Saturday, November 18, 2006
JIHAD20
The ABC’s Alison Caldwell previews events in Melbourne:
The G20 summit gets underway with a dinner tonight, with the conference beginning tomorrow morning. A large but peaceful protest march is expected in the city tomorrow afternoon.
So organisers promised. But the protesting classes routinely lie, as the ABC is now aware:
A protest against the G20 Summit in Melbourne has turned violent with some members of the crowd kicking police horses and throwing eggs at officers.
About 2,000 chanting protesters have marched through Melbourne towards the venue of the G20.
A police van has been destroyed and barricade lines broken as the protest turns ugly.
Protesters have thrown glass bottles, flares and steel rods at police, and upturned barricades were also hurled at police in riot gear.
Police officers on horses were forced to move away from protesters after some kicked the legs of the animals.
Few arrests are reported; apparently the police have adopted a “maximum tolerance” policy. Palestinians were proudly represented:
Go to the above link (or visit Andrew Landeryou) for further images. Among other incidents:
Several police have been injured in the running clashes, a police spokeswoman said. One officer sustained a suspected broken wrist and had been taken to hospital.
A television journalist was reportedly set upon by 20 people and kicked and punched.
We await condemnation of this from Reporters Without Borders.
Demonstrators, many masked and covered head-to-toe in white protective suits, marched on the police lines, throwing glass bottles, bags of rubbish and plastic milk crates. Metal barricades and water-filled plastic barriers were overturned and used as battering rams against lines of police.
Naturally, police are blamed:
Police widened the security cordon around the G20 summit over night, bundling protesters out of the new no-go zone and closing Collins St.
One of the protesters described the police action as “provocative”.
Jessica Morrison, a member of the G20 Christian Collective, said police approached eight members of the group about 3.45am and told them to pack up their “embassy” on the corner of Collins and Exhibition streets and move on ...
She said that, while the police had not been rough, “to be told to move out of sight was somewhat offensive”.
Stupid Presbyterians. ANZ bank spokesman Paul Edwards observed these offensive antics:
(W)hen they came in they bowled over our branch manager, and at our Swanston Street branch in Chinatown, brochures were trashed and a charity collection box had been smashed open and strewn all over the ground.
Smash the state, kids. One charity collection box at a time.