one
Taking rights to an extreme
Herald Sun
[Idiotorial]
August 28, 2008
PEOPLE have a right to protest, but calling a politician a Hitler intent on raping the countryside and waving a hangman’s noose in his face is going too far.
Victorian Water Minister Tim Holding was confronted by an angry mob when he arrived in Mildura to meet the members of the new water authority.
The unruly protest was over the decision to sack Mildura’s water trust following its loss of $2 million in Victorian Government funds on the US mortgage market.
The crowd of several hundred shouted “sieg heil” at the minister and threw up their arms in Nazi salutes.
At Shepparton, Mr Holding was pelted with eggs in protest over the Government’s controversial north-south water pipeline.
This extreme behaviour over water follows the planned invasion last month of a property owned by Premier John Brumby and managed by his wife.
That pipeline protest was averted only after police told demonstrators they would be arrested.
The protesters may be justly passionate, but they risk their demonstrations being taken over by extremists.
The G20 riots in Melbourne are an example. Some of these protesters are still being dealt with by the courts, and one demonstrator was sent to jail.
The anarchist crazies involved in the ultra-violence were in no serious sense part of the demonstration. Just like their black bloc mates in Europe they simply exploited the demonstration for their own purposes.
These people are simply provocateurs that open up police to violent attack.
In Europe their ranks have been riddled by fascists.
What gave them a certain critical mass at the G20 was the presence of considerable numbers of anarchists from overseas.
One of our staff from New Zealand said he recognised at least 40 New Zealand anarchists. He knew at least 20 of them by name.
There were also a considerable number of black bloc anarchists from Europe. Police authorities know of people from Sweden, Germany and England.
These people are like football hooligans who travel the world looking for violence.
On top of that there were also a considerable number of anarchists from interstate.
The public should offer no comfort to these crazies. We should do whatever we can to isolate them. They are wreckers.
Taking protests to these extremes is an affront to democracy.
two
G20 rioters have sentences cut
Katie Bice and Georgie Pilcher
Herald Sun
August 28, 2008
FOUR demonstrators involved in the violent G20 riots have had their sentences cut on appeal.
The Herald Sun reports Beth Nathan, Sofia Todorova and Rosalie Delaney had convictions recorded against them overturned and Julia Dehm had a suspended sentence reduced to community work.
The County Court heard the group were part of a mob that outnumbered and attacked police at a demonstration against the Group of 20 nations summit at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Melbourne in November 2006.
Protesters tried to break a police blockade at Collins St, pushing and hurling barricades at officers, and throwing wheelie bins and milk crates. They vandalised a brawler van in a riot where bottles and objects were hurled at police.
Serial protester Ms Dehm had applied to have her conviction overturned so she can still practise as a lawyer. But Judge David Parsons said her offending – where she threw a barricade that injured a policewoman – warranted a conviction.
He said that should serve as a special punishment and deterrent so he reduced her seven month suspended jail term to 250 hours community work.
Judge Parsons said Ms Nathan, Ms Todorova and Ms Delaney had committed offences against symbols, like the police van, rather than the officers.
David Nguyen, who threw a bottle at police, lost his appeal and a conviction and 250 hours community work stands.
Steve Medcraft, from People Against Lenient Sentencing, said the upheld convictions of Ms Dehm and Mr Nguyen was to be commended but the clear record given to Ms Delaney, Ms Nathan and Ms Todorova was disappointing.
“I am sick to death of all this remorse and rehabilitation. Get down to basics if you commit crime you get sentenced,” Mr Medcraft said.
He said lifting Ms Dehm’s suspended sentence did not take into account the extent of the injuries she caused to Senior Constable Kim Dixon. The 41 year-old policewoman can no longer work after being hit when Ms Dehm threw a water filled barricade at her during the G20 protests in Collins Street.
Mr Medcraft said it was worrying Ms Dehm wanted to become a lawyer.
“If the legal profession has got this sort of person coming through the ranks [G]od helps us in the future[?]”
three
G20 protesters win reduced sentences
ABC
August 28, 2008
Four protesters sentenced over riots at the G20 summit in Melbourne in November 2006, have had their sentences reduced on appeal.
The protesters pleaded guilty to charges of riot and were convicted in the Melbourne Magistrates Court earlier this year.
The County Court overturned convictions for Sofia Todorova, Rosalie Delaney, and Beth Nathan, who are in their twenties, but sentenced them to do community work.
Twenty-five year Julia Dehm had her suspended jail term reduced to a community based order, with conviction.
Delaney, Todorova and Dehm have each been ordered to pay almost $14,000 compensation.
four
G20 protest sentences overturned
Miki Perkins
The Age
August 29, 2008
Four G20 protesters have had their sentences cut on appeal in the County Court and a fifth has lost his appeal.
They had been involved in two riots during protests at the G20 summit in Melbourne in 2006 that included throwing barricades and wheelie bins at a police brawler van.
Rosalie Delaney, 20, of Parkville, Beth Nathan, 22, of Brunswick and Sofia Todorova, 26, of Moonee Ponds had convictions recorded against them overturned.
They were ordered to do unpaid community work of between 180 and 200 hours.
Julia Dehm, 25, had her seven-month suspended sentence reduced to 250 hours of community work.
Dehm had applied to have her conviction overturned so that she could practice as a lawyer. David Nguyen, 23, of Coburg, lost his appeal. His conviction and sentence of 250 hours community work stands.
Earlier this week Doris Dehm told the court her daughter had assured her the protest would be peaceful.
After watching a video of her daughter in the demonstration Doris Dehm said: “That’s a part of Julia we’ve never seen in the 23 years (before it occurred) and have never seen since.”
The court was also shown footage of Rosalie Delaney emptying a wheelie bin into the window of the damaged police brawler van.
“Rather than follow the example set by many thousands of demonstrators, she has taken her protests up a notch,” crown prosecutor Chris Beale said.
Her lawyer, Michael O’Connell, said Delaney’s plans to spend a year studying in Paris as part of her degree could be in jeopardy because her sentence made it difficult to obtain a visa.
“involved in the ultra-violence”
Ironically once or twice annually the internet makes me want to knock someone’s teeth out…
Thrill thrill thrill
Kill kill kill
Make a scene
Knock off the Dean
Yeah yeah yeah
Bump off the square
That’s what it’s about
Hate is in, love is out
[Repeat]