A Rogue and Armed VicPol Goes Ballistic on Peace Protesters: Interview With XR’s Violet and Brad

A week on from the Disrupt Land Forces protests that happened in Naarm-Melbourne on 11 September, the Victoria police response to the thousands of peace activists who turned up to demonstrate against a weapons trading show continues to stun the nation.

Land Forces 2024 took place at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre over the 11 to 13 September. And it involved all the big players in the weapons industry, including Lockheed Martin, Hanwha, Boeing, Thales and NIOA, as well as the Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems.

The temperature was turned up at the latest arms expo as the Israeli government has been perpetrating a genocide in Gaza for the last eleven months and tens of thousands of innocent people have been killed, whilst the entire population has been purposefully starved since last October.

But what really escalated matters in regard to demonstrators last week was that Victoria police turned up with its entire arsenal of nonlethal weapons and started taking potshots at the crowd, whilst some lobbed flashbang grenades at nonviolent protesters and others just wanted to rumble.

Busting heads for more war

During the 11 September Disrupt Land Forces protest, Sydney Criminal Lawyers tuned into Extinction Rebellion activist Violet Coco’s live feed from the Spencer Street bridge to find that demonstrators were facing off against rows of Victoria police standing in military formation.

The first line of police officers were holding large, plastic shields, and fellow officers were hiding behind them, before peering out to fire nonlethal bullets from semiautomatic rifles upon unarmed protesters, who were performing a call and response chant, “hands up” followed by “don’t shoot”.

And it would appear that if you turn up to a demonstration in Victoria these days, you are more than likely to cop some pepper spray in the face, because officers are now wandering about with cannisters in hands, squirting them at people in the same liberal way repellent is used on mosquitos.

Rising militarism

Another development since the last Land Forces was held in Meanjin-Brisbane two years ago is that the AUKUS optimal pathway was released in March last year, which has heralded in a transformation of Australian society, whereby all levels are becoming militarised.

AUKUS is aimed at launching a US war against China from this continent. And the rising militarism flowing from it can not only be seen with police firing on civilians but it’s even apparent in schools, as the 2023 student competition to design a nuclear-propulsion system for a submarine revealed.

Sydney Criminal Lawyers spoke to Extinction Rebellion’s Violet CoCo and Brad Homewood about how it was to find oneself on the frontline midway across the Spencer Street bridge, as Victoria police fired nonlethal bullets into the crowd and rolled in the odd flashbang grenade for good measure.

Due to the onslaught Victoria police met Disrupt Land Forces protesters with in Naarm on 11 September, many walked away with a different understanding of growing militarism in this country and the community is still trying to grabble with how law enforcement approached demonstrators.

You’ve been on the frontline of many protests over recent years. Did last Wednesday make a fresh impression on how the authorities are operating in this country?

Brad: What we saw last Wednesday is the state took its mask off and revealed its true face. As you pointed out in your article that day, the police are attack dogs of the capitalist class, and they were well and truly off the chain that day and they relished every moment.

The police are a safe haven for thugs, racists and misogynists. And I base that not only on what I saw last Wednesday, as what I have seen at a number of protests is grown men in uniforms violently assaulting women who have not in any way provoked them.

So, what we saw was the true face of the state. And the more strength we have as a protest movement, the more they’re going to escalate and push back harder and harder.

We had seen the rubber bullets and the teargas used over the lockdown protests. So, it wasn’t the first time in Melbourne. But it was the first time, that they’ve turned their paramilitary police and their assortment of weaponry on peace activists, that’s for sure.

It should be pointed out that none of this is new for the First Peoples of this land: they’ve had to deal with this sort of brutality ever since the initial invasion.

You were both on the Spencer Street bridge when the police were assembled in a military style formation attempting to push unarmed protesters back. And it seemed like Victoria police had its entire arsenal of nonlethal weapons on hand.

What did you see in terms of potentially deadly weapons being tossed around while you were at Disrupt Land Forces? And how has it gotten to the point that a feasible protest chant is the call and response “hands up”-“don’t shoot”?

Violet: That chant “hands up”-“don’t shoot” originated in the Blak deaths in custody movement. I experienced it first from Gwenda Stanley, who is a staunch First Nations activist and that’s how it entered the space.

What I witnessed on the frontline was police using weapons that could very well be lethal when used in particular ways to create space between peace protesters and warmongers.

The peace protesters were chanting, and the police approached us with those weapons in response to us standing around and chanting.

I saw rubber bullets being fired indiscriminately. I saw two instances of this. One involved a rubber bullet shattering one of the big plastic police shields and another instance in which a media person lost a piece of their ear due to the impact of a bullet.

Now if that bullet had hit their eye, who knows what damage it could have done.

The fact that it was a media person says to me that they weren’t just shooting people who they perceived as antagonises, they were shooting with a lack of integrity to a target.

I saw flashbang grenades and pepper spray. And I experienced what I believe was teargas. They are saying they didn’t use teargas, but it was something similar was projected into the crowd and caused us all to feel like we were suffocating.

So, a rubber bullet can shatter one of those impressive looking transparent shields that police were carrying?

It absolutely shattered the plastic shield.

They’re pretty robust shields, I was watching on a feed, one officer holding the shield, while another took cover behind it and moved out to shoot into the crowd.

Violet: It must be at close range, because it would have been from just behind the shield that the rubber bullet was shot.

So, basically, the frontline of protesters was standing three or four metres away from the police with their hands up in the air, calling “don’t shoot”.

So, if any of those bullets had hit any of those people in vulnerable places it definitely could have caused serious long-term injuries.

Brad: One thing I would like to add is that we did see on multiple occasions legal observers being OC sprayed and assaulted and street medics being OC sprayed and assaulted, when they weren’t even on the road.

And the violence towards women, if you didn’t see it, would be very hard to believe.

Violet: I personally copped a baton to the ribs as I was helping an elderly man stand up after he’d been pushed over by police.

And that saw you hospitalised?

Violet: Yes, I ended up in hospital having CT scans because they were worried that the baton had damaged my liver and kidneys.

A lot of people have complained about the media portrayal of protesters, because instead of reporting that Victoria police went nuts abusing them, the media spoke of violent protesters throwing manure and rocks at horses.

The demonisation of protesters by the media appeared to be automatic and perhaps it was more noticeable this time considering the violence of police.

Can you talk on how the mainstream media has reacted to Disrupt Land Forces and the law enforcement response to it?

Brad: Well, it appears that the mainstream media, even though they had reporters on the ground who saw what was happening, just took the police at their word. They seemed to think that the police would never lie and what they say is the gospel truth.

But we know for a fact that police are very loose with the truth. They have been caught out lying a number of times in the courthouse and I would go as far as saying they are habitual liars, as anyone who has spent some time in custody or has interacted with them enough knows.

I don’t know what it is about the mainstream media, whether they don’t want to take it on or they’re too cosy in their relationship with the police.

They have an arrangement where the police tip them off and they get to crime scenes early, maybe they don’t want to upset that arrangement.

But the lie about the acid especially stood out.  We can say for sure that the substance that they were describing as acid was a liquid fart gas, a child’s toy. So, they would have known that.

And for someone who has a background as a tradesman and who has worked with the proper acid that you use to clean bricks, I can assure you that if any of that was used and it got on people’s skin, they would be able to show you the burn marks.

I smelled a rat straight away with that one, but it was repeated up until Saturday. And as you say, it’s all about demonising the protesters, making us look like the baddies in this situation.

It was extremely disappointing that the mainstream media couldn’t be objective even though they were on the ground.

But unlike the media had portrayed it, Disrupt Land Forces hadn’t turned up to have a showdown with Victoria police, but rather, protesters were attempting to disrupt the Land Forces 2024 military trade show.

So, how would you describe what Victoria police was so desperately trying to protect from a bunch of unarmed protesters?

Violet: Land Forces is a one stop genocide shop. It is the place where arms dealers go to make deals that end in violence, repression and extraction all around the world.

We know that Elbit Systems was in there and they made a massive deal. It was a $38,000 contract. And Elbit is the same company that contributed to the death of the Australian volunteer Zomi Frankcom, who was killed in Palestine.

We know that they had videos promoting the lethality of their weapons with images of Palestinians being murdered by their weapons and proclaiming that it makes them “battle tested” and so, worth more of a buck.

We are witnessing a genocide in real time in Palestine. There is also a genocide in West Papua. And the companies in there are contributing to them.

We were there to take the social licence off the companies within the genocide festival, and we refuse to let that happen in our city and let that go unchallenged. That is so important at this time.

And lastly, Brad and Violet, much of the imagery and reports that came out of Disrupt Land Forces had a focus on the confrontation with police rather than the actions themselves, and many protesters have been hailing the success of the weeklong demonstrations.

Can you talk on what was achieved?

Brad: One of the big achievements was most people in Australia didn’t even know that Land Forces was happening prior to Wednesday.

So, what Disrupt Land Forces did was put it on the national agenda and caused a public debate around whether or not we want to hold an arms expo in this country.

It also sparked debate around whether it’s okay to be an ally to a genocidal state like Israel and whether we are happy to have Israeli, or any arms dealers, for that matter, come here. Their business model is death, destruction and genocide and the killing of innocent children.

So, it was undoubtedly a success. The Greens are going to hold an inquiry into the brutality of police and their role as the guard dogs of capital. And hopefully, we get to the truth with that inquiry.

And what we also did was expose the fact that the people who run Land Forces, AMDA, have charitable status, and the Greens are onto that as well, to get it removed.

So, we’ve definitely put it on the national agenda. We have definitely educated a lot of people about what was going on there and we do know that it was poorly attended.

And what we also know is that Victoria police officers went in afterwards and got photos taken on top of the tanks that were on display, so they definitely have a fetish for violence.

Main image a scene from Disrupt Land Forces featuring Brad Homewood, Violet CoCo and other activists. Photo credit: photographer Matt Hrkac