New South Wales police have defended their raid on a group of climate protesters in north-west Sydney on Sunday, alleging that the group was planning “extreme forms” of protest and acted aggressively towards officers.
On Sunday morning, police deployed in significant numbers to a property at Colo, in Sydney’s north-west, after a confrontation with Blockade Australia, a group that caused blockades at Port Botany, the city’s major port, in March.
Police had initially been surveilling the group at the property on Sunday. According to their defence lawyers, the protesters noticed strangers on the property and demanded they identify themselves and their reasons for being there.
The officers got into an unmarked car. The protesters are understood to have surrounded the car.
Police say they were being aggressive and slashed or let down the tyres of the vehicle.
That prompted a more comprehensive police response, according to acting assistant commissioner, Paul Dunstan.
“Those police that were attacked by that group this morning feared for their lives,” he said. “They called for urgent assistance and police from all over the Sydney metropolitan area [who] responded to assist and provide aid to those police officers.”
There were no injuries to police.
Lawyers for the Blockade Australia activists said the protesters surrounded the car in an attempt to understand who the strangers were and what they were doing on the property.
Sydney City Crime, the firm representing the protesters, said police had no legal basis for being on the property.
“This is complete overreach,” principal lawyer Joe Harb told the Guardian. “It is clear that police came merely to provoke a reaction and now they want to cry that they were the victims and in fear.”
Lawyer Mark Davis, also of Sydney City Crime, said police were repeatedly asked to identify themselves.
“The protesters kept asking who they were and the police walked away, before an unmarked car pulled up and they got in,” he said.
“The protesters surrounded the car, demanding they identify themselves. They had no legal basis to be on the property.”
Blockade Australia protesters described the police actions on Sunday as “insane overreach” and a large-scale raid.
“Police are raiding our beautiful camp. Groups of cops in cammo (sic) gear with guns surrounded our camp this morning,” the group said in a statement on Facebook. “Dog squad, riot police, helicopters and fully militarised police are all over us.”
“This is how a system based on climate destruction responds to a movement of nonviolent climate defenders.”
The group said its protesters were non-violent.
“This massive, costly police operation is aimed at preventing climate activists from taking action. This is how Australia responds to a peaceful nonviolent network of ordinary humans who want humanity to survive.”
Activist Zelda Grimshaw told the Sydney Morning Herald it was an “unprecedented” level of police repression of the climate movement.
“We are now suffering multiple impacts of Australia’s continued climate destruction with unprecedented fires, floods, and repression,” she said.
Police were deployed from nearby police area commands, and from specialist resources including PolAir, the police dog squad, the riot squad, police rescue, and the operations support group.
Two people have been arrested and more arrests are planned, police say. Officers were still conducting a search of the property on Sunday afternoon.
Police established a strike force, named Strike Force Guard, after the earlier protests in March and NSW parliament to introduce new laws and penalties in April specifically targeting protests that blocked roads and ports.
Dunstan was asked what specifically police were investigating on Sunday, prior to the confrontation.
He alleged the activists were “practising, rehearsing and constructing items to conduct similar methods of protest that they conducted during the March protest activity, where you saw elaborate objects being formed and put in the middle of the roadways to ultimately disrupt vehicle activity and trains around the Sydney area”.
