So apparently someone's created a 'Wanted' style poster of one of the Vic Police officers from the Occupy Melbourne protest on the 15th. It's hard to see who it is, if only because the only pics I've seen are ones with a fat black band over the officer's face. Still a few people have commented on it, like this guy on Reddit;
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Police generally have an
interesting relationship with the media. The media benefits financially
from Police press releases and information about crime as it boosts
sales. Likewise the police are happy to give this information as it
builds favour as well as projects information they would like
proliferated, such as information about particular criminals or crimes.
Because the Police have the ability to provide revenue for the media,
they also hold a certain level of influence which can be used in various
ways. I believe we are seeing this in action today.
Someone from the Occupy Melbourne protests has created a poster identifying a police officer who was excessively violent during the break up of the Occupy Melbourne protest last Friday. I haven't seen the poster but I am guessing that it is in relation to the officer in this video seen unnecessarily punching a protester; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiP_rQIrcFU&feature=related
Both The Age and News.com are running a story close to their headlines which reads like a police press release condemning the poster. The Age; http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/cops-slam-occupiers-attack-on-dangerous-policeman-20111026-1miop.html
‘‘These tactics will not - and cannot - deter us from doing our jobs in a professional and responsible manner. I am certain that most fair minded people will be appalled by this behaviour.’’ Ken Lay, in The Age.
News.com; http://www.news.com.au/national/occupy-melbourne-protesters-turn-on-police-in-city/story-e6frfkvr-1226176749811
"This is an appalling personal attack upon an officer doing no more than enforcing the law." Peter Ryan, in News.com.
These stories read like press releases and are almost certainly intended by Victoria Police to rally support and stifle the very same tactics they would use against another citizen; releasing images of those they wish to target. I suggest anyone who has an account to comment on either of these news services website proliferate the link showing the violent officers actions.
*note; I am not associated with Occupy Melbourne in any way. I am a politics/sociology student who is generally concerned with the abuse of power by Victoria Police.
**edited to attribute source of quotes.
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To say that the media interest in Occupy Melbourne has been predictably one sided is an understatement. Regardless of whether you support Occupy Melbourne or not, we have to ask ourselves - don't we deserve to know the truth? If police violently broke up a peaceful protest, don't we deserve to know that? Enough anecdotes have been circulating - online and verbal, enough Youtube footage and photography has been circulating to at least question the basic police line.
So a wanted poster got put up. So what? How often are the faces of prominent protestors flashed around national media and branded as psychotic socialists? The touchiness of Vic Police would tend to suggest to me at least that maybe there's something for them to worry about. Read any of the arrest accounts floating around online. Even if they're embellished, they still paint a disturbing picture. Enough people who saw the protest have repeated a similar line - 'While I don't agree with the protestors, I thought the police response was heavy-handed'.
I would ask the Vic Police how much is enough? You won after all. The Liberal Lord Mayor ordered you in. Some of you - according to little more than unsubstantiated rumour - absolutely relished the idea of getting 'stuck into some hippies'. You turned an orderly camp into a tip, you took protestors off the footpath and blocked traffic for hours. You pushed, shoved, punched, kicked, took shortcuts on arrest procedure, intimidated - and if one account I've read is true, where arrested protestors were held in a cell where the temperature was turned up and down to extremes in a rapid cycle - have performed activity that could be construed as psychological torture.
For all that, the media paints an unquestioning, uncritical picture of your performance, if the above is to be believed, by simply reading off your press releases. Who else gets to script their own response to their violent actions to the media? Even the Lord Mayor - who wasn't there and didn't witness anything - is asked to devote a column on his views of the event, which - naturally - fully support you. The Lord Mayor and the Premier are on your side, so the whole political power structure of Melbourne and Victoria is on your side. The Police Association would never and will never hang any members out to dry, so don't go looking for criticism there.
And someone, somewhere runs off a poster and you say it's still not enough - those responsible, down to whoever owns the printer, must be punished?
It is a stock feature of most dictatorships, no matter which end of the political spectrum they hail from, that dissent becomes a crime - Zero Dissent. I can get that government at most levels isn't fond of protest, sure. But when a peaceful protest is violently broken up, when officers remove name tags to avoid being identified, when arrested protestors tell horror stories of their treatment, and never being told why they're arrested, where they're going or what's going to happen to them, when the media slavishly follow the police and government line, when in inference if not policy the state reserves the right to break and terrorise civilians, then we are witnessing a degradation if not slow death of democracy.
You can't lie to the public, and assume righteous indignation for this sort of behaviour. Wouldn't it be far better to throw a few scapegoats to the crowd? Appease ordinary citizen's fears of a brutal, run-amok police force, by 'suspending' a few troublemakers? You know and I know it won't be a suspension, it'll be a paid holiday, and their transgressions will miraculously evaporate from their records at some point. But even doing that, as cynical and deceitful as it is, still shows you care about public opinion and believe in at least making a show of respecting the law.
No, I guess you don't care. I guess it is all about fear. 'Do not disobey us,' you say 'do not question us, meekly accept whatever we decide to do to you, and don't assume anyone should show sympathy to you. We are the ones who will gain sympathy when you have the temerity to disobey us'. Is that it? Are you worried that more and more of these posters will appear, highlighting a few other skeletons rattling in the closet? Is that where the brutality is coming from?
This is not Australia. At no point did I agree to live in a country where the police can get away with brutalising citizens.
Someone from the Occupy Melbourne protests has created a poster identifying a police officer who was excessively violent during the break up of the Occupy Melbourne protest last Friday. I haven't seen the poster but I am guessing that it is in relation to the officer in this video seen unnecessarily punching a protester; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiP_rQIrcFU&feature=related
Both The Age and News.com are running a story close to their headlines which reads like a police press release condemning the poster. The Age; http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/cops-slam-occupiers-attack-on-dangerous-policeman-20111026-1miop.html
‘‘These tactics will not - and cannot - deter us from doing our jobs in a professional and responsible manner. I am certain that most fair minded people will be appalled by this behaviour.’’ Ken Lay, in The Age.
News.com; http://www.news.com.au/national/occupy-melbourne-protesters-turn-on-police-in-city/story-e6frfkvr-1226176749811
"This is an appalling personal attack upon an officer doing no more than enforcing the law." Peter Ryan, in News.com.
These stories read like press releases and are almost certainly intended by Victoria Police to rally support and stifle the very same tactics they would use against another citizen; releasing images of those they wish to target. I suggest anyone who has an account to comment on either of these news services website proliferate the link showing the violent officers actions.
*note; I am not associated with Occupy Melbourne in any way. I am a politics/sociology student who is generally concerned with the abuse of power by Victoria Police.
**edited to attribute source of quotes.
---
To say that the media interest in Occupy Melbourne has been predictably one sided is an understatement. Regardless of whether you support Occupy Melbourne or not, we have to ask ourselves - don't we deserve to know the truth? If police violently broke up a peaceful protest, don't we deserve to know that? Enough anecdotes have been circulating - online and verbal, enough Youtube footage and photography has been circulating to at least question the basic police line.
So a wanted poster got put up. So what? How often are the faces of prominent protestors flashed around national media and branded as psychotic socialists? The touchiness of Vic Police would tend to suggest to me at least that maybe there's something for them to worry about. Read any of the arrest accounts floating around online. Even if they're embellished, they still paint a disturbing picture. Enough people who saw the protest have repeated a similar line - 'While I don't agree with the protestors, I thought the police response was heavy-handed'.
I would ask the Vic Police how much is enough? You won after all. The Liberal Lord Mayor ordered you in. Some of you - according to little more than unsubstantiated rumour - absolutely relished the idea of getting 'stuck into some hippies'. You turned an orderly camp into a tip, you took protestors off the footpath and blocked traffic for hours. You pushed, shoved, punched, kicked, took shortcuts on arrest procedure, intimidated - and if one account I've read is true, where arrested protestors were held in a cell where the temperature was turned up and down to extremes in a rapid cycle - have performed activity that could be construed as psychological torture.
For all that, the media paints an unquestioning, uncritical picture of your performance, if the above is to be believed, by simply reading off your press releases. Who else gets to script their own response to their violent actions to the media? Even the Lord Mayor - who wasn't there and didn't witness anything - is asked to devote a column on his views of the event, which - naturally - fully support you. The Lord Mayor and the Premier are on your side, so the whole political power structure of Melbourne and Victoria is on your side. The Police Association would never and will never hang any members out to dry, so don't go looking for criticism there.
And someone, somewhere runs off a poster and you say it's still not enough - those responsible, down to whoever owns the printer, must be punished?
It is a stock feature of most dictatorships, no matter which end of the political spectrum they hail from, that dissent becomes a crime - Zero Dissent. I can get that government at most levels isn't fond of protest, sure. But when a peaceful protest is violently broken up, when officers remove name tags to avoid being identified, when arrested protestors tell horror stories of their treatment, and never being told why they're arrested, where they're going or what's going to happen to them, when the media slavishly follow the police and government line, when in inference if not policy the state reserves the right to break and terrorise civilians, then we are witnessing a degradation if not slow death of democracy.
You can't lie to the public, and assume righteous indignation for this sort of behaviour. Wouldn't it be far better to throw a few scapegoats to the crowd? Appease ordinary citizen's fears of a brutal, run-amok police force, by 'suspending' a few troublemakers? You know and I know it won't be a suspension, it'll be a paid holiday, and their transgressions will miraculously evaporate from their records at some point. But even doing that, as cynical and deceitful as it is, still shows you care about public opinion and believe in at least making a show of respecting the law.
No, I guess you don't care. I guess it is all about fear. 'Do not disobey us,' you say 'do not question us, meekly accept whatever we decide to do to you, and don't assume anyone should show sympathy to you. We are the ones who will gain sympathy when you have the temerity to disobey us'. Is that it? Are you worried that more and more of these posters will appear, highlighting a few other skeletons rattling in the closet? Is that where the brutality is coming from?
This is not Australia. At no point did I agree to live in a country where the police can get away with brutalising citizens.
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