city if they continue to offend,” Supt. Papworth added.
Supt. Papworth said visitors using the new Metro Tunnel should not be impacted but they could expect to see more police on the streets than usual.
He said both the protest and counter rally could attract a crowd of about 1000 participants each.
“We expect to see a lot of people in the city on Sunday, so thus we have a significant police response, to make sure that we can keep the city safe,” he added.
“The Melbourne CBD is open for business on Sunday, expect some delays, plan your trip and expect to see a lot of police on the streets.”
Detectives on Friday released the images of six more people wanted over the October 19 rally.
Officers attempted to keep the thousands of anti-immigration activists separate from the hundreds of counter-protesters before violence erupted on the streets.
Two officers were injured after more than a dozen anarchist protesters allegedly tossed glass bottles, rotten fruit and rocks at police. Specialist detectives have so far arrested three people but have released the images of six more wanted for questioning. They are now hunting a total of 19 protesters. Those detectives on Tuesday arrested a 21-year-old Port Melbourne man. He was charged with two counts of assaulting police and two counts of hindering police. A 56-year-old Kilsyth man was also charged with assaulting and hindering police. The pair were bailed to appear at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on May 26.
Originally published as Melbourne braces for violent protests with police to deploy major response
