Coronavirus: NSW Police protect James Cook statue as protesters defy health orders

NSW Police circled the Captain Cook statue in Sydney’s Hyde Park on Friday night over concerns illegal protesters would attempt to topple it.

NSW police guard the statue of Captain James Cook in Sydney’s Hyde Park on Friday. Picture: Getty Images

NSW police circled the Captain Cook statue in Sydney’s Hyde Park on Friday night over concerns illegal protesters would attempt to topple it like many other colonial statues worldwide in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement.

At least 200 protesters defied coronavirus public health orders to attend an unauthorised protest against indigenous deaths in custody and high levels of indigenous incarceration.

The protest, originally planned to be held at the Town Hall, had its location changed to Hyde Park half an hour before the event in a last-ditch effort to evade authorities. A heavy police presence converged on the locations, far outnumbering the protesters, but the event was largely peaceful — the groups clashing only with words.

Police told the crowd
through megaphones that the protest was “unlawful” and they “must disperse”.

The group walked through and around Hyde Park, passing the Captain Cook statue, which was heavily protected by police but did not seem to be a key target of the protesters. Police were continuing to guard the statue late on Friday after the protest had dispersed.

After circling Hyde Park the larger group disbanded, with a smaller group continuing on to Central Station. Organisers urged that group to disband before the station to avoid a clash with police similar to last Saturday’s Black Lives Matter protest, when people were doused with pepper spray.

The protest had been deemed illegal as the organisers had not submitted the necessary paperwork a week before the event and could not guarantee safe social distancing. More than 1000 people clicked “attending’’ on the event’s Facebook page but many stayed home due to cold, wet weather and after repeated warnings from health officials about the potential for mass gatherings to spark COVID-19 infections.