APEC : The more things change

Juliet Herd, Class War thugs prepare to bash police, The Sun, April 6, 1990:

Class War, Crowbar, Spartacus, Counter Information, Red and Black, The Hurricane… be afraid if ever you hear those names whispered on our city streets. Be very afraid, because evil follows their every move and they drag around with them the stench of anarchy. Last week, not for the first time, they brought bloodshed to the streets of London. Their kicking, punching, missile-hurling orgy ended in 370 police, 86 members of the public and 20 horses being injured in various degrees of severity… and they warn of more violence to come. At the forefront of the shameful rioting, under the guise of an anti-Poll Tax demonstration, were warriors of Class War. They had hijacked Britain’s biggest peaceful protests for at least two decades and proved beyond doubt they mean business. Under their black flag banners and wearing t-shirts showing a meat cleaver sinking into Prime Minister Mrs Thatcher, the anarchists fired the first shots in a full-scale war against capitalism, and democracy as we know it…

Bruce Tobin, Protest ‘totally over the top’, say police, The Age, January 4, 1992:

Baton-wielding police and hundreds of angry protesters clashed during President Bush’s whistle-stop visit to Melbourne yesterday. Protesters hurled rocks, bottles, cricket balls, horse shoes, metal-tipped sticks, mud and horse manure at police and tossed ball bearings on the road to unsettle police horses. The acting police chief commissioner, Mr John Frame, said last night the behaviour shown by many protesters was “totally over the top”. He said the wild protest had fallen to the levels of the Vietnam War and Springbok demonstrations. Mr Frame branded some of the protesters as “rock apes” and said police would have to review the way they responded during future protests…

Paul Molloy, A need for riot gear — police, The Sun, January 4, 1992:

…The head of police at the World Congress Centre, Chief Insp. Brendan Bannan, said protesters used “hit and run” tactics not seen since the Vietnam War demonstrations. And Insp. Paul Evans, who organised police on the streets, said it was the worst violence he had witnessed during 18 years on the force. Both Chief Insp Bannan and Mr Frame also expressed concern that violent demonstrations appeared to be becoming more frequent. Mr Frame said while the police administration did not want to see members donning riot gear, “I am not prepared to see our young members made human punching bags and subject to the sort of violence and nonsense they have had today.”

Bushwhackers, The Sun editorial, January 7, 1992:

Make no mistake — the organisers of the wild Melbourne demonstrations against the Bush visit were out to create chaos. We doubt that the wider conglomeration of ratbags and misfits who wrought havoc cared about the token issues invoked as justification by the leaders. For some rioters, cop-bashing relieved the monotony of life on the dole. So did invading a public building. But the International Socialist Organisation which orchestrated the melee knew precisely what it was about: it was following the age-old tactic of discrediting authority by provoking the police. Core of the protest was a collection of the same stirrers who created havoc at the AIDEX defence exhibition in Canberra recently… Who can blame the very young, inexperienced constables charged with protecting the world’s most powerful man, if they over-reacted at times? It can’t be pleasant to be pummelled by mindless hoons, or spat on by a mob containing AIDS activists. Australians have a right to protest. But this does not include licence to break the law. As the foreign-based organisation which masterminded Friday’s riot knows very well, that way anarchy lies.

Robyn Dixon, Bruce Tobin, David Bruce and Hugo Kelly, Students’ city brawl, The Age, March 28, 1992:

About 2000 students stormed the steps of State Parliament late yesterday during a violent demonstration in which 22 police were injured and the doors of Parliament locked… Police released four students they had arrested, to defuse the violence. The officer in charge of the operation, Inspector Doug Hocking, described the brawl as the worst violence he had experienced in 22 years…*

Gerard Ryle, Anarchists blamed for uni protest, The Age, March 30, 1992:

The deputy chief police commissioner, Mr John Frame, has started criminal investigations into what he called a “small core of anarchists” responsible for violence during a student protest outside Parliament last Thursday. He said yesterday that police might seize media video reports of the protest, which left 15 police injured, to help identify those responsible… “Police are sick and tired of not only being punching bags, but targets for hurled objects…”

Andrew Bolt, Our cops go girlie, Herald Sun, November 22, 2006:

Let’s first go through more pictures from the protest outside the G20 meeting of world finance ministers. Hey, there’s tutu woman again, this time monstering your riot police with her new baton, without a single officer daring to arrest her. And here’s one of your police standing meekly in a line, not defending themselves or their dignity, while some hooligan on the roof gives them a long, humiliating drenching with a hose. See how few risk lifting a baton with striking intent, even when being spat on, bitten, hit with rubbish bins, pelted with garbage and rammed with plastic barriers? I’ve seen punching bags with more fight…

AAP, Police not punching bags, Sydney Morning Herald, September 1, 2007:

New NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione says he will not tolerate having his officers used as punching bags by protesters during the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit. Addressing reporters on his first day as police commissioner, Mr Scipione said Sydney’s APEC meeting was his first priority and challenge and the force was ready. “The most important thing from my perspective is (officers) now have been given very clear directions … our police, particularly in APEC are not there to be punching bags, they are not there to be spat upon, they are not there to be assaulted and if people do that our police will act appropriately, but they will be very decisive, it will be very rapid,” Mr Scipione.

*Students rally against loans scheme, Green Left Weekly, April Fools’ Day, 1992:

In Melbourne, Dirk Welsford and Vannessa Hearman report a rally of 3000 in the City Square. Speakers included Rob Houghton of NUS, Chris Raab from Melbourne University, and representatives from the Public Sector Union and the Union of Academics. At the end of a march to Parliament House, four students were arrested as a handful of police tried to prevent the students occupying the steps in front of the building. When a crowd of about 200 surrounded the paddy wagon, police took the names of the four and released them, saying they would be charged on summons. A few protesters verbally abused the majority who wanted to concentrate on the education issue rather than the clash with police…