University of Sydney legal observer’s phone smashed at protest

A legal observer filming “oppressive police activity” at a recent protest was left out of pocket after he claimed cops stepped on his phone.

When protests against cuts to universities were happening at his campus last week, Tim Livingstone volunteered to attend as a legal observer.

Legal observers attend protests to act as an extra set of eyes in case there are clashes between police and protesters, like when University of Sydney professor Simon Rice had his legs “swept out” from under him and UNSW student Shovan Bhattarai was thrown to the ground outside the University of Sydney’s campus last Wednesday.

A screengrab of a video showing police throwing UNSW student Shovan Bhattarai to the ground. Picture: Honi Soit

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Those arrests (and other actions by police that day and over the preceding months) prompted a stiff rebuke from the campus.

“I was shocked by the events that occurred on campus,” Sydney Law School Dean Professor Simon Bronitt said in a statement the next day.

The Executive of the Sydney Institute of Criminology said it joined the University and the Professor “in condemnation of any misuse of powers exercised by the NSW Police Force on and around the University of Sydney’s main campus in recent months; and particularly on Wednesday 14 October.”

“We are very disturbed by the footage we’ve seen,” the University said in a statement, adding “we did not invite NSW Police on to campus.”

Tim saw another legal observer being arrested and made sure to get it on camera.

Tim was gathering some of that footage.

“I was filming one particular arrest of another legal observer whose wrists were being quite tightly held so I was making sure I got that interaction on camera,” Tim told news.com.au.

“Police came up to me and said I was part of the protest and I said ‘no I’m not, I’m observing’, then I heard a collision behind me: That was Simon Rice being arrested and having his legs swept out from under him.”

As he brought his phone up to film, Tim was grabbed from behind “by a couple of officers”, who took him away and told him he too was under arrest.

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A masked Professor Rice talking to police before his “disturbing” arrest.

Law professor Simon Rice was later trying to stand up after police "kicked his legs out" when four cops pushed him back to the ground. Picture: Honi Soit

“I’m quite sure I was arrested because I was getting that video of Simon Rice getting arrested as well, and I don’t think police were too happy at that stage at the end of the proceedings, to see a lot of video happening.

“They hadn’t had a problem with us up until that point, and it was right when all the bad arrests started happening.”

Tim dropped his phone as he was grabbed from behind.

Worried someone would step on it, Tim asked an officer taking his details to grab his OnePlus smartphone, which was sitting around two metres away on the ground, but according to Tim the officer said he “didn’t know anything about that”.

After Tim pointed out the nearby phone the officer retrieved it and handed it back.

“I saw that the screen was all smashed, in fact, it was no longer functioning.”
Tim put it in his bag until he could deal with it, and found that the screen was broken but the phone was otherwise fine, and had even managed to capture some footage as it laid on the ground.

The phone was stepped on numerous times after hitting the ground.

A person looks down at the phone.

“The surprising part of the video for me is that the camera kept on going, initially when I got the phone back with the screen cracked the first thing I thought was it had fallen out of my hand and cracked the screen and that was the end of it. It was really interesting to see actually the video had kept going and the damage to the phone was done by officers standing on it multiple times,” Tim said.

“That was surprising for me, the interesting part was how often it got stood on.”

The phone was then stepped on again after an officer looked down at it.

An officer's boot partially covers the camera of Tim's phone for around five seconds, as audio captures it “grinding" into the pavement.

He said the first instance “probably wasn’t intentional”.

“The second instance looking back on it, it looks like the police officer is looking down on the phone and seems to hold his foot on the phone … you can hear it kind of grinding into the pavement a little bit,” Tim said.

The NSW Police Force said: “The incident is not being treated as intentional and no action will be taken.”

The Sydney Institute of Criminology wants more answers and said the police has had the chance to provide them.

“Against the background of widespread public concern regarding police infringement and suppression of vital democratic rights at a number of recent public protests … we seek further information from the NSW Police Force about its officers’ recent conduct on and around campus.

“We also express our concern about the failure of the NSW Police Force to respond to earlier requests to discuss these police activities.

“We request that the NSW Police Force give immediate consideration to the proportionality and legitimacy of its policing operations at and around the University of Sydney in recent months – with a view to ensuring that any oppressive police activity at that location is not repeated.”

Asked about that statement, the NSW Police Force said it “recognises and supports the rights of individuals and groups to protest peacefully and is committed to working with all groups to ensure the safety of the public,” adding: “Anyone who breaks the law or engages in anti-social behaviour will be dealt with accordingly.”

Tim’s phone after it was smashed.

As for Tim’s phone, a repair shop managed to fix the device with a $199 screen replacement that Tim is waiting to see if he’ll be reimbursed for.

“I’ve kept the receipt though and would like to pursue compensation … I think it’ll be part of a broader contestation of the circumstances of my arrest,” he said.