https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-11/live-blog-land-forces-protest-melbourne-israel-gaza/104333922#live-blog-post-122191
Police say officers were pelted with missiles and acid by demonstrators at an anti-war rally, with 24 officers requiring medical attention. Follow live.
Yep. The whole thing stinks. Cops have a nasty habit of either intentionally escalating, or at the very least, not trying to de-escalate protests and similar large scale events
The police didn't bring any violence, have you watched any footage at all of these fuckwit protesters? They are there to create conflict.
The only thing that was really sad to see about this was the horses
Cops bringing animals to protests they plan to start violence in is fucked. I feel the same about the attack dogs they sometimes use too. It seems like they bring them solely as some kind of power projection, and in the case of dogs, so they can inflict serious injury without any kind of investigation stemming from it, and with the moral quandary that most people can't or won't hurt an animal
I don't condone anybody harming animals, but it seems like police have animals mainly so they can provoke people into injuring the animals and then yelling about how unfair it is the animals get injured. Also, we aren't in 17th century Britain, don't bring a fucking horse to a protest you archaic savages.
The British police still love nothing more than a mounted charge on football rioters. Or at a peaceful candlelit vigil if the protestors unhelpfully refuse to become rioters.
I did cackle a bit at the cops complaining about people hurling horse shit.
Gee. I wonder how the protestors got hold of that.
You know the horses also cause serious injuries yeah? Like the whole point of them is so cops can move protestors for fear of being stepped on.
You know that doesn't make it any better yeah? Like the idea they force animals to go injure people they don't like is pretty fucked.
Oh, if I came across like I was supportive at all, my apologies. It's completely fucked. It just seemed like you were saying they bring out the dogs, specifically, because they need an animal that causes injuries. Horses do that too, I guess people discount that because a) They can't really be made to be violent on their own, and b) because most people who ride horses these days know better than to walk directly up to a human being and then keep going.
The other side of the cops statement about shit being thrown at the horses too is just, how do you know they just didn't miss? lol
a liquid irritant, some of which has been identified as acid
'Acid' hardly narrows it down... Often the cops will say it's 'acid' when people throw rancid butter bottles, which obviously are designed to stink, not maim. They're trying to bullshit the public into believing that protestors are trying to give cops chemical burns. Meanwhile, the cops are using capsicum spray, tear gas and rubber bullets.
I was actually thinking it looks a bit like tomato sauce. Tomato sauce has a vinegar base and is mildly acidic, right? It's also a red liquid...
Tomatos are plenty acidic on their own - if they were saucing people it woukd do it. Personally i woulda siracha'd (which has a heavy vinegar base btw) but i'm sadistic
Meh, the cops kind of had it coming. Objectively poor behaviour, but maybe if the cops went in with respect and tried to de-escalate, things would've been less violent
It could literally be yoghurt or vinegar, if it was actually anything worst they would've stated what it was.
It wasn't a peace march, the organisers called for attendees to carry out citizen's arrests on anyone they believed to be attending the convention. In 7:30's footage you can see random people who have no connection to anything happening trying to walk past and being assaulted by protestors because of how they dress. The language used by the protestors was not "we are here to protest" but instead "we are here to disrupt" so their intentions yesterday were clearly never to be peaceful. In the footage you can also see some of them deliberately and repeatedly running into the police while filming for TikTok so they can be pushed away and scream about police brutality to their viewers.
EDIT: I should make clear that I'm referring to the organisers of the event and those protestors involved in violence. From what I understand there were like 2000 - 3000 people there and clearly not all of them were causing problems.
I bet you that the police escalated the situation and are in fact to blame for the violence.