Refugee rights activists still plan to protest despite pulling out of Story Bridge sit-in
Refugee rights activists have cancelled a mass Story Bridge protest amid claims of “chemical weapons and mounted police”. But they still plan to go ahead with action tomorrow and unloaded with a triple-dose of expletives to announce their Plan B.
QLD News
Don't miss out on the headlines from QLD News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Refugee rights activists have announced a controversial sit-in planned for tomorrow on Brisbane’s Story Bridge has changed location.
Refugee Solidarity Brisbane/Meanjin posted to social media this morning that they will not be marching onto the Story Bridge on Saturday, but instead will gather at Raymond Park and march to the Kangaroo Point apartment block where 120 men are being detained.
The group cited the threat of police violence and potential “use of chemical weapons and mounted police” as reasons for the last minute change.
Supreme Court order prevents sit-in protest on Story Bridge
Story Bridge protest back on as talks with ABF fail
Kangaroo Point refugee tells protesters police are stopping him from seeing his family
“The state has become obsessed with stopping this protest from going ahead,” the group said in a statement this morning.
“We expect any attempt to sit down on the bridge to be met with a large police presence, including the use of chemical weapons and mounted police.
“With all this in mind, we don’t think we can take the bridge as initially planned.”
Yesterday, Justice Jean Dalton made a declaration that if the planned protest were to go ahead on the bridge or Main St, Kangaroo Point, it would interfere with public rights.
A similar injunction was issued last week, before the protest was postponed.
“We’ve faced the full force of a state trying desperately to silence dissent — some protesters have been raided during the middle of the night, others haven’t been home since last week, and the Attorney-General has used the court to get injunctions against several people forbidding them from going tomorrow,” the group wrote in the statement.
“The media is reporting that the court has banned us from protesting tomorrow — they didn’t and they can’t.
“We’re not going to block the Story Bridge, but we are going to march in solidarity with our mates inside, who can’t even go for a walk.
The group said it was “strange” to announce publicly that they “went up against the state and lost”.
“There’s the urge to somehow spin it as a positive, as a win, like we always planned this. But some things are just f*cked,” the group wrote.
“We planned something and we’re not going to be able to pull it off this weekend. It’s f*cked.
“Our 120 friends are locked in a cage. It’s f*cked.”