Grata is deeply concerned by documented scenes of police violence against protesters in Sydney on Monday.
Grata has viewed video footage that shows:
- Police roughly picking up, dragging, throwing, and pushing Muslim men kneeling on the ground engaged in prayer, and pushing people over who were trying to protect those praying;
- A group of police grabbing and punching a man at least 7 times who had his hands up in the air, then violently pushing him to the ground.
- Two police officers punching a young man who was restrained on the ground with his arms behind his back, punching him twice in the head and 18 times on his body, around his stomach and kidneys
- Large, intimidating groups of police charging at protesters standing in the streets
- Excessive use of a chemical weapon (tear gas), in many instances, directly into people's eyes at close range.
- A Sydney grandmother suffered four broken vertebrae after being "violently" pushed to the ground while trying to leave the protest
- A 78 year old said man suffered a cut to his elbow when police pulled both his arms behind his back that required six stitches and an x-ray to rule out fracture
- Ms Abigail Boyd, NSW Greens MP says she suffered a neck injury with footage showing police shoving her twice. She was treated at a Sydney hospital and placed in a neck brace.
- A spokesperson for NSW Ambulance said five protestors were transported to hospital suffering various injuries including a woman in her 60s for a back injury and two police officers treated at the scene, one who allegedly had a thumb bitten by a protester.
Legal observers NSW have released an initial report detailing observations of:
- high visibility policing with early and disproportionate escalation tactics, police allegedly assaulting people not affiliated with the protest,
- use of pepper spray including an account of goggles being ripped off a person's face and pepper spray applied directly to eyes,
- protesters were kicked and punched by police, including in situations where they were complying with police directions or assisting others,
- police not providing medical assistance to protestors in their custody
- two legal observers who were assaulted and obstructed by police
Yesterday, the Minns Government and NSW police undermined our democratic right to peaceful protest by restricting the ability for people to march peacefully to our parliament, whilst video evidence indicates NSW Police assaulted and used violent, excessive force and chemical weapons (tear gas) on peaceful protestors, and engaged in escalatory policing tactics such as kettling and trapping protestors.
In media interviews yesterday, Assistant Police Commissioner Peter McKenna and Premier Minns claimed that protestors enacted violence toward police; however, we have yet to see any evidence to substantiate these claims. Instead, we have seen a swathe of evidence that substantiates allegations of police violence towards protesters.
“People across Australia have watched deeply distressing footage of police punching protestors, including one man pinned to the ground being punched around the kidneys and stomach at least 18 times and twice in the head by two police officers. Despite this, Minns and the Assistant Police Commissioner are telling us not to believe our own eyes. It’s Orwellian, and is impossible for the community of New South Wales to trust either of them to investigate the conduct of NSW Police,” said Belinda Lowe, Director of Campaigns and Communications, Grata Fund.
“Grata joins with other human rights and civil liberties organisations and calls for an urgent independent investigation into police conduct,” she said.
“We call on police to release all footage of the event to the public, including body-cam footage, drone footage and other video surveillance, unredacted and unedited, so that the public, media and expert human rights organisations can scrutinise for themselves.”
The right to peaceful protest is fundamental to a healthy democracy and flourishing communities. Premier Minns has repeatedly undermined this right in our democracy in public comments, policing decisions and rushing anti-protest laws through parliament.
“Authoritarian governments seek to expand their power to stamp out dissent and criticism where it’s politically uncomfortable or inconvenient. The Minns Government’s continual erosion of protest rights leads us down a troubling path, threatening the democracy we hold dear in Australia,” said Ms Lowe.
“Australians have watched with horror as ICE agents inflict violence against protestors in Minnesota and across the US. This is not something we want to see brought here by Minns and Albanese,” said Ms Lowe.
In 2024 Grata Fund and the Australian Democracy Network released a report, In Defence of Dissent, that found the right to protest has been under unprecedented attack in Australia. In 2023, a United Nations Special Rapporteur raised the alarm on Australia’s “troubling” and “draconian” protest rights restrictions in several states, and in 2019, the CIVICUS Monitor — a global alliance monitoring the health of civil liberties — downgraded Australia’s civic space from “open” to “narrowed”, citing the increasing number of anti-protest laws as a contributing factor. The CIVICUS Monitor’s latest reporting in 2024 upheld Australia’s “narrowed” status.
The focus of the protest on Monday is of deep and serious concern to many members of the community. The UN Independent International Committee of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory found that Israel has committed genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and Prime Minister Herzog incited genocide. The conduct of the state of Israel is currently subject to genocide proceedings before the International Court of Justice, and Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant have been indicted for crimes against humanity and war crimes by the International Criminal Court.