Land Forces Expo ends today after two days of protest

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Demonstrations against the Melbourne weapons expo have continued in the city's CBD. Police arrested a woman who set her hand in concrete in a car in protest against the land forces expo.

Transcript

00:00This massive police operation continues for a third day.

00:05You can see this big line of police backed by crime squad officers and then detectives

00:10behind that.

00:12And they're all behind this large barricade that still forms this so-called ring of steel

00:18around the northern edge of Spencer Street Bridge.

00:22You can see behind here there's a relatively small group of protesters, about 60 to 70

00:29people that are here, they've been protesting throughout the morning.

00:34They've also been heckling various attendees to the Land Forces Expo as they've been coming

00:40through the barricade, shouting things like shame and murderer.

00:45And they want to draw attention to the plight of Palestinians as the war continues to rage

00:51in Gaza.

00:52But we have seen several arrests here when police have been asking people to show their

00:59bags so they can search them if they've failed to comply with police directions.

01:04They've been very quickly taken through to be processed.

01:07We've seen plenty of people with their bags being searched as well here.

01:12And earlier on this morning we saw quite a bizarre protest, this was probably only about

01:17500 metres down the Yarra River on Kingsway, where traffic was brought to a standstill

01:23when a woman actually managed to chain and then concrete herself into the back of a car.

01:31So her hand was caught in there, police had to come along and get jacks to move the car

01:37up and basically crab walk her to the side of the road before using a jackhammer to be

01:42able to free and then arrest her.

01:45Her and a driver were also arrested, two women, and witnesses say that before that a man was

01:52running through the traffic and indiscriminately smashing windscreens.

01:56The truck driver of a windscreen that was smashed, AJ Kumar, says it was really quite

02:02a shocking situation.

02:03This guy was right in the middle of the intersection and he was smashing all the cars and trucks

02:08and as soon as I reached the intersection he started approaching me and then he smashed

02:13the windscreen.

02:15And AJ Kumar says that he was really quite upset with the situation and he says that

02:20all of the people that were doing this were basically just causing problems and traffic

02:27jams but one of the protesters that I spoke to down there said that that man had no part

02:33of their day of action.

02:35He wasn't involved.

02:36However, there's no way that we can independently verify that.

02:40Now protesters claim that on Wednesday when we saw those violent clashes that it was a

02:48case of excessive force being used by police and the Greens continue to call for an inquiry

02:54into police operations.

02:56However, that's been very quickly shut down by the Premier, Jacinta Allen.

03:01This is what she had to say on ABC Radio Melbourne this morning.

03:05Victoria Police had plans for this in place and they responded as they should because

03:10they had a focus on keeping the community safe.

03:14In the context where some people, RAF, turned up on Wednesday carrying rocks, carrying bottles

03:19filled with liquid as the Chief Commissioner has identified had some sort of acidic substance

03:24in it.

03:25That's not an intent to protest peacefully.

03:27That's Premier Jacinta Allen there and these demonstrators say that there is going to be

03:32more action this afternoon as this Land Forces Expo draws to a close and we've heard from

03:38police about yesterday's protest as well which they said which was more peaceful than

03:43Wednesday's violent clashes.

03:45Nevertheless, five people were arrested, two for carrying weapons and bag searchers also

03:51uncovered things like red paint, marbles and small rocks which would have been used to

03:57hinder police horses.

03:59They say that police horses actually also showed signs of skin irritation and that was

04:06after protesters had sprayed liquid directly into the animals' noses on Wednesday and they

04:14also say they're continuing to investigate assaults against various delegates including

04:19one who had urine and faeces tipped on him.

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