THE NEXT G20 Arrestees benefit:

G20 Arrestees Solidarity Benefit, Saturday 31st March at the Arthouse (cnr Queensberry and Elizabeth Streets, just outside the city)
starring:

Legends of Motorsport
The Assassination Collective
The Focus
Kids with Guns for Hands

… and you! Come along and show your support and hand over your cash!

8:30pm start. $10 entry.

there are some nice pictures too!

indymedia

rebel love to all

the age

Police put bite on G20 suspect

Leo Shanahan
March 20, 2007 - 2:00PM

Police will force a man accused of violent protest at last year’s G20 conference to undergo a photographic examination of his teeth in an attempt to identify him in file photos.

Daniel Jones, 20, will have his teeth photographed by police later today to confirm that he was the man with a characteristic gap in his front teeth who was hurling abuse at police during the protests in November last year.

Supported by a group of about 30 protesters, Jones faced Melbourne Magistrates Court today along with three other men - Timothy Davis-Frank, 22, Daniel Robbins 24 and Sunil Menon, 25 - after being arrested in dramatic morning raids in Sydney on March 14.

It was the first time the men had faced a Victorian court after being extradited from Sydney.

All have been charged with offences relating to violent protests in central Melbourne during last November’s G20 conference.

The men, all hailing from Sydney’s inner western suburbs, were charged with a range of offences including unlawful assembly, riot, conduct endangering persons and aggravated burglary.

Jones is accused of causing $9483 worth of damage to a police brawler van that was stationed on the corner of Flinders Lane and Exhibition Street.

A 17-year-old Sydney teenager was also charged and will face a children’s court.

A small group of protesters out the front of the court called for all charges to be dropped, and criticised the use of anti-terror police squads during arrests.

"We are here to defend our rights and are to protest the G20 and calling for all charges to be dropped," said Anita, a spokeswoman for the group.

When asked whether rioting protesters should be held accountable for their actions, Anita told theage.com.au: "We think a distinction should be made between violence and property damage."

Magistrate Sarah Dawes said the men were free to return to Sydney after having their bail extended and will reappear in Melbourne Magistrates Court on May 11

FW:
This email represents only my own opinions and views and has not been written with the advice or help of anybody else.  I am responsible for this statement.

p.s. i would just like to pay homage to the amazing political activist Tanya Reinhardt who died today. She was an inspiration for all human beings.

Dear friends, family, colleagues and comrades,

On Wednesday the 14th of March, 2007 i was woken at 6 am by 8 armed men and women who had demanded entry to my family home. These men and women identified themselves as police officers from a range of police organisations; NSW Police, Vic Police, Federal Police and Counter-Terrorism Agents. 2 other officers in dark clothing and gloved came around the back of the house - i assume to cover any attempted escape - and 1 officer filmed everything on a digital camera.

The police explained that they were raiding my house in relation to protests that I had attended in Melbourne last November. These protests had occurred in relation to the G20 economic forum that was held in Melbourne at that time. After seizing clothing and my university backpack, i was officially arrested and taken to Surrey Hills Police Station.

Similar arrests have occurred to some 48 other students and activists around Australia over the past 4 months. (I have heard of cases where the process of arrest has led to serious personal injuries, significant property damage, loss of jobs and in one case an individual was locked up for a month without bail.)

Personally this arrest is the second time that i have experienced the force of Victorian Counter Terrorism Agents in relation to this protest. On the night of the protests in Melbourne (18/11/06) i was snatched by roughly 8 unidentifiable men and forced into an unmarked white van as i attempted to walk with friends away from the protests.

Without identifying themselves the men in the van tied my hands behind my back, forced me to lie face down on the floor of the van and proceeded to interrogate me, punching me repeatedly in the face if i didn’t answer their questions quickly enough and once for accidentally calling one of them ‘mate’.

This is the first time i have talked about this publicly, apart from with close friends, family, my lawyer and an officer who photographed my injuries and bruising at the police station. i have been too afraid of antagonising the police further and having this happen again…

…now it has happened again.

There is one point i would beg you to consider after hearing about what has happened.

This is not just a story about me, or a story about Melbourne.

The arrests that have resulted from the Melbourne protests are not an isolated example of new policing techniques. This is not simply a case of protesters taking things too far and police having to hunt down and arrest the criminal thugs responsible. This is not an occasion when things went ‘wrong’ in isolation.

Riot Police and Counter Terrorism Snatch Squads present in Melbourne in November, have also been deployed at the Free David Hicks rallies around Australia, Anti-VSU (voluntary student union) student rallies in Sydney, Anti-War demonstrations, Global Warming Awareness Campaigns and marches against Industrial Relations changes. Police surveillance and undercover "snatches" are occurring on university campuses with alarming support from university administration and security forces. Without counting the G20 arrestees, over the last year and a half at least three dozen students at Sydney University alone have been arrested and charged in court for protesting, some multiple times. Less than a handful of these cases were for any activity more serious than refusing to move away from the protest, and the large majority didn’t even resist arrest.

And yet they spend sometimes over a year going through the court processes, and face the possibility of criminal records.

This policing also occurs at the same time as media organisations are increasingly controlled by fewer and fewer powerful parties, and the public broadcasters such as ABC and SBS are attacked for posing political questions. Academic and scientific communities are frequently raising alarm about government policing and censuring of their findings. Military and intelligence leaders are personally attacked for speaking about military tactics or concerns that do not match those of the government.

Recent books such as "Silencing Dissent" and "Do Not Disturb" are essential reading and provide countless statements and examples that even public service officials are fearful of speaking truthfully about the current political situation in Australia, and the world.

Protesters are not the only people who worry about the state of the world.

YES - the protests in Melbourne made striking front-page photographs.
YES - there was a lot of passion, anger, verbal and physical expressions of dissent.
YES - normally this dissent is not expressed in such a public manner.

But NO - this was not an example of random violence or thuggish behaviour.

I went to the G20 protests to have my dissenting voice heard, the response has been extreme repression, inter-state anti-terror raids, media stigmatisation, public ridicule and jail sentences.

We are concerned citizens, concerned students, concerned human beings… A world without people who speak up is not a safer world for anybody to live in.

from the sun-herald (sydney)

STUDENTS suspect ASIO and police officers have been spying on the Sydney University campus after undergraduate activists were arrested last week.

Three activists and a university librarian taken into custody on Wednesday have been accused by Victorian detectives of taking part in last year’s G20 protest violence in Melbourne. But student leaders say the arrests were also linked to State and Federal Government attempts to intimidate them in the lead-up to Sydney’s APEC summit in September.

The four men were roused from their Sydney homes at dawn, strip-searched and charged with riot, affray, unlawful assembly and dangerous conduct. A fifth suspect subsequently turned himself in.

The four activists charged on Wednesday - Sunil Menon, 25, of Darlington, Daniel Jones, 20, of Balmain, Timothy Davis-Frank, 22, of Bronte and Daniel Robbins, 23, of Newtown - will face Melbourne Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday. A 17-year-old youth was also charged.

The university’s Student Representative Council has written to vice-chancellor Gavin Brown insisting he clarify whether the presence of ASIO, state or federal police on campus constitutes an infringement of rights.

Source: The Sun-Herald

 

 
by Vk

[edited a little]

Well sorry but i’d have a letter with a few angry things to say in reply to all this too but now i’m gonna be in Melb on Tuesday hopefully i can talk with people. But don’t expect me to be at the rally out front.

Firstly i do agree with some of the sentiment of the open letter. The last paragraph in particular. Arrestees should get in touch. There’s not many times when you’re faced with the full shit of the system when there will be so many people willing to support you. The most important thing in all this is that the arrestees get off. That is what the campaign should be aimed at. Even before i became particularly tied up in all of this i had serious concerns from the statements that have been released that this was the case.

What has really got me pissed about all this is the talk around whether people are running a political case or not. I will make certain decisions when i know more about my case and if anyone tells me i’m not being ‘political’ i will verbally rip their heads off. Additionally in the assumption that by only following what y’all have decided are people being ‘political’ it has pretty much shown that the agenda for this campaign is set.

I don’t blame people for that. The Solidarity Network got it’s shit together very quickly in a difficult situation. That was important. But unfortunately there seems now to be a fairly unchangeable vanguardist tendency that is getting some (fairly inconsequential) media and as a result media statements are being thrown out like they’re going out of fashion.

If people have decided that the political agenda of fighting further police repression is more important than the solidarity side then y’all should change name. I obviously agree fighting police repression is important but that isn’t the same as solidarity with the arrestees, especially if you’re forcing people to distance themselves because they aren’t taking on a particular version of being ‘political’. Again i know that people have done a lot of solid support stuff for arrestees, but unfortunately for many of us that has to be separate from the politics.

It’s very early for many of us - we’ve got months of this to go. And on that point it is shoddy to try to make people decide how they’re going to run their cases before we’ve even received a brief of evidence. Once that happens i will suppport all arrestees who choose to be as pragmatic as possible in getting off. And i will strongly defend that as a political choice with anyone who chooses to take it up with me.

This is where i’ll add that i’m not new to being arrested or having an early morning knock on the door from the cops. In a similar situation previously i took the lawyers advice over the solidarity campaign’s and i was bloody grateful for it. In our lives we constantly navigate a line between wanting to be outside the system and being forced back in. This is a really odd time to ask the arrestee’s to choose absolutely to not compromise ourselves. Please give me a recent example of a public political campaign getting someone (a protester especially) off.

And here’s my harshest point. Even if i could i would not be involved in the political campaign as it stands. The politics being articulated are shit. Civil liberties and right to protest. Who for? And why are we pleading that we are legitimate? Who wants that? I don’t want to be legitimate within this system. Why don’t you just get Thomas Kenneally to say that protest is the birthright of Australians as he did out the front of my previous court case. Too bad for all of us born outside Australia then.

This liberal democracy line is bullshit. There’s an opportunity here to run a campaign that doesn’t back down on the politics, but it seems like too many people are watering it down (or maybe they are just liberals at heart) just to get a media bite. I’d put more trust in a lawyer that takes on my case being helpful than i ever would in the media being useful to us.

Running a campaign with politics that aren’t watered down would mean it has to be separate from direct solidarity stuff with the arrestees but as i’ve already said that isn’t necessarily a problem as long as no-one tries to talk on behalf of us. It’s not like the current campaign is being run with a heap of input from the arrested. If it became possible arrestees could decide for themselves if they wanted to be involved in the political side of things without fearing that what’s at stake is losing the suppport of the solidarity network. But at the moment i’m not able to be involved, and i imagine many others don’t feel in the headspace to really take that on. Fuck martyrdom and fuck Che.

from the daily telegraph

Anti-terror police swoop on activists’ homes

 

By Mark Buttler and Paul Anderson

 

March 15, 2007 12:00

 

ANTI-terror police swooped on alleged Melbourne G20 rioters as they slept in their Sydney beds yesterday.

Four men were dragged from their homes to face charges over the riot and other serious offences.

A fifth later turned himself in to police.

The dramatic arrests followed a four-month search for activists allegedly associated with Arterial Bloc, a radical protest group blamed for much of the violence at the meeting of 20 of the world’s economic powers.

Police from the NSW anti-terrorism unit joined Victorian detectives in the pre-dawn raids.

Supporters of the arrested men accused police of kicking down doors. They said dozens of police ransacked the homes.

It is believed three of the men are Sydney University students and a fourth is a Sydney University librarian.

Those charged over the riots were Daniel Robins, 23, of Newtown; Sunil Menon, 25, of Darlington; Daniel Jones, 20, of Balmain East; and Timothy Davis-Frank, 22, of Bronte.

A 17-year-old from Haberfield was also arrested and faced a Children’s Court.

Mr Menon was also charged with two counts of aggravated burglary.

Mr Davis-Frank was also charged with conduct endangering a person and two counts of aggravated burglary.

It is believed police seized items of clothing as evidence.

The four adults were bailed from Sydney Central Local Court on conditions that they report daily to police, reside at their home address, not contact prosecution witnesses and do not go to any points of international departure.

They will face Melbourne Magistrates’ Court next Tuesday.

Yesterday’s raids sparked an angry reaction from members of the so-called "G20 defence collective", who vowed to protest outside a NSW court complex today and tomorrow in the hope of having all charges dropped.

NSW police are expected to be out in force in case of any trouble.

"These actions by the police terrorism investigation squad are a gross attack on democratic rights," member Paddy Gibson said.

"That these police are even being used for protest matters is outrageous. Doors were kicked in and places ransacked by dozens of police.

"We demand all charges be dropped immediately."

The arrests came after Victorian detectives from Taskforce Salver analysed thousands of images captured on security cameras and taken by the media during the riot.

Callers from Crime Stoppers also helped.

As the arrested men were being bailed yesterday, Victoria Police released pictures of two G20 protesters still wanted for questioning.

They are high on Operation Salver’s list of persons of interest.

One is a woman who wore a tutu during the Melbourne protests and managed to wrest a baton from a police officer in full riot gear.

She then stood in front of the policeman and threatened him with his own weapon.

"While detectives are pleased with the results so far, Operation Salver is not over," Det Sen-Sgt Ivan McKinney said last night.

"Investigators are still following further avenues of inquiry.

"Anybody with information regarding these two persons of interest can call Crime Stoppers."

Melbourne police were accused of going "softly, softly" under orders and appeared overwhelmed during the G20 summit.

By contrast, Sydney police met protesters with force when US Vice-President Dick Cheney visited last month. They tackled hard and arrested lawbreakers on the spot.

An open letter to the G20 arrestees:

Hi all. Wondering who you are and how you’re going. Have been going to a few of
the solidarity meetings. Its funny that I haven’t seen any of you there. Its
pretty difficult to run a campaign in solidarity with people when you don’t
know:
who they are
what they’ve been charged with
what they want to do

But anyway, we press on. I hear on the grapevine that you’ve been charged
variously with:
riot
affray
conduct endangering life

Riot and affray are pretty standard to any student demo. conduct endangering
life is a new one though. And just today some kids in Sydney have been charged
with burglary - very weird. I’m not sure what they’re supposed to have
burgled….
Anyway, apparently they’ve been tracked down by the Victorian anti-terror
police. This is kind of scary - the repression is being ratcheted up - or at
least the waters are being tested.

And from the perspective of the state, the water seems fine…

My understanding of conduct endangering life is that it is a charge that alleges
that you engaged in conduct that could have caused death, whereas conduct
endangering persons is saying that you could have hurt somebody. This is a
fucking ambit claim - but its a useful way to scare the shit out of people and
get them to hang on the every word of their lawyers. Lawyers are naturally
conservative beasts - I’ve only ever heard one lawyer tell student protesters
that the best way to get out of the charges was to fight them politically,
through rallies, public meetings, etc. And he was right in my case.
Unfortunately, he now works for the Police Association…. Fuck you Marcus
Clayton, if you’re reading this. I know that the lawyers are telling you that a
political campaign will endanger your legal defence because it demonstrates that
you show no remorse - remorse for what exactly? Have you done something wrong?
Of course not!

But I don’t think the legal wranglings are the real problem - as easy as it is
to blame Rob Stary for the shitty outcome of the Monash case in 2004 (where the
Monash occupiers signed an apology letter, printed in the student paper to avoid
convictions - a smaller group of three people copped guilty without conviction
thanks to the genius of another lawyer - a meaningless difference in this state
because the Vic cops insist on sharing such info with others in other
jurisdictions), actually the real problem with the Monash campaign was that the
students trusted their lawyers, and abrogated any political responsibilities to
themselves and to the campaign. They internalised the idea that they had
something to apologise for, and that actually, they should NOT have crossed the
bounds of law and order in their pursuit of the campaign objectives. That’s why
they said sorry - their apology also promised that they wouldn’t do it again. I
am sure that’s the case, cos most of them were law students who seem to think
that the law is something that we should be upholding rather than challenging.

You know what I think the problem is? I have a fear that maybe you guys think
that you have done something wrong. This astounds me.

The key element of the repression we’re seeing at the moment is the
internalisation of that repression. People have gone “underground” for fear of
police repression - so the repression has been successful. Congratulations - the
cops have won already. The arrestees don’t even want to be in a room together
because of bail conditions (bail conditions which have been challenged and
defeated by others) - the cops have already won. The criminalisation of protest
has been successful - because people are behaving like they’re naughty, like
they have something to hide. But people don’t.

What happened at G20 was a response to not only a concerted campaign of
harrassment of squats and activists throughout the week by a police taskforce,
but also to the very real violence of the G20. The city was shut down so that
the G20 could meet behind an unprecented security cordon. A police van was
slightly damaged in response. The G20 has no right to exist, no right to meet.
We tried to stop it. We didn’t, but the attempt to do so was justified, and such
behaviour should be encouraged. We are after all part of a global movement
against these institutions and the governments that support them - look at what
the kids are getting up to in Colombia and across Latin America right now. Jolly
good show.

Now, people have gone “underground” like its Chile in the 70s or something. Give
me a fucking break. The only way to defend these actions is to defend them
publicly. If we don’t want to suffer police repression, then we shouldn’t suffer
police repression. We should openly combat it. There are those who have
challenged the bail conditions - but they’re still scared to talk about a
defence campaign because their lawyers are telling them not to. When people hand
over their political responsibilities to their lawyers, we’re in serious
trouble.

There has been no public challenge to the idea that we did something wrong. If
the arrestees don’t want to run a campaign cos they’re scared of going to jail -
a ridiculous suggestion unless of course the political climate is allowed to
remain so hostile to protest that the prosecution reckon they can really test
the waters enough to try to get away with jail terms - others need to. I think
the only way that people will get seriously done on these charges is if we allow
the demonisation to continue. Jack Thomas had a lot more to worry about with
going public, and the only time he got in trouble was when he listened to his
lawyers and went on ABC to do an interview. There’s a lesson in that for all of
us.

So, to the arrestees: if you don’t want to come to meetings, that’s fine. Maybe
you could post to email lists of Indymedia anonymously, whatever. But please -
we kind of need to know what is going on. We need updates about what your
lawyers are telling you, what discussions, if any, you have had with people
being represented by different legal teams, and if not, why not. If you need
help challenging the ridiculous bail conditions (this costs money, I know), give
us a call. We can provide assistance and monies to do this. Its pretty important
that all of you get in a room together to talk about what we need to do, and
discuss political strategy with people involved in these movements and campaigns
- ie not your lawyers. Otherwise you’re not going to have any involvement in
what is a pretty important campaign to push back the repression of protest. And
you’ll have to hang out with lawyers. yucky.

Liz “I was at the G20 protest and I had a great time” Thompson

herald sun

 FIVE people have been charged over Melbourne’s violent G20 protests following a series of dawn raids across Sydney.

Four men, aged 20 to 25, and a 17-year-old boy, were arrested during the raids across five Sydney suburbs by NSW Police and Victorian police attached to Operation Salver, established to investigate the protest.

The protests occurred on November 18 last year in streets surrounding Melbourne’s Grand Hyatt Hotel, which was hosting the summit of financial leaders from 19 countries plus the European Union.

A Victoria Police spokeswoman said items of clothing were seized during the raids, which were all conducted at about 6.30am (AEDT) today.

Sunil Menon, 25, from Darlington, Daniel Jones, 20, from Balmain East, Timothy Davis-Frank, 22, from Bronte, and Daniel Robins, 24, from Newtown, were granted bail in Sydney’s Central Local Court today.

The 17-year-old from Haberfield, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was granted bail in Bidura Children’s Court.

They have been charged with a variety of offences, including aggravated burglary, riot, affray, unlawful assembly, criminal damage and conduct endangering person.

All five, who were the subject of Victorian arrest warrants, will face Melbourne Magistrate’s Court on March 20.

The Stop the War Coalition said the raids were an attempt to intimidate anti-war activists in the lead-up to the APEC summit in Sydney in September.

Between eight and 15 officers were involved in each raid, which also involved three family homes, it said.

 ABC

Police makes further arrests over G20 protests

 

A body or property search is a serious invasion of privacy and can be used by police to try and implicate you in an offence.

To enter and search your home or private property, police usually need a search warrant issued by a court. In some circumstances police are entitled to enter premises without a warrant, such as:  

•  If you agree to the police entering,
•  If the police have a reasonable belief that a serious offence will be or has been committed and entry is necessary to make an arrest, 
• If entry is necessary to stop a breach of the peace, 
• If there has been a breach of an intervention order, 
• If the police are chasing someone who has escaped from custody, 
• If the police have a warrant for arrest, or 
• If the police have a reasonable belief that illegal drugs are on the premises.
• The police are also authorised to enter and search under some of the new ASIO law provision.  

If police do not have a warrant, and you believe none of the above circumstances apply, you can refuse entry to police to your property. If you feel that a search is unreasonable and you want to refuse try to make sure that you have friends and witnesses with you. 

To get a warrant to search a property, police must apply to a magistrate and provide sworn evidence, either in person or by affidavit. Although warrants give police wide-ranging powers, this power is confined to the exact terms of the warrant.

Generally, a search warrant must state:
1. That a police officer may enter the place and exercise search warrant powers at the place; and
2. If the warrant is issued in relation to an offence, a forfeiture proceeding or a confiscation related activity; and include brief particulars of the reason for which the warrant is issued;  
3. Any evidence that may be seized under the warrant; and
4. If the warrant is to be executed at night, the hours when the place may be entered; and
5. The day and time the warrant ends.

What a warrant authorise the police to do:
Once they have a warrant, police are only authorised to search a particular premises for items specified on the warrant. When the police officer is executing a search warrant the officer must give you a copy of the warrant: read it carefully and be aware of what it authorises. There will also be an expiry date on the warrant. If this date is expired the warrant is no longer current and therefore does not authorise the police enter or search the premises.

If the warrant is to search for a thing, it authorises the police to break, enter and search any place named or described in the warrant; to search for any article, thing or material of the kind described in the warrant; and to bring objects of interest before the court. In some circumstances they may also arrest any person apparently having possession, custody or control of the thing.

If the warrant is for the arrest of a person, it gives police the authority to break, enter and search any place where the person named or described in the warrant is suspected to be.

A search warrant grants police power to detain anyone at the property for the time reasonably necessary if police reasonably suspect a person has been involved in the commission of the offence, or to find out if the person has anything sought under the warrant.

A search warrant gives police the power to stay on the property for the time reasonably necessary to exercise powers authorised under the warrant.  It also gives police power to open anything in the relevant place that is locked, and power to photograph anything the police officer reasonably suspects may provide evidence of the commission of an offence or confiscation related evidence to which the warrant relates.

For example, police cannot legally come to your house with a warrant for stolen electrical goods, and then attempt to take your address book. However, if they come across evidence of an offence (for instance, illegal drugs) while searching, they are entitled to take that and arrest you.

If police are searching your house or seizing items beyond the scope of the warrant, you can challenge their actions.   For example, if term of the warrant is to seize photographs, and police attempt to seize items such as clothes, this police action would be outside power granted by the warrant and illegitimate. You can question police before they search each part of a room / item on if and how their actions fit into the search terms of the warrant. After the police leave, and you believe police acted outside the terms of the warrant or in any way that was inappropriate you can also lodge complaints with the Office of Police Integrity (Victoria)   

If the police seize any items, either because they are suspected to be illegal or because they may be used as evidence in a criminal trial they must also have an adult occupier of the house to sign a statement certifying that they have taken these items.

Before the police leave the premises, they are required to ask an adult occupier of the house to sign a statement that they did not cause any damage or break anything on the premises. If the police did cause some sort of damage, you are entitled to not sign this and put in a complaint to the officers present at the time or to the Office of Police Integrity or the Police Ombudsman. This complaint would be assessment on the basis of whether the police actions were ‘reasonable’ in the circumstances.  

Do I have to go with Police if they ask me?
You must go with police to the Police Station if you are under arrest. The police do not need a warrant to arrest you.

If you are subject to a search warrant relating to G20 protests and unsure of your rights and Police powers, call Fitzroy Legal Centre on 03 9419 3744 or your local Legal Aid office (Victoria on 03 9269 023 may be contacted on 9269 023, and contact us: Ongoing G20 Arrestee Solidarity Network on 0408 307 722 or email afterg20@gmail.com

For further information see www.activistrights.org.au, especially http://www.activistrights.org.au/PolicePowersdetails.asp#BeingSearched and http://www.activistrights.org.au/PolicePowersdetails.asp#IfApproachedbyPolice

media release…

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

House raids and arrests of G20 protesters:
Defence campaign launched in Sydney
    
Five people have been arrested in Sydney this morning in relation to the G20 protests in Melbourne last November.

Five houses were raided in operations involving NSW, Victorian and Federal Police. The “Police Terrorism Investigation Squad” in reportedly co-ordinating the operation.

Supporters have formed a “G20 Defence Collective”, demanding immediate release of the protestors and the dropping of all charges.

“These actions by the ‘Police Terrorism Investigation Squad’ are a gross attack on democratic rights. That these police are even being used for protest matters is outrageous.” said Paddy Gibson from the G20 Defence Collective.

“Doors were kicked in this morning and places ransacked by dozens of police. The ‘Counter Terrorism’ unit is in fact being used to terrorise young people and their families, anyone who dares to stand up against the war and poverty being inflicted on the world by the G20. We demand all charges be dropped immediately.”

“These raids follow on the heels of brutal police intimidation of protestors during recent actions against US Vice-President Dick Cheney, where we were physically stopped from demonstrating and two people were hospitalised”, said Emma Torzillo from the Sydney Stop G20 collective.

“What about the 650,000 people that Howard, Cheney and other delegates to G20 have killed in Iraq? If the police are so concerned about ‘violence’ why don’t they raid Howard’s office – he is the real terrorist”.

“People across the country are turning fast against the war and these raids are simply an attempt to intimidate those who have been most active, particularly in the lead up to Bush’s visit at the APEC summit in September”.

“We will not be intimidated. Protests are happening tomorrow and Friday morning at 8:30 outside the Downing Centre local court demanding dismissal of charges laid during Dick Cheney’s visit. We will be there also demanding and end to the house raids and charges on G20 protestors”, said Ms Torzillo.

The G20 Defence Collective will join a rallies Thursday 15th and Friday 16th March at 8:30 am outside Downing Centre Local Court demanding an end to police intimidation of protest.

For more information or media statements contact:
Paddy Gibson 0415800586 Sydney University Student Representative Council or
Emma Torzillo 0412472224  Anti-War Action Group

Media Release
For Immediate Release
Wednesday 14/03/07
Anti-Terror Squad Raid and Arrest Protestors in Dramatic Swoop

The Victorian Terrorist Investigation Squad in conjunction with Federal, NSW and Victorian police raided at least 6 houses in Sydney this morning and arrested 5 protestors. The protestors have been charged with offences related to the G20 protests in Melbourne last November.

“The involvement of the anti-terror squad in persecuting people for their involvement in protest activity is extremely alarming,” said Anita Thomasson from the Ongoing G20 Arrestees Solidarity Network.

“Direct action is a legitimate protest tactic and expression of dissent that in no way constitutes terrorism. To imply as such is completely absurd. Direct action and civil disobedience both have a proud history of being part of movements for social change, from the suffragettes, to strikes for the 8 hour day, and more recently the gay rights movement in Tasmania.

“The use of anti-terrorist policing tactics and resources against protestors confirms the worst fears of civil liberties groups that anti-terror legislation would be used to threaten the basic civil liberties of ordinary people. Excessive policing has always been the norm in the state’s response to criticism or challenge, however now we are for the first time seeing anti-terror resources and powers designed to combat terrorism being used directly to target and survey protestors in Australia.

“The Ongoing G20 Arrestees Solidarity Network supports protestors directly confronting illegitimate institutions such as the G20, whose policies perpetrate violence in countless communities around the world every day. We are calling for all charges to be dropped.”

Individuals arrested during today’s raids will appear in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Tuesday.

For further comment contact: Anita Thomasson 0411680052

at least 3 people were arrested early this morning in sydney by a combination of victorian police, local cops & cops from the ‘terrorism investigation squad’ raiding and searching houses.

stay safe.

love.