Extinction Rebellion to use children to lock down Brisbane CBD
As Extinction Rebellion prepares to disrupt Brisbane’s CBD all day today, the climate protesters’ playbook has been revealed — with a tactic that will shock.
QLD News
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RADICAL climate change protesters planning to shut down Brisbane’s CBD today have urged parents to use their children to break the law because police are unlikely to charge them.
The Courier-Mail can reveal the Extinction Rebellion Families SEQ group – which is aligned to the main activist group – will ask parents today to give their children chalk to graffiti Brisbane’s roads and footpaths with climate change messages.
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In a recent phone hook-up, a convener acknowledged the act was illegal in Queensland but sought to allay fears by saying police would “hopefully” be too distracted by other planned disruption to take action against the kids.
Extinction Rebellion activists, who have plagued Brisbane by gluing themselves to roads and causing peak-hour chaos, today plan a 7½-hour disruption starting outside State Parliament.
Police yesterday said they had received information that the protest will run from 7am to 9pm, with expected significant disruption to traffic in the CBD and South Brisbane.
Commuters were advised to avoid driving in the area if possible.
Activist Tom Howell yesterday said publicly that today’s event would hold “the people of Brisbane to ransom”.
Extinction Rebellion Families SEQ has been encouraging families to involve their children in the protests.
“I’ve bought a whole pile of chalk and definitely the main encouragement from the main group was they would love to have the kids chalking, and then it’s still on the street the next day,’’ an organiser said in a hook-up yesterday.
“The issue with it is that it is technically illegal in Queensland right now. They’ve included chalking with spray paint.
“The police are not going to arrest a child and in some ways my point of view is that that is a ridiculous law.
“(Today) there is no way the police (will make arrests); they are going to have their hands full hopefully.”
It comes as Extinction Rebellion have circulated a guide on how to hinder police, while also poking fun at authorities’ inability to keep the activists locked up.
In a legal cheat sheet provided to activists, protesters are told not to answer any police questions and to say: “No comment, I’m exercising my right to silence.”
Protesters are advised to write the phone number of a support person on their arm and told they can refuse to be searched if they have not been arrested or if there is no reasonable suspicion they are carrying anything illegal.
A mobile number is also listed for arrested protesters to call for a lift from the watch house or for logistics support.
Social media posts between members, exclusively obtained by The Courier-Mail, reveal the contempt they have for police.
“Police don’t like us because we disobey their authority as opposed to begging politely for permission to publicly assemble,” one post read.
“State sanction protest is never going to get the job done.
“Believe me, they get salty as all hell when they lock you up, tell you not to do something and then people are back out in the street taking effective action the next day.”
The official Extinction Rebellion SEQ accounted posted: “Queensland police uphold a colonial system of exploitation.
“They hold children in watchhouses for weeks, they protect officers who give their addresses of DV victims to their abusers.
“They target indigenous people and people of colour for stop and search checks because of the racial profiling culture in the force.
“Stay peaceful, stay non violent. Ignore them as much as you can.
“It f — ks with their power trip”.
Originally published as Extinction Rebellion to use children to lock down Brisbane CBD