Serial youth activists unmasked as group in violent Midsumma Pride March clash

A group involved in violent clashes with police at the Midsumma Pride March has been revealed as a youth activist organisation which supported pro-Palestine protesters blockading the Port of Melbourne.

A small group of protesters clashes with police at the Midsumma Pride March. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

An organised extremist anti-police group has claimed responsibility for violent clashes with officers taking part in Sunday’s Midsumma Pride March.

The Civil Resistance Youth Movement (CRYM) issued a statement yesterday acknowledging it led the “disruption” of Victoria Police’s participation in the parade, while refuting claims by chief commissioner Shane Patton that officers had been targeted with paint bombs.

“Only a few bottles of paint and a single coffee cup” were thrown, CRYM said, with the intended target themselves, “for theatrical purposes”.

CRYM boasted: “Protesters entered the march directly in front of Victoria Police, displaying banners bearing messages like ‘F —k Pinkwashing: F —k the Police’, chanting slogans such as ‘cops kill queers’ and ‘bottoms, tops, we all hate cops’.”

A small group of protesters clash with police who were taking part in the march along Fitzroy St. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Police were confronted by protesters who surrounded them in an attempt to stop them marching. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Claims made by CRYM on their Instagram page.

The statement claimed the protesters were peaceful and accused police of “intense violence” against them, “throwing activists to the ground, elbowing them in the face, punching one individual in the side of the head, and grabbing someone by the throat in a chokehold”.

CRYM member Max, whose surname was not given, further stoked the dispute saying: “Victoria Police have made it clearer than ever that their legacy of anti-queer violence is alive and thriving, especially apparent in their obvious targeting of trans activists among the group, in particular transfeminine individuals of colour. This brutality is what we find ‘abhorrent’. Police do not, and never will, belong at Pride.”

Screenshots from the Instagram page of Civil Resistance Youth Movement. Picture: Instagram

Some of the crowd booed police as they took place in the march. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Other protesters had their faces covered. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

But while the group has professed to be peaceful, its Instagram site crym.earth is littered with aggressive and incendiary hate slogans.

“It’s always been a riot. Honour your history. Stand up for the oppressed. Fight back against this bullshit and never let them know a day of peace,” one caption of a picture of protesters clashing with police reads.

“No cop will ever protect us. Every cop is a danger to us,” crym.earth says in another post.

In its bio, the group states CRYM should be “pronounced like crime” and describes itself as a “resistance network”.

It also goes by the name Climate Resistance Youth Movement.

A protester in a pig mask takes part in the march. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

On its website crym.earth states its purposes as being to “grow and spread radical politics”, “defy the state”, “make it fun to do CRYM”, “educate others on how this system is f —ked” and “give them the skills and the means to fight back”.

One crym.earth post features a video from an “anonymous source” headlined “The Colony Will Fall”, showing hooded vandals sawing and toppling the statue of Captain Cook on Australia Day eve, and covering the Queen Victoria statue in red paint.

Other posts chronicle CRYM’s support for a call to action for “block the dock”, a pro-Palestine demonstration disrupting Israeli-owned ships from leaving Port Melbourne

Protesters on Monday claimed the police response escalated ‘swiftly’. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Another features a video teaching activists how to disguise themselves.

Mr Patton, who attended the march, said police were deliberately targeted by protesters and denounced their actions as “abhorrent”.

“We didn’t try and confront them,” he said.

“This was a next level … elevation. Their intent was clear, it was pre-planned … we’ve not seen this type of hatred, this type of confrontation to us.”

In videos posted to CRYM’s Instagram site, police are shown pushing demonstrators away.

Protesters can be heard chanting “f —k the pigs”.

Midsumma CEO Karen Bryant said she was disappointed in “people from both sides of this situation who actively escalated the situation”.

More than 10,000 Victorians braved the sweltering heat for the annual pride march in St Kilda on Sunday in a show of support for the LGBTQIA+ community.

A 34-year-old man was arrested over an alleged assault against a member of the public who had attempted to help officers but was released pending further investigation.