Police Brutality at Disrupt Land Forces Protests Goes Unchecked in Victoria

The scenes of police brutality coming out of Naarm-Melbourne during the Disrupt Lands Forces protests that served to counter the global weapons manufacturer expo Land Forces 2024, which was taking place at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC) over 11 to 13 September 2024, shocked the nation.

Some of the most recognisable scenes to emerge from the onslaught of brute force Victoria police applied to Disrupt Land Forces occurred midway across the Spencer Street Bridge, and it involved police in military formation, standing behind large transparent shields, with some officers firing “nonlethal” bullets from semiautomatic rifles and others rolling flashbang grenades into the crowd.

The biannual Land Forces event had been shifted from Meanjin-Brisbane, as it was attracting too much attention from antiwar activists, so organisers moved it to the southern city and when it did take place, a genocide that was being waged against the Palestinians of Gaza by the Israeli apartheid state was into its 11th month, which guaranteed the protest action would be formidable.

The decidedly violent and overbearing policing approach taken to the DLF protests of last year reminded those who were old enough of the Victoria police crackdown on the S-11 antiglobalisation protests of 2000. However, a clear difference in the present was that since 2016, Victoria police has had one of the most state-of-the-art arsenals of crowd control weapons (CCWs) in the country.

As per usual in the city of Naarm-Melbourne, MALS (Melbourne Activist Legal Support) had deployed legal observers on the ground at the DLF protests, and so taken aback was the widely respected organisation by the actions of Victoria police that it produced an 85 page assessment of the VicPol response to Disrupt Land Forces that’s only just been published.

Beating on antiwar activists

“From the moment that the expo was announced to be held, negative and sensationalist responses from the Victorian government, Victoria police and media paved a stigmatising platform to justify extraordinary levels of force to be used by police against protesters,” the MALS legal team outlines.

“This preemptive response included invoking special weapons and antiterrorism legislation to equip police with broad powers,” The Policing of the DLF Protests report further reads.

Right across social media and nightly news screens in September 2024, Victoria police was seen to be firing indiscriminately into gathered protesters, rolling flashbang grenades into their midst, liberally spraying people in the face with capsicum spray like they were mosquitos with repellent and generally pushing and shoving unarmed demonstrators like they were in need of punishment.

“There has been minimal scrutiny or focus on the use of force and violence by police, including coordinated tactical manoeuvres, and the disproportionate levels or forms of violence facilitated by an arsenal of weaponry, with state and media sanctioning,” the MALS report continues.

So, as the Gaza genocide raged on in the distance, thousands of distraught civilians turned up in the Naarm CBD to protest the arms exhibition nonviolently, while the likes of Lockheed Martin, Hanwha, Boeing, Thales, NIOA, and even the notorious Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems were all inside spruiking their killing wares, and VicPol were going for broke on demonstrators outside.

MALS states that despite the unbridled nature of the police onslaught that was witnessed particularly on the first day of protests, 11 September 2024, there has been “a dearth of commentary and analyses” by the Victorian government or the law enforcement agency in regard to police actions on the day and their impact.

And it is worth noting that Victorian premier Jacinta Allan has been spruiking a new law, months after the DLF protests, that would prohibit the wearing of masks at demonstrations, in order to prevent people from protecting themselves against the use of pepper spray, which the police evidently now have the right to liberally spray into the faces of civilians.

A paramilitary force

MALS observed Victoria police officers using the VKS pepperball semiautomatic rifles, which was being used to fire ammunition containing chemical-irritant Pelargonic Acid Vanillylamide (PAVA) powder “indiscriminately into the crowd” on Wednesday 11 September.

The activist legal service also observed officers going nuts with OC spray. MALS explains that the spray consists of a hot fluid that binds with pain receptors and causes burning sensations, irritation to eyes and skin, and it can also cause respiratory problems, and these harms can be ongoing.

MALS is further clear that it saw officers spraying this hot burning fluid into people’s faces who were posing no harm whatsoever and not for any purpose such as to arrest or restrain them.

Disorientation devices were used by VicPol at the DLF demonstrations as well. But MALS is unclear as to what the four devices that it witnessed officers using on the bridge were, as not only did they result in loud bangs and bright flashes, but these devices let off an unknown irritant. Activists present on the ground had reported teargas being used, however authorities denied this.

MALS also bore witness to officers firing CTS 40mm foam baton model 4557 rubber bullets – which are as large as the palm of a hand – into the crowd using the Penn Arms L140-4 40mm single shot launcher. This happened on multiple occasions and significant injuries were sustained.

Legal observers further witnessed VicPol officers using shields to shove individuals and crowds, hitting people with batons, pulling people’s hair, running horses into demonstrators, along with overusing handcuffs.

Punishing victims in the wake

A week before Disrupt Land Forces took place, MALS had been warning that the state had deemed the site of the protests a designated area, under section 10D of the Control of Weapons Act 1990 (VIC), which allowed officers to randomly stop and search anyone regardless of reasonable suspicion and they could also order the removal of facemasks. And this really set the scene for the overreach.

Not only has the state not conducted a thorough review of the actions of Victoria police over the course of the DLF protests, but state law enforcement went on to conduct widespread raids to arrest over 100 civilians who took part in the protests long after the fact.

The Policing of the DLF Protests report involved five months’ worth of research, evidence gathering and analysis of the police and media responses to Disrupt Land Forces, and it was coauthored by a teams of volunteer legal observers, lawyers, researchers and writers.

The report makes a number of recommendations, including that at the very least Victoria police ensures that its officers abide by the law, that protest medics are not impeded in the future, as they were last year, and that the state government legislate to prevent Victoria police using mounted officers at protests.

“In countries all around the world, protest control weapons have caused deaths and life-altering injuries and should be properly termed as ‘potentially lethal’ weapons,” the MALS report further made clear.

“At the Disrupt Land Force Protest, MALS observed the use of various potentially lethal weapons by police on protesters.”

Main image is taken from The Policing of the DLF Protests report and is credited to MALS