Red Rag

In what is good news to me, but will no doubt be upsetting to some, all charges against me have now been dropped. I still have to front at court on Tuesday, but the prosecution have indicated that they won’t be proceeding.

For those who don’t remember, I was arrested at a Youth and Students Against War march that got a bit out of control. At the time, I didn’t want to say much about it, but now that it’s over I might as well fill in the details.

Here’s the notes I made the next day, to keep my memory fresh:

On Wednesday, 26 March 2003, I attended a rally and march organised by Youth and Students Against War. We gathered in the Perth Cultural Centre to hear music and speeches, before marching around the city. At one point, I thought the march was deviating from its route, but when I got to the corner the police were directing people that way, so I continued until we arrived at the US Consulate on St George’s Terrace.

I sat on the road on the Consulate side. We sat for some time, reciting slogans for peace. Some people threw paint at the police, but the organisers told them to stop. The police began to get agitated, and advanced towards the crowd sitting on the road. One officer lunged forward and thrust his long baton in the face of a young girl, before his colleagues grabbed him, confiscated his baton and dragged him behind the horses.

The police suddenly decided to force people back to the other side of the road. They advanced with the horses, and pushed people back. There were small children getting caught between and beneath the horses. Some children were pinned between horses and a bus stop, and couldn’t move away. Eventually the police gave up and returned to the front of the consulate.

At that stage people around me began to get panicky. I tried to keep them calm and explained that the police were trying to scare us, but that they didn’t want to hurt us. We sat for a while longer, and the police horses repeatedly took steps forward into the crowd. The people sitting under the horses had nowhere to go, and eventually the horses moved back again.

After a while longer, some of the organisers argued that we had occupied the road for long enough and that we should move to the lawn on the other side of the road. Everybody stood up and began moving towards the park. Some people moved quickly, others more slowly. Quite a few people were stiff after having sat on the road for so long, and were stretching. Some people started chanting anti-war slogans. However nobody appeared to have the intention to remain on the road.

At this point, the police suddenly rushed forwards and began pushing people. They were shouting “move, move” and shoving people. An elderly man (I would estimate his age as about eighty years old) was knocked over by the police. Several students tried to help him to his feet, and asked the police to let them help him get up. However, the police continued pushing forward and shoving people.

Many people started to panic, and there was a rush to move backwards towards the park. Because there were so many people, it was difficult to move. The police kept shoving people aggressively, and shouting “move”. I saw a large officer pushing two young girls. He pushed them with one hand on each of their chests, knocking them to the ground. When they got to their feet, he knocked them down again. This happened several times, so I moved in front of the girls to allow them to get away.

I recognised the officer as the one who had been subdued by his colleagues earlier. He continued to say “move” and shove me in the chest. I started moving backwards, and he kept pushing me. I moved quicker, and suddenly he shouted, “alright, that’s it” and grabbed me. He pushed me back to some other officers who grabbed me. I went back between the horses with my hands in the air. One of the officers tried to twist my arm behind my back. I told him that I was coming with him, and he stopped. He took me through to the back of the consulate and put me in the back of a wagon. I asked what I was being charged with, and the police couldn’t tell me. Then they said, “failure to follow an officer’s direction.” They didn’t know who the arresting officer was, so they guessed.

When we arrived at the East Perth lockup, they let us out of the wagon to sit on a bench in the garage. We sat there for a long time, and the police began filling out forms, taking our names and addresses. When I asked, they told me I would be charged under the Road Traffic Act.

Several officers made what I thought were political comments. One said, “If you follow sheep, you’ll be led astray,” and told us to “Go back to school.” Several officers told us that the war had already started and we were wasting our time.

When I was taken from my cell to be fingerprinted, the officer (who was the big fellow who grabbed me in the first place — I think his number was 9888 or 8999) said, “You know what I don’t get? People who were attacking the police, throwing things at us and abusing us. How would you like it if somebody came to your house and did that to you?” I replied that I hadn’t thrown anything at the police, so he should take it up with someone who had. He asked, “You were at the protest, weren’t you?” and I said, “There were a lot of people at the protest. I didn’t throw anything, so don’t lecture me about it.” Then I said, “What I don’t get is that police were pushing over little girls,” and he replied, “You know the war’s already on, don’t you? It’s too late. Give up.” I didn’t want to get in an argument so I stopped talking.

Eventually I was asked to sign my bail form, and I asked about the conditions imposed. I am not allowed to attend the city block to protest, and I’m not allowed within 100m of the US Consulate. I wanted to know why I wasn’t allowed to protest when I wasn’t charged with protesting. I didn’t see why those conditions were being imposed, but I was told they were a standard form and I should just sign. Then I was released.

That was over four months and three court appearances ago. The first time I fronted at court, the police started telling cock-and-bull stories about people throwing urine and rocks at the police. The magistrate reminded them that I hadn’t been charged with anything like that, and removed the conditions from my bail. I was to reappear for a directions hearing at the end of May. That time, the prosecutor didn’t know what was going on. He had no details of the case (I wonder why) and asked for an adjournment. I was asked to reappear in early June.

When my case was called up, my lawyer wanted to know when he would be provided with details of the case against me. The prosecutor said he hadn’t yet received the paperwork from the arresting officer, and didn’t know when he would get it. The court ordered him to get it and pass it on to my lawyer by the end of that week, and set down a hearing date for next Tuesday, 5 August.

This week, my lawyer still hadn’t been informed of the case against me, so he contacted the prosecutor. We arranged a meeting at the police building, Curtin House, to view a video that apparently showed my seditious behaviour. On the morning that I was supposed to watch it, I got a call telling me that the arresting officer still hadn’t passed on the video; what’s more, he works night shift which would make it hard to track down.

Nonetheless, another meeting was scheduled for the following day (yesterday) at 1pm. At 12:30pm, I got a call from my lawyer telling me that the prosecution had decided not to proceed with the case. My guess is that the arresting officer either admitted there was no case against me, or (finally) passed on the paperwork, which revealed there was no case against me.

Although I’m pleased with the outcome, I’m not happy about it. It has been a waste of my time, the court’s time, and your (the public’s) money — and all because the police were running a pro-war, anti-democracy agenda and needed some arrests to look good on the news.