Freedom under siege as Sydney hosts APEC Summit - U.S. Politics Online: A Political Discussion Forum

Tethys · #1 (**permalink**) 09-08-2007

On another thread, I have been having a bit of fun relating stories coming out of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit currently being held in my city of Sydney, Australia.

Bush to meet Rudd

Because initially I didn’t think it was necessary to have more than one APEC thread, I kept all the APEC stories to the thread moon had posted, though the original focus of the thread actually was on a meeting between President Bush and the Australian opposition leader, Kevin Rudd, while Bush was here for the APEC Summit.

However, I think some important APEC stories do deserve their own thread.

For those not aware, APEC brings together 21 Asian and Pacific Rim nations, including the US, China and Russia.

One of the issues that have shadowed this APEC meeting in Sydney has been the level of security imposed on the city and its people. Among other measures, this includes a “ring of steel”, a five kilometres steel and concrete fence that has divided the city, with the Opera House, Circular Quay (with its access to harbour ferry services), parts of the Botanical Gardens, and much of the northern CBD off limit to the public and tourists.

Today, 3,000 people marched in a wet Sydney, in a protest that was cited as one of the reasons why Sydney and its residents had to suffer the indignity and inconvenience of all this security.

So what happened? I wasn’t there, but reports indicate about 17 people were arrested for various offences, none that exceeded the types of bad behaviour that happens in clashes of this kind.

17 charged following APEC protest - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

The article below puts into perspective a good question for discussion.

Should security concerns curb the right to protest?

The opening remarks of the article are especially thought-provoking.

Quote:

No dissent in the chicken coop - and that's an order

Date: September 8 2007

Adele Horin

What an irony. When the leader of the free world comes to town, the first casualty is freedom. Parts of the city look like a war zone, wreathed in five kilometres of fencing wire. Helicopters buzz, jumpy police bark at motorists. Riot cars tear through the city; the new water cannon lies in wait. Some city workers are forced to shuffle like prisoners through a series of chook runs. Laws are passed to give police extraordinary powers to search, detain, confiscate. There is a fenced-off "restricted" zone and a wider "security" zone.

Worst of all, the right to march and protest is curtailed. APEC is disrupting the lives of 4 million people for a week in the interests, we are told, of
a greater good. But a protest march that may disrupt the city for a few hours - for the legitimate purpose of expressing dissent - is deemed unacceptable.

Welcome, George Bush, to Australia, your steadfast ally in the mission to spread freedom to the darkest corners of the globe.

In his style of genial naivety, Bush at his first media conference mentioned one such dark corner, Burma, where demonstrators were recently detained by the military regime. It was "inexcusable", he said, "that people who march for freedom" are threatened by a repressive state. In NSW the police have succeeded

in stripping people of their right to march through the city to protest against the policies of Bush, which are conservatively estimated to have led to the deaths of more than 77,000 Iraqi civilians (or 650,000 if The Lancet medical journal is right) and 3700 American soldiers.

It is in the interests of liberal democracies to give people the widest possible opportunity to express dissent, and to protest against a government.

Australian protesters have a distinguished history of getting it right. The anti-Vietnam moratoriums, the anti-Springbok rallies, and the early anti-Iraq war marches are instances where the people were right and the government wrong. Protest marches disrupt the traffic, and some people get out of hand. But the right of citizens to demonstrate their anger with government policy is a feature that distinguishes Australia from Burma, or from Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

Everyone accepts that tight security is needed around the APEC venues and the hotels housing world leaders. There is always the possibility of a terrorist attack. But the clampdown on civil liberties is so over the top, the restrictions extending so far from the key venues, that some believe the Premier,

Morris Iemma, has an ulterior motive in mind - to annoy the citizens of Sydney so much they will vent their anger on John Howard at the federal election.

Alternatively, politicians and police, wanting to engineer the smallest possible march, have opted to frighten off potential mum-and-dad protesters by twinning the words "violence and APEC" at every chance.

Police were not satisfied with the route the Stop Bush Coalition wanted to take, even after it agreed to keep today's major anti-APEC march well away from the restricted zone at Circular Quay, and to turn at Martin Place instead. The police went to the Supreme Court to force the marchers to the city's periphery, well away from shoppers, down Park Street into Hyde Park and the Domain where the birds will be the main audience. Police told the judge they intended to put a fence - another one - near Martin Place as permitted under the new APEC Meeting (Police Powers) Act 2007, and it would present a danger to public safety if the march ended at this new fence. The judge had to agree.

Not content with targeting the Stop Bush Coalition, the police also wrote to the Greens, threatening to take them to court if they persisted in holding an event with speeches and street theatre at Martin Place. If people can eat their lunch there (it is in the designated "security", but not the "restricted" zone), people should have the right to make a political statement in a public place. The Greens held their line, and this time the intimidation didn't work; the police backed down.

Police claim to have intelligence that the main march will turn violent. There may well be a small number of loonies whose agenda is to have a fight in the streets to attract global media attention. Their presence alienated some of the older veterans of the peace movement from the Stop Bush Coalition.

The break-away group decided to stage a separate rally yesterday to highlight broader concerns, such as nuclear proliferation in the region, fair trade, and labour rights.

But even these veterans say police could easily have picked off the small numbers of potential trouble-makers in the Saturday march without the water cannon, the overkill seen this week. What will we get for the $330 million APEC bill? No significant progress on climate change, fair trade or the elimination of poverty. But the police and government will have demonstrated just how far they can go in a free country to squash the legitimate expression of dissent.

www.smh.com.au - No dissent in the chicken coop - and that's an order

Tethys (Your USPOL reporter locked down in Sydney)

Tethys · #2 (**permalink**) 09-08-2007

Here we go…this is an example of what can happen when “security” powers go beyond the reasonable.

And before anyone leaps in to scold the dad in this story for jaywalking, I should explain that he probably would have had little choice about it. As a local, I can tell you that people often jaywalk in that area of the city, due to lack of proper safe pedestrian crossings. With many impromptu road closures, clearways and detours imposed as APEC motorcades race through the heart of the city day and night, normal traffic order (including traffic lights) is in chaos. Also, with Friday being a public holiday, and people warned off the city, the normally busy roads would have been carrying little traffic. I can well understand why the man would have not sought it unsafe to dash across Pitt Street, a narrow roadway, to avoid the police cordon to head to Chinatown.

Anyone could easily have found themselves in his shoes

It is frightening that he was treated the way he was, and jailed. Shameful.

Quote:

Jailed for jaywalking

Date: September 9 2007

Matthew Benns

A FATHER of three wept yesterday as he revealed how crossing the road ahead of an APEC motorcade led to his violent arrest in front of his young son and a traumatic 22 hours in jail.

Greg McLeay was released on bail yesterday after his wife, Sophie, and children spent a sleepless Friday night worrying about him.

"Because of APEC I was not allowed to speak to him - even the lawyer couldn't," Mrs McLeay said.

"The children are traumatised. We spent the night sleeping together on the sofa. How does walking to yum cha with your 11-year-old son end up with 22-hours in jail and no access to a lawyer?"

Footage available on ninemsn showed Mr McLeay, a 52-year-old accountant from Sydney's North Shore, speaking to police in Pitt Street before four officers pushed him to the ground.

He could be clearly heard trying to explain that he was simply attempting to protect his glasses. He has a condition called astigmatism, which means he can barely see without them.

Mr McLeay was arrested under sweeping powers given to police for the APEC period that allows officers to arrest and hold people without bail until APEC ends.

Mr McLeay said he and his son, George, cycled into the city on Friday - the APEC public holiday - and met a friend, Stephen Carter, 40, to work on his accounts at Mr McLeay's Pitt Street office.

They walked out at lunchtime to go to Chinatown for yum cha. They were crossing the street to avoid a police cordon outside the Westin hotel when a police officer started shouting at them.

"I didn't know what was going on," Mr McLeay said.

"I asked which way to go and he directed me around the block. I started to walk away and he suddenly started yelling at me. It was like a fool's comedy.

"He threatened me with arrest and demanded my ID. Then this character pushed me and told me that I had assaulted a police officer.

"I was pushed up against the wall and then I was thrown to the ground and they kept telling me to put my hands behind my back. There must have been four of them pinning me to the ground.

"I was frogmarched down to the hotel's underground car park and then they tried to put another pair of cuffs on me. I was just crossing the road. Never have I felt so mortified, embarrassed and invaded. I feel violated."

Mr McLeay, who has three children - George, Cordelia, 6, and Isadora, 3 - began to cry as he added: "The worst thing is that this happened in front of my young son. You want your children to grow up respecting the police but how can they when they see this kind of thing?"

George stayed with Mr Carter and watched the arrest.

"I was really upset when I saw them take my dad. I'm going to throw away all my police videos now and go and buy Ocean's Thirteen," he said.

Mr Carter said: "It is really outrageous. On any other day the worst thing that he could have been charged with is jaywalking."

Mr McLeay was strip-searched and spent the night in a city police cell with an ice addict before appearing by video link at Parramatta Bail Court yesterday to face charges of assault and resisting arrest.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Jason France asked that bail be refused under section 31 of the APEC Meeting (Police Powers) Act, referring to a separate assault charge Mr McLeay had outstanding.

Defence solicitor Phillip Gibson argued that Mr McLeay had simply been doing a friend's accounts in the city.

Magistrate Kevin Flack took into account Mr McLeay's profession and character before granting $1000 bail on the condition that Mr McLeay not enter the APEC three-kilometre exclusion zone in the CBD until tomorrow morning.

Outside the court Mr Gibson said: "This is the case of an ordinary person going about their business with their 11-year-old son and getting caught up in the madness of APEC security.

"Yet again the presence of the police and actions of the police have escalated matters. If you give police powers like this they will be abused."

www.smh.com.au - Jailed for jaywalking

Tethys

AdrienXII · #3 (**permalink**) 09-08-2007

Cops...You know, I try to put myself in their shoes and all that, but they keep doing shit like that. My question is, is being a sociopath required to join the police?

Tethys · #4 (**permalink**) 09-08-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by AdrienXII

Cops...You know, I try to put myself in their shoes and all that, but they keep doing shit like that. My question is, is being a sociopath required to join the police?

Like you, Adrien, I do try to see it from the “other side”, be it the cops or whoever.

I am not sure the police are solely to blame here. I think their behaviour is an outcome of a much bigger phenomenon – a psychosis gripping the West - due in part to a natural reaction to actual events (such as terrorist acts), and in part to the artificial whipping up of an ambience of fear, generated by the powers-that-be for political aims.

The extra power given to police mixed with this ambience creates a potent hypnotic cocktail, inevitably leading to the kind of incidents we are witnessing. Here’s a letter from Friday’s Sydney Morning Herald, highlighting another such incident.

Quote:

How freedom and democracy took a back seat when all the presidents' men came to town

I escaped last year after being tortured repeatedly by the Chinese regime because I practised Falun Gong. I remain grateful to Australia for allowing me to live like a human again.

Yet on Wednesday I was standing with my friend on the footpath at the corner of Southern Cross Drive and Botany Road. We were hoping to encounter Presiden Hu Jintao's motorcade so we could unfurl a small banner with the words "Falun Dafa is good" - the same banner that had us thrown into jail in China.

Before I could take out my banner, we were surrounded by eight policemen, had our banners confiscated, were photographed, dragged into a wagon with steel bars and locked up like animals for 20 minutes. All the dignity I had regained after coming to Australia vanished instantly. Australia, whatever happened to freedom and democracy?

www.smh.com.au - Time to put a stop to prejudice against religion

Tethys

moon · #5 (**permalink**) 09-09-2007

Quote:

What an irony. When the leader of the free world comes to town, the first casualty is freedom.

I reject the notion of the American President being 'the leader of the free world'. It is no longer true. Even the French President, months into the job, is more qualified for that description than this blood-soaked loon.

Good article though.

Rakkasan · #6 (**permalink**) 09-09-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by moon

I reject the notion of the American President being 'the leader of the free world'. It is no longer true. Even the French President, months into the job, is more qualified for that description than this blood-soaked loon.

Good article though.

Your rejection is noted, and ignored by the free world

moon · #7 (**permalink**) 09-09-2007

You reckon ? American democracy is history. It's a wealth-fest with bought results.

Steve · #8 (**permalink**) 09-09-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by moon

I reject the notion of the American President being 'the leader of the free world'. It is no longer true. Even the French President, months into the job, is more qualified for that description than this blood-soaked loon.

Good article though.

And, yet, nobody's referring to the President of France as the "leader of the free world".

Coincidence?

I think not...

AdrienXII · #9 (**permalink**) 09-09-2007

Well, in truth, only Americans would ever refer to their President as "the leader of the free world". The "Free World" is a typically American conceit, I'm sure you'll agree..

Anselme · #10 (**permalink**) 09-09-2007

In the movie "8 Mile", there is a band called "Free World"

Anselme · #11 (**permalink**) 09-09-2007

We leave to US to be leader of the "free world", and we keep the label of "human rights homeland", i think it is more noble

moon · #12 (**permalink**) 09-10-2007

The Patriot Act, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo. Three iconic nails in the coffin of American qualification to lead anything.

The Sydney lock-down represents a lurch in the direction of Australian revolution.

Tethys · #13 (**permalink**) 09-10-2007

I’ll add some comments later. For now, here’s an article from today’s Sydney Morning Herald.

Quote:

Lucky we all got out alive in Fear City

Date: September 10 2007

David Marr

MARTIAL law still runs in NSW. The great are gone. The fences are coming down. John Howard is off to Canberra to face his political fate. But the power of the police to decide who goes where in APEC city won't end until midnight on Wednesday.

Government House remains within the restricted zone and tourists wandering there over the next few days without "special justification" under the APEC Meeting (Police Powers) Act 2007 might face the slammer for six months.

Stage hands at the Opera House should be consulting QCs: possession of spray paint cans, flammable liquids or poles more than one metre long could land them behind bars for up to two years.

Crazy? Of course. Police swear they are not going to enforce these laws before they expire, but what are they doing on the books?

How can APEC be over but these powers linger on? One of the lessons Sydney learnt this week is that no security "precaution" is thought too silly in a country caught up in the politics of fear.

Saturday's Stop Bush rally was APEC fear central. The balcony of the Sydney Town Hall, off limits to speakers wanting to address the throng below, became a vantage point for hooded police video cameras. Let's hope they captured every detail of that cheerful crowd and the placards they were carrying: "Marry Me Chaser Boys"; "Austrians out of Iraq"; "Bush World's Worst Leader Tony Abbott Included".

The scene in the street was so Australian: teachers, Rabbitohs, wharfies, university students, families with strollers and guys from the fire brigade marching in thongs. Kids with fuzzy beards shared the road with ancient aristocrats of the left who have been at this work since the 1960s. Ditto Peter Harvey executing tricky stand-ups for the Channel Nine cameras as the crowd headed to Hyde Park.

But surrounding the marchers were scenes from another country: John Howard's Australia of fear. Police in Darth Vader gear stood, batons at the ready. Dogs were waiting in reserve. There were machines for pumping gas. The famous black water cannon crawled behind the demonstrators being funnelled into Hyde Park.

How must Mr Justice Michael Adams of the NSW Supreme Court have felt watching this scene on television? Largely on the basis of police evidence that Martin Place would be too narrow to contain the demonstrators safely, Justice Adams had ordered the march to follow the police route to the meeting planned for the park.

Now the police were directing somewhere between 3000 and 10,000 people into an opening at the corner of Park and Elizabeth streets no wider than a city footpath.

By a miracle, no demonstrators were injured. No violence flared. But the carnage among the gardenias was terrible.

Watching the crowd file into the park was a plain-clothes man with a squiggly wire in his ear. Whether that meant he was police or security wasn't clear. On the back of his baseball cap was: "Aim to Please. Shoot to Kill". Maybe that's a joke.

Certainly the Police Commissioner, Andrew Scipione, wasn't trying for laughs when he warned the Chaser boys their motorcade in Macquarie Street might have provoked gunfire. "We have snipers deployed around the city," he declared. "They weren't there for show; they mean business."

Though the show is over, the police refuse to say what protocols governed the snipers in APEC city. Were there really circumstances in which unarmed citizens might have been shot in the streets? They cite "operational reasons" for refusing to say. Let's pray it was fear-mongering. Sydney was never more John Howard's city than it was last week as he marshalled its fears.

If there is no APEC bounce for Howard in the polls, it will only partly reflect the disappointment that no mighty deals were done that would see this city join Versailles, Rapallo and Bretton Woods as spots on the map that have changed the world.

A ho hum response in the polls would also confirm a sense that this week saw Howard reach a dead end in the politics of fear. Thank God we all got out alive.

But by week's end it seemed we didn't need the kilometres of fences, the water cannon and armies of police. They were all a bit of a nuisance. Howard and APEC will be remembered for making Sydney feel grubby.

www.smh.com.au - Lucky we all got out alive in Fear City

Tethys (Your USPOL reporter almost de-locked down in Sydney)

Traveler · #14 (**permalink**) 09-10-2007

Make sure you don't go rioting and causing trouble now Tethys!

Traveler · #15 (**permalink**) 09-10-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anselme

We leave to US to be leader of the "free world", and we keep the label of "human rights homeland", i think it is more noble

Well we're all happy then aren't we? We're the powerhouse of the world and you guys do that whole rights for the bad guys thing. Though you guys have a much tougher domestic policy on national security than we do - i'm not criticising it or anything, keep it up!

Even if French people were being oppressed there would be nothing wrong with it...seeing as they're French.

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