[Greens-Media] (Sylvia Hale MLC) Inquiry Into APEC Police Actions
Must be Independent
Christopher Holley
Christopher.Holley at parliament.nsw.gov.au
Mon Sep 10 11:54:19 EST 2007
Inquiry Into APEC Police Actions Must be Independent
NSW Greens MP and Police Spokesperson, Sylvia Hale, has called for an
independent inquiry into the actions of NSW Police during the
demonstrations against APEC last weekend.
“The in-house inquiry announced by Police Commissioner Scipione is a
farce, given that the Commissioner has already declared that he is
satisfied with how Police conducted themselves,” said Ms Hale.
“Commissioner Scipione is reported in this morning’s Sydney Morning
Herald as saying: ‘that’s the way we do business in NSW now’.
“That attitude is unacceptable from the Police Commissioner who seems
to think that his role is to intimidate the population and suppress
political dissent."
“I remind the Commissioner that NSW is not a Police state and the
Police do not have unfettered powers to abuse the population. In light
of his comments I can have no confidence that the internal Police
inquiry will be anything other than a self-serving whitewash of the
Police” said Ms Hale.
“There is ample video and picture evidence of what appear to be violent
assaults by NSW Police officers on protesters in Sydney last weekend.”
“The arrests of two individuals who were on the excluded persons list
appears to have been an unjustified and provocative act by the Police.
The two men were not inside the exclusion zone and were not engaged in
any violent activity yet they were dragged away by police for no
apparent reason leading to the arrest of several other people who
protested about Police actions.”
“These matters should be the subject of an independent review, not a
police public relations exercise.”
“One very clear lesson to be learned from APEC is that granting Police
excessive powers and indemnity from prosecution, accompanied by
hairy-chested rhetoric from politicians, will see police powers abused
and the state’s citizens threatened,” Ms Hale said.
“The over the top security during the APEC meeting was designed to
intimidate any citizen who wanted to express political dissent.”
"The circumstances leading up to the weekend's Police actions,
including the contribution of politicians talking up violence and the
nature of the supposed Police intelligence about threatened violence
must be subject to independent scrutiny."
Further information: Chris Holley 0437 779 546 / 02 9230 3030
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