Education Department targeted protesters

Education Department targeted protesters

By Alex Cooper

MELBOURNE — The senselessly violent tactics used by police against protesters at Richmond Secondary College on December 13 now appear to have an explanation. In the week before the baton charge, police were briefed about some of the protesters' political affiliations by officials from the Department of Secondary Education, according to a report in the Age of April 14.

The Age claims to have obtained police records which show that officials all the way up to the director of Secondary Education, Geoff Spring, told police that members of left groups were likely to be there on Bloody Monday and that someone was likely to attack them with a high-powered slingshot.

This "information" shaped police tactics on the day. At a briefing before the attack, police were told that they could expect violence from the protesters.

The day after the baton charge, the Age was handed a document by the government which outlined the political affiliations of some of the protesters. A an investigation revealed that this information was suspect. For example, an 83-year-old woman, it was claimed, had been a member of the Communist Party. Not only was this wrong, but she had not been near Richmond Secondary College for some months due to illness.

From GLW issue 139