In response to the backflip by the NSW Police and acting Commissioner David Hudson about the planned Palestinian rallies in Sydney on Sunday, the Greens are calling for responsible community policing to be exercised instead of extraordinary and draconian police powers.
Greens MP and spokesperson for Justice Sue Higginson said “Earlier this week, acting Commission Hudson urged the community to show restraint and respect. What we are hearing now is that the Police will be using extraordinary and draconian powers as a tool of force against the right to peaceful and lawful assembly,”
“Communities around the world are hurting and a peaceful gathering in response to the horrific violence occurring in Gaza and Israel is just and reasonable. The NSW Government should be supporting these peaceful expression, not punishing them,”
“The Police refused to authorise a planned gathering at Town Hall this Sunday. Acting Commissioner Hudson said however, that the gathering would not be unlawful and that the primary role of police is to maintain public safety. The community out of respect for the police process moved the event to Hyde Park. Now the Acting Commissioner has threatened to invoke some of the most draconian powers available to police that relate to public gathering and Police Officers will be there exercising powers that are intimidatory and completely out of line with the nature of the event,”
“This is dangerous police escalation behaviour and it has got to stop. If the police dedicated as many resources to effective community policing and peacekeeping as they are proposing to use in this paramilitary operation then the gathering at Hyde Park could be guaranteed to be safe for everyone that is attending, and not. Instead, heavily armed police with orders to intimidate and move on will be escalating the tensions and emotions for all involved,”
“Given that the Minister for Agriculture representing the Police Minister falsely asserted in Parliament on Wednesday that the protest on Monday night was illegal, and that the Premier has said that he will shut down the protest on Sunday, the community should be concerned that political interference in police operations is occurring,”
“Excessive policing of peaceful people does not provide safety and it does not provide confidence. Armed officers, with powers that are not in regular use, who are then put into large crowd environments is a recipe for disaster and I urge the acting Commissioner in the strongest possible terms to reconsider this decision,”
“It is unnecessary, and frankly dangerous, to implement these extraordinary powers for police in response to an event that is being planned as a demonstration of peace and mourning. The acting Commissioner has not provided any evidence of the justification to authorise these powers and he should remain aware that the Parliament is taking a keen interest in what is unfolding in the police command structure,”
“It is completely unacceptable that a Labor Government would be crushing political expression by the NSW community and it represents a dangerous slide by the NSW Police that they are targeting certain communities with excessive force and policing,” Ms Higginson said.
