Rally against police violence
By Alex Cooper
MELBOURNE — Wearing a variety of masks, a small group of people demonstrated outside the South Melbourne police station on March 11 to protest against bashings by police of people taken into custody.
South Melbourne police in particular have a reputation of violence against people they arrest. One such is Shannon Ewart, a 43-year-old woman who alleges she was beaten so severely by police last April, after being arrested for graffiti, that she had to be hospitalised.
Ewart claims that following her discharge from St Vincents Hospital, she was taken back to South Melbourne and bashed and indecently assaulted before being sent to Fairlea Prison on remand, where she was also bashed. She is currently awaiting an appeal. A statement detailing her ordeal was read out to the group.