Man detained by police at Melbourne Pride March after protesting Liberal float
Image: Assistant Commissioner Neil Paterson. Image: Dean Arcuri.
A man protesting at Melbourne’s Pride March over the weekend was detained by police, after they felt it had escalated to a point where the safety of other attendees was at risk.
Longtime LGBTI advocate, Tony Pitman, alleged that he was booing the Liberal Party contingent and shouting “you’re not welcome” when he was arrested by police and driven away in a van.
“After booing and shouting a few times, one of the security personnel pulled me aside and told me he was going to smash my head in,” he said.
“They were his exact words. Then several police officers grabbed me and dragged me away from the march.
“They held me beside St Kilda station for a few minutes until several other officers came and dragged me to a van.
“I was then driven to the South Melbourne police station in the back of the van. I’m shocked and extremely disappointed that I was threatened with violence and then arrested for simply expressing my political opinion in a harmless way.”
Midsumma Festival has since expressed shock over the alleged incident, reiterating its support for the right of anyone to undertake a peaceful protest.
In a statement, the festival said it had already commenced an investigation regarding the incident through both the security team (contracted by Midsumma) and the police.
“Police and security have reported back to us that their representatives on site were concerned that the behaviour of one patron protesting at the march had escalated beyond peaceful and was impacting on both marchers and pedestrians,” a spokesperson said.
“Security management were particularly surprised about the report of the verbal conduct of security staff which would be out of ‘character’ from their training and briefing, specifically about potential incidences such as this.
“Event Security personnel deny any threatening behaviour of any kind and said they removed themselves from the situation when local police on duty stepped in. Security returned to their positions and were not aware of the following police actions.”
In a statement by the Victoria Police, a spokesperson said the police observed a man displaying threatening behaviour towards participants and spectators at the Midsumma Pride March at 2.55pm yesterday.
“Police ordered the 49-year-old man to move on, warning him that his behaviour was in breach of the peace,” the statement read.
“When he failed to do so, he was arrested and subsequently transported away from the march area and released outside the nearest police station.
“Victoria Police respects people’s right to protest peacefully, but will not tolerate those who break the law.”
Midsumma also reached out to the police for their knowledge of the incident.
“The police have told us that they detained a protester to remove him from the situation as in their view it had escalated to a point where people’s safety was at risk, but there was no charge,” a Midsumma spokesperson wrote in their statement.
“We will continue a further review of the incident.
“To reiterate, Midsumma does and will continue to actively support peaceful protest and we are very sorry that such an incident marred the day.”
Both the Liberal and Labor Parties are “broad church” organisations. Both represents a constituency and a party membership which is diverse on pretty well every issue, gay rights included. Both should be congratulated for doing the right thing and criticised for doing the wrong thing.
In this case, it’s fairly obvious that the Liberals on the float were from the pro-gay-rights end of the Liberal Party and aren’t the correct target for anyone’s frustrations (except Cory Bernardi, he hates those pro-gay Liberals).
We should all yells at Liberals in Mardi Gras or Pride parades
I was marching with the Liberal Pride group, and saw the whole incident close up.
After allowing this individual the chance to have his say, he was politely asked by security to move on. Both security and the police were very patient and professional in dealing with him, and only used force when he started shouting at the police themselves. He was clearly trying to blow things up, and the police did not take the bait, calmly removing him from the parade area.
No one from Liberal Pride asked for him to be removed, in the end everyone can have they say.
However, it is very ironic to hear the phrase “you’re not welcome” shouted at you at a Pride March. Not that long ago “you’re not welcome” was a phrase LGBT people heard all too often.
Everyone should be welcome at Pride.
If you lay down with dogs you get fleas.