NSW Police Clash With Protestors On The Eve Of Mardi Gras
Image: Image: Mark Dickson - Deep Field Photo
On Friday evening a group of protestors, lead by the group Pride In Protest, met at Taylor Square in Sydney to protest against the NSW police.
The group of approximately 300 LGBTQIA+ members and allies attended to “protest against police violence, and call for the police to be removed from the Mardi Gras parade.”
The protest follows the decision by the Mardi Gras board to allow police officers to march tomorrow, out of uniform.
However the protestors where met by local police officers on the evening, causing heated scenes in the streets.
Police and protestors clash
The peaceful protest started on Friday with speakers paying tribute to Jesse Baird and Luke Davies and speaking passionately on issues of institutional and historical police violence and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Deaths in Custody.
They also called for police to be removed from the upcoming Mardi Gras celebrations this weekend and in the future.
However as protestors moved down Oxford Street to continue their speeches they were met by police officers who formed a line to attempt to move the crowd.
Video footage released on Instagram shows the police officers physically pushing members of crowd off the road while they shout “pigs go home.”
The footage also shows several physical interactions between police officers and protestors.
Following the incident the group marched to the old Darlinghurst Police Station, where the protestors were first arrested in 1978.
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“they abuse and put some of our most vulnerable community members in direct harm”
Following the events at Taylor Square the Pride In Protest group behind the protest released a statement.
Former Board Director and member of the group, Wei, spoke passionately about the incident.
“Tonight we came out in numbers on the eve of Mardi Gras to protest systemic police violence still present in our community some 46 years after the 78ers first marched down Oxford Street” they said.
“Police have shown us time and time again that they are not our friends, they don’t protect our community, rather they abuse and put some of our most vulnerable community members in direct harm. The murders of Jesse Baird and Luke Davies by office Lamarre and subsequent media released by the police only stand to highlight this total incompatibility with the values of our community, and as such the police do not deserve to march in our parade.”
“We condemn the backflipped decision of Mardi Gras to allow the police to march tomorrow following pressure from Labor and the police, and will be calling for the board to be dissolved for being so out of touch with the LGBTIQ+ community.”
Another attendee at the event, Evan van Zijl, claims police used excessive force and threats. “We saw cops hitting and shoving our friends and chosen family. We saw a police officer grab our friend, a trans woman, by her throat. We heard officers threatening to pepper spray a stationary, non-violent crowd. We sustained countless scrapes, cuts and bruises at the hands of these police officers, but are called unreasonable for asking that they not be invited to march with us in Mardi Gras tomorrow.”
Police are still expected to attend and march in the 2024 Mardi Gras, out of uniform.
