BY JACKIE LYNCH
MELBOURNE — In the same week that the Victorian Ombudsman cleared police of accusations of violence at last year's S11 protests, an activist who "pied" the Victorian premier has been sentenced to prison.
Victorian Ombudsman Barry Perry tabled a report in state parliament on June 12 which found that, apart from a few incidents, police acted appropriately and within the law at the three-day protest last September. He recommended that no charges be laid against specific officers at this point.
Meanwhile, Marcus Brumer, who threw a cream pie in the face of Premier Steve Bracks, in protest at excessive police violence at S11, was sentenced in the Melbourne magistrate's court to a month's jail and was fined $750.
Police tactics were aimed at breaking apart a massive, well-organised and determined blockade, by thousands of people, of Melbourne's Crown Casino, where corporate leaders were gathered for the Asia-Pacific summit of the World Economic Forum.
The protesters came from all walks of life — from Grandmothers Against Genetically Modified Food to a giant teddy bear on stilts — to protest the injustices of corporate globalisation.
The protesters stood up bravely to police officers using fists, batons, boots, horses, headlocks, chokeholds, pressure-point grips and cars against them.
The police made only a handful of arrests during the three days and never attempted to disperse the blockades by using mass arrest.
Beatings, however, were common. At times, the S11 first aid tent resembled the set of E.R. or M*A*S*H, as volunteers struggled to cope with the influx of people with cuts, bruises, cracked ribs, broken fingers and black eyes. Over 300 were hospitalised.
Perry, however, found that the police use of force was largely justified, even though he did state that there were some undisciplined acts by individual officers.
He also found that WEF organisers had wanted greater force to be used but said he had seen no evidence that police were directed by senior government figures.
The treatment of demonstrators at S11 provoked a storm of protest — and so has the ombudsman's report. Liberty Victoria, the Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria, the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance and the Uniting Church have all criticised Perry's report.
Pauline Spencer, one of the coordinators of S11's legal team, called the report an "absolute disgrace" which gave the police force a "blank cheque" for violence.
Some believe it has even more sinister consequences for future protests and that Perry has endorsed the use of force against peaceful pickets and blockade lines and paramilitary police operations.
Another of the S11 legal team's coordinators, Damien Lawson, points out that police do not have a generalised legal right to use force and that the worrying part about Perry's report was that it endorsed summary justice.
"The role of police is to arrest people they believe have committed or are about to commit an offence. The role of the courts is to punish those found guilty. The separation of these powers is a fundamental tenet of capitalist democracy," Lawson commented.
"What the ombudsman has said is that even though the police have violated this separation, that's okay. This unmasks the sham of capitalist democracy."
What Perry describes as aberrations — police hitting protesters overhand with batons or failing to wear their nametags — were the norm at S11, protest organisers point out.
Thousands who attended the three-day protest would have witnessed the chilling sight of police officers removing their name tags prior to every deliberate confrontation with protesters.
The S11 organisers undertaking the arduous task of police liaison asked commanding officers repeatedly to ensure that their officers wore their name tags and acted within the law. To no avail: police acted unlawfully throughout the protest, using alleged provocations at one blockade point to justify police retaliations at another.
Further, the most violent assaults on protesters took place when there was no objective reason for them. During the morning and evening of September 12, when police in riot gear assaulted hundreds of protesters, the casino complex was wide open at several other entrances and delegates could have strolled through police lines at these points.
In another incident, on the evening of September 13, a young woman was run over by an unmarked police car which drove straight through a line of blockaders, just as the whole protest was winding down.
Clearly, protest organisers argue, the police were keen to follow the path of most resistance in order to crack some protesters' heads.
Despite the report, several of those injured by police at S11 are planning to proceed with civil changes.
Marcus Clayton, a partner for law firm Slater and Gordon which is representing more than 100 people injured by police during the protest, believes that the report may even be a "boost" for such claims, as it admits that police actions "might well expose police to accountability by way of civil claims".
Over the last 10 years, the Victorian police have paid out millions of dollars in damages to people they have assaulted, illegally searched or detained. While they may have been cleared by the ombudsman, S11, S12 and S13 may still turn out to be a very expensive three days of handiwork for the Victorian police.