Between 50 and 100 anti-war protestors were injured during the violent clashes on Melbourne’s streets on Wednesday, with one police officer for every two to three protestors, legal advocates have said.
Helicopters were circling the CBD on Thursday morning as pro-Palestine and anti-war protesters prepared for further demonstrations outside the Land Forces expo, an international military conference at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Chaotic scenes between activists and police broke out during the protests, sparked by the government’s stance on the conflict in the Middle East and the use of weapons on display at the expo – including in Gaza.
Victoria police have denied the accusation of excessive force, saying officers used “restraint” in the face of violent protestors.
Anthony Kelly from Melbourne Activist Legal Support estimated between 2,000 and 3,000 protestors had attended on Wednesday, while there were between 1,000 and 1,800 officers from both Victoria and New South Wales. The group had sent 16 “legal observers” to watch the protest, and Kelly said police had a “huge array of resources”.
“We saw police escalate very rapidly towards a really high level and very inappropriate riot-type responses towards what was essentially lawful assemblies, peaceful assemblies,” Kelly alleged. “Police escalated to the point where they were using force including OC spray, and horses indiscriminately.”
It was the 14th time Victoria police have used OC spray against protestors this year alone, according to data from Melbourne Activist Legal Support. Police also used rubber bullets, which have not been used against protestors since the anti-lockdown protest in 2021. At least one journalist, Wayne Flower from the Daily Mail, was hit by a rubber bullet. Guardian Australia understands a photographer was also hit in the ear and had to have surgery.
Kelly alleged police were documented using force against people who were trying to run away, shielding themselves or were already on the ground.
“The medic team reported to us that they treated somewhere between 50 to 100 people,” Kelly said. “They’re still going through their data, a lot of people weren’t treated on site.
“We documented quite a few injuries as a result of arrests or as a result of police weapons fire, but we don’t have a final number.”
In a statement, MALS said “chaotic behaviour of many protesters” included objects being thrown at or over police lines, yelling and abuse, the setting alight of a bin, and some physical assaults by protesters against attendees attempting to enter the MCEC.
“Legal observers noted that in most circumstances, protestor behaviour became heightened after and in response to a coercive crowd control manoeuvre by the police or the use of police weapons,” the release said.
Kelly said unlawful behaviour by individual protesters “doesn’t provide police with a lawful justification to use indiscriminate levels of force”.
“The other thing … is that police manoeuvres themselves, their forceful pushes into crowds, and their deployment of horses and weapons in particular, creates an enormous escalating effect.”
Victoria police were sent questions from Guardian Australia about the accusation of excessive force, and that upwards of 50 people may have been injured in the response.
A spokesperson said the chief commissioner, Shane Patton, had answered the question on Wednesday in a press conference. He said the non-lethal weapons used were “appropriately deployed”.
“We have conducted ourselves appropriately,” he said. “I couldn’t be prouder of the officers down there, and to see the way they used restraint when confronted by people intent on provoking violence and using violence, I was very proud of the way they did conduct themselves.”
Patton said officers on the ground were subjected to vitriol, abuse and had things thrown at them, including a “low-level acid”. He also said some police horses were punched and one officer had a can of baked beans thrown at him.
Patten said he thought it was likely 1,200 people attended, which meant there were more officers than protestors.
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“They came there with an intent to confront, and they did,” he said. “My police officers have my full support in the way they have conducted themselves.”
The spokesperson also pointed to the police statement, which said 24 officers had been hurt.
“Whilst we respect the right for individuals to protest lawfully, we will not tolerate the behaviour of those who break the law,” the statement said.
Last year the state Labor government announced it had “secured the relocation of Land Forces from Brisbane to Melbourne for 2024 and beyond”. It said the city would be the “new home” of the weapons expo, which the government expected to generate $65m for the state’s economy.
One protestor who spoke on the condition of anonymity as they were speaking to lawyers about how they were treated said they were walking away when the police tackled them.
“The tear gas was everywhere,” they said. “It was all over the floor. So if someone was kicked down or pushed down, their hands would burn.”
In the lead-up to the protest, it had been widely reported 25,000 people were expected to attend the event.
Organiser Natalie Farah, from Friends of the Earth, said they had put that figure on the website as a “hope and a dream” – not as a threat.
“The number came from our website, and it still exists there. And the quote there is, we imagine and we envision and we hope for 25,000 people to surround the exhibition centre,” she said.
“That number has been taken and treated as if it’s a promise or a threat, which you know at best, it was a hope.”
Farah said several people had spent the night in hospitals with serious injuries.
“One of them was a photographer who sustained an injury in his ear and was bleeding excessively from a rubber bullet, so he had to go through surgery last night,” she said.
She told The Project last week that the organisers did not want to see violence on the streets, and it was never the intention of protestors for it to escalate.
“We don’t want to see this ever again in Melbourne. What we are fighting for is the opposite. We’re fighting to stop war and violence everywhere.”
