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Anti-war demonstrators hurled rocks, eggs, beer bottles and canned food at police, who ~~responded~~ escalated with stun grenades, tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets during a series of skirmishes outside the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre on Wednesday.
On what fucking planet is shooting, grenading, and chemical weaponing people throwing eggs and shit reasonable?
Eggs might be just annoing to be hit with but I'd rather be tear gassed than taking a stone/glass bottle/heavy cans to my head. A stone with a decent speed and weight can kill you. And I don't think I have to elaborate what broken glass flying around can do to your skin/eyes etc.
They have shields, visors, and helmets mate. They're not under trebuchet fire, it's gonna be a handful of people throwing small objects. Chemical weapons are indiscriminate torture devices.
Cops are organised, trained and in radio contact. They can do stuff like retreat and encircle.
edit: also have you ever been teargassed? Cause I have lightly once and holy shit I would rather stand in a line with shields and armour and have a few rocks pelted near me. It's extremely painful.
The photographer, who was not wearing anything to cover his face, claims he was deliberately targeted by officers.
“It must have been targeted as I was standing well behind and not part of the main group. Usually, they shoot the rubber bullets at the lower body, not the upper body. If I was at the front or bending over, I could understand it,” he said.
He has covered up to one hundred rallies since October last year, posting photographs to the social media accounts of several Pro-Palestinian and human rights organisations.
A Victoria Police spokeswoman said: “There is absolutely no evidence to suggest police targeted any photographers.”
What's that saying? "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity"? I highly doubt the police were there with a plan to target photographers. It seems much more likely to me that a combination of a) poor training and b) heat of the moment stupid decision making is the reason why the officer fired in that manner.
Anyway, this is all just further evidence of why the escalation of protests from both sides is insanely stupid. Innocent people end up getting hurt when protestors decide to assault police and the police retaliate with disproportionate force:
Anti-war demonstrators hurled rocks, eggs, beer bottles and canned food at police, who responded with stun grenades, tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets during a series of skirmishes outside the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre on Wednesday.
And every time a protest turns violent like this, it just makes it more likely that disproportionate force will be used in the future.
The problem is the disproportionate force. The police should not be using those weapons. If an officer panicking goes this badly, we shouldn't be blaming that officer or the protest. The problem is that police were firing bullets into a protest, at all. That this was a plan they had on the table for this situation, and they're clearly happy with this plan.
I agree, rubber bullets seem unnecessary even for a protest as violent as this one. But to say we shouldn't place any blame on individuals over-simplifies the problem. There are multiple issues at play here, I don't think you can just wave away the personal responsibility of the individuals involved.
You're right, I didn't mean to say they're not at fault for shooting people. What I meant to say was that we shouldn't get tunnel-vision either and assume that officers just need better training or vetting to make sure they don't miss or don't shoot as early.
The pro-Palestine protestors in Melbourne seem to regularly turn events violent. Them turning this weapons expo protest violent WAS the reason I didn't join the protest.