The Null Device

I am listening to the 3RRR talkback programme, who are talking about the S11 protest. There has been a rather disturbing call in, from a young woman who went to interview protesters for her student newspaper, and was beaten badly by the police and hospitalised. According to her, the police (who were from some specialist division and did not wear ID badges, for "safety" reasons, ironically) specifically targeted women and weak-looking demonstrators, holding them down and beating them repeatedly. The police allegedly also threatened demonstrators with physical and sexual violence. The caller was beaten severely, sustaining concussion, and was only saved when a black-balaclava-wearing "terrorist" group named the "Black Bloc" dragged her to safety. She is now in hospital, with severe injuries, one of about 40 demonstrators who were hospitalised.

A legal observer from the protest movement just called in, claiming that the police removed their badges on Sunday evening, preparing for a bloodbath.

Another demonstrator called in confirming that the police were beating unarmed, non-violent demonstrators, Meanwhile, the media has either ignored police brutality or (in the case of the Murdoch press) vehemently denounced the protesters as "Communists", among other things. The Labor premier of Victoria, Steve "the Smiler" Bracks, has denounced the demonstrations as "un-Australian", (What is Australian, then; sitting in front of the telly with a bottle of VB and letting the professional politicians and power-brokers decide what happens in the world outside?), and saying that the protesters deserved everything they got. (A view that sounds more in place in Pinochet's Chile than in a democratic country.)

If these allegations are true, it is very disturbing.

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