Demonstrations against the Melbourne weapons expo have continued in the city's CBD. Police arrested a woman who set her hand in concrete in a car in protest against the land forces expo.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00This massive police operation continues for a third day.
00:05You can see this big line of police backed by crime squad officers and then detectives
00:10behind that.
00:12And they're all behind this large barricade that still forms this so-called ring of steel
00:18around the northern edge of Spencer Street Bridge.
00:22You can see behind here there's a relatively small group of protesters, about 60 to 70
00:29people that are here, they've been protesting throughout the morning.
00:34They've also been heckling various attendees to the Land Forces Expo as they've been coming
00:40through the barricade, shouting things like shame and murderer.
00:45And they want to draw attention to the plight of Palestinians as the war continues to rage
00:51in Gaza.
00:52But we have seen several arrests here when police have been asking people to show their
00:59bags so they can search them if they've failed to comply with police directions.
01:04They've been very quickly taken through to be processed.
01:07We've seen plenty of people with their bags being searched as well here.
01:12And earlier on this morning we saw quite a bizarre protest, this was probably only about
01:17500 metres down the Yarra River on Kingsway, where traffic was brought to a standstill
01:23when a woman actually managed to chain and then concrete herself into the back of a car.
01:31So her hand was caught in there, police had to come along and get jacks to move the car
01:37up and basically crab walk her to the side of the road before using a jackhammer to be
01:42able to free and then arrest her.
01:45Her and a driver were also arrested, two women, and witnesses say that before that a man was
01:52running through the traffic and indiscriminately smashing windscreens.
01:56The truck driver of a windscreen that was smashed, AJ Kumar, says it was really quite
02:02a shocking situation.
02:03This guy was right in the middle of the intersection and he was smashing all the cars and trucks
02:08and as soon as I reached the intersection he started approaching me and then he smashed
02:13the windscreen.
02:15And AJ Kumar says that he was really quite upset with the situation and he says that
02:20all of the people that were doing this were basically just causing problems and traffic
02:27jams but one of the protesters that I spoke to down there said that that man had no part
02:33of their day of action.
02:35He wasn't involved.
02:36However, there's no way that we can independently verify that.
02:40Now protesters claim that on Wednesday when we saw those violent clashes that it was a
02:48case of excessive force being used by police and the Greens continue to call for an inquiry
02:54into police operations.
02:56However, that's been very quickly shut down by the Premier, Jacinta Allen.
03:01This is what she had to say on ABC Radio Melbourne this morning.
03:05Victoria Police had plans for this in place and they responded as they should because
03:10they had a focus on keeping the community safe.
03:14In the context where some people, RAF, turned up on Wednesday carrying rocks, carrying bottles
03:19filled with liquid as the Chief Commissioner has identified had some sort of acidic substance
03:24in it.
03:25That's not an intent to protest peacefully.
03:27That's Premier Jacinta Allen there and these demonstrators say that there is going to be
03:32more action this afternoon as this Land Forces Expo draws to a close and we've heard from
03:38police about yesterday's protest as well which they said which was more peaceful than
03:43Wednesday's violent clashes.
03:45Nevertheless, five people were arrested, two for carrying weapons and bag searchers also
03:51uncovered things like red paint, marbles and small rocks which would have been used to
03:57hinder police horses.
03:59They say that police horses actually also showed signs of skin irritation and that was
04:06after protesters had sprayed liquid directly into the animals' noses on Wednesday and they
04:14also say they're continuing to investigate assaults against various delegates including
04:19one who had urine and faeces tipped on him.