Black Lives Matter Sydney protest: Second rally planned for Town Hall
Police this afternoon warned they are prepared to issue fines and arrest protesters if tomorrow’s “unlawful” Black Lives Matter protest goes ahead. They are also launching a bid in the Supreme Court to stop a planned protest, for refugee rights, on Saturday.
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Police today warned they are prepared to issue fines and arrest protesters if tomorrow’s Black Lives Matter protest goes ahead.
They will this afternoon launch a bid in the Supreme Court to stop a second planned protest, for refugee rights, on Saturday.
NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Mick Willing said the protest tomorrow “may well lead to arrests”.
“In relation to (Friday), which is connected to the Black Lives Matter cause, police have not seen a formal application for that event and it has been deemed unlawful,” he said.
“We will have significant resources in the city and we will be enforcing the public health order,” he said.
Police are expecting large numbers to attend the protest tomorrow, with almost a thousand marking themselves as attending on social media.
Mr Willing said he was concerned in the light of a protester contracting coronavirus in Melbourne and defended the police’s use of force at last Saturday’s protest.
“Police officers are not punching bags … at the end of the day I support the actions of the officers.”
“Melbourne … is a classic example of when things go wrong. We can’t discount that happening here.”
Mr Willing will give evidence to attempt to block Saturday’s refugee rights rally, which must go through the Supreme Court, as organisers gave police the required seven days notice.
Earlier today, NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller also vowed to fine and arrest protesters taking part in a second Black Lives Matter planned for Sydney’s CBD on Friday night.
Radical activists behind last week’s Black Lives Matter protests have planned the mass rally in defiance of the Berejiklian government’s ban on the issuing of any more police permits for demonstrations.
Police Minister David Elliott also threatened a Supreme Court injunction if protesters tried to proceed, saying they must comply with health orders.
“Any protest in the future, irrespective of how honourable the cause, must comply with the current public health orders,” he said.
“If it does not, it is my expectation that police will oppose it and apply to the Supreme Court for an injunction to stop the protest.”
Mr Fuller said police would work hard to move protesters on.
“We can’t do anything to stop 3000 people turning up but this is not like last week,” Mr Fuller told 2GB’s Ben Fordham.
“We will start writing tickets of $1000 and we can use all of our powers to move people on and if you don’t move on well then you’ll be arrested.
“We know that the organisers can’t control the numbers. We know that they cant meet the health obligations that are in place for everyone else.
“It’s just not reasonable that there are two standards, so we will take this to the Supreme Court today.”
Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the protest would breach health orders and her government was opposed to it.
“Let me be very clear,” Ms Berejiklian said. “The NSW government opposes this protest. It is in clear breach of the health orders. As I have stated repeatedly, the NSW government never has and never will support any activity which puts public safety at risk.”
The Stop All Black Deaths in Custody event circulating on social media carries inflammatory messages to “abolish prisons” and “defund the police”.
Sydney University students co-organising the rally say they want to “dismantle the settler-colonial state system” and teach people how to counter police equipment such as handcuffs.
“That (NSW Court of Appeal) order means we can have a rally,” Socialist Alliance activist and organiser Raul Bassi said.
“It was a beautiful protest last week, we were going strong. Only three people were arrested at the end.
“This event will be about the inhumane treatment of people in Long Bay prison.”
A NSW Police spokeswoman said they had not received a “Form 1” for a protest at Town Hall.
“However, the NSW Police Force will not be authorising any protest of more than 10 people due to the public health orders currently in place in NSW,” she said.
Mr Bassi expects the event to go ahead anyway because of the “legal precedent”.
“Maybe instead of the government taking us to court, we will take them to court,” he said.