12th of April 2022
There is undeniable community angst about the Police response to certain anti-Vax, anti-Mandate demonstrations in this State. Much of that anger is directed at Police Command and we do not intend to argue justification, because we believe there is none.
If this was one isolated case, then that is one thing, but this behaviour was exercised time and again over an extended period aggravating people into even more social unrest.
The complete antithesis of what good police strategies should be.
What concerns us is the failure of our system of Government.
Apart from the Police making operational command decisions that aggravated the whole issue we ask what the Police Minister, the Premier and the Emergency Cabinet were doing, not to intervene because they have accountability in this matter equal to the Police command.
It was their rules police were required to enforce.
The most effective Policing strategy for demonstrations is passive resistance, holding a line, not the guerrilla warfare approach where individual police are allowed to break away and make strategic lunges into the fray.
These ill-disciplined high-risk forays degrade the police to no better than the demonstrators and may well be just as unlawful.
This latter strategy, of which there is overwhelming evidence, places both the police and the demonstrators at huge risk of injury and is never likely to achieve the objectives, which to this day remains unclear.
We have never understood why the Police Association did not intervene over the risk to their members whose interests they should be representing.
Putting Police in situations with badly flawed strategies at such huge personal risk is unforgivable.
Apart from the overall strategy failures, there were specific failures within the morass of Command, that need to be highlighted.
The CAA understands that it was the Victoria Police Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT) who deployed ‘bean bag’ and ‘plastic baton’ (Rubber Bullets) munitions against crowds during the unauthorised COVID marches in Elizabeth Street and at the Shrine of Remembrance.
It has been reported to us that CIRT Police fired so many rounds at the Elizabeth Street incident that a car had to be despatched back to CIRT for resupply of ammunition. We have not confirmed this report.
We understand that CIRT makes a specific reference in its training that these weapons are not to be used in crowd control situations. Yet it is our understanding that both projectiles were indiscriminately deployed by CIRT against multiple targets during both incidents, contrary to both policy and training.
‘Bean bag’ rounds are shotgun projectiles fired from the Victoria Police Remington shotguns on issue to CIRT. Plastic ‘baton’ rounds (sometimes mistakenly called ‘rubber bullets’) are projectiles fired from 40mm grenade launchers. Both are usually used by specialist police, including CIRT, in the resolution of critical incidents such as Armed offenders, Terror or Hostage situations
These munitions are known as ‘less lethal’ because they are usually less likely to cause death than conventional ammunition fired from traditional police service weapons. Neither bean bag nor plastic baton rounds are considered totally ‘non-lethal’ as bean bag rounds have been known to penetrate targets causing wounding and death. This raises significant and serious questions as to whether their use at both Elizabeth Street and the Shrine constituted ‘reasonable force’ under the Crimes Act.
It is the CAA’s view that bean bag and plastic baton munitions should not be deployed for crowd control purposes. Both projectiles suffer from accuracy problems when used against moving targets or over distances greater than 15-20 metres. Both munitions can also cause very serious injury and, as seen overseas, lead to deaths if they strike vulnerable parts of the human anatomy. It follows that their use should be restricted to extremely limited circumstances.
The CAA acknowledges that these munitions are essential in certain high-risk situations against dangerous offenders. It is our view, however, that demonstrations and crowd control are not appropriate situations.
The CAA notes that demonstrators often use physical contact with Police as a technique to elicit an adverse response from Police to make their point and/or to gain media attention for their cause. That said, we fail to see why Force Command does not negate these actions (prevention) and reduce the risk of physical harm to Police and demonstrators by using proven tactics, like appropriate chemical agents and Water.
Euphemistically called, Water Cannons they should be procured urgenlty and deployed for these events as a matter of course.
http://caainc.org.au/?s=Water+cannon&doing_wp
Drenching people in an unlawful assembly will dampen the enthusiasm of all but the extremists bent on lawlessness, who can then be dealt with by the full force of the water.
It might be smart to acquire a couple of modified Bushmasters (locally built) that can have a dual purpose during the fire season making the deal cost-effective.
With water cannons, big is not always best, two midsized vehicles would give flexibility to commanders and the ability to interchange to maintain pressure while refilling.
A former Commissioner from another state has lamented that his police force had a Water Cannon, but it was never used.
Perhaps having it was the reason they never had to use it.
Absolutely agree that change is needed immediately. Please all the people who can provide suitable and helpful hints and ideas on how to change presently used tactics – Send them in and share around. I can only think of the outback farm based living and learning to love constructively with the help of dogs and horses and very super supportive experienced people to be in charge ( not the police force trained types – usually) that can be real game changers and ensure that the people full of anger and angst and rage can learn to turn their feelings around by good examples and support and encouragement in the environments away from where they delvelopped the antisocial behaviours in the first place for whatever time it takes to be strong enough to be able to cope in the average social world again in a positive way.
Absolutely agree that change is needed immediately. Please all the people who can provide suitable and helpful hints and ideas on how to change presently used tactics – Send them in and share around. I can only think of the outback farm based living and learning to love constructively with the help of dogs and horses and very super supportive experienced people to be in charge ( not the police force trained types – usually) that can be real game changers and ensure that the people full of anger and angst and rage can learn to turn their feelings around by good examples and support and encouragement in the environments away from where they delvelopped the antisocial behaviours in the first place for whatever time it takes to be strong enough to be able to cope in the average social world again in a positive way.
Treating mums and dads and kids community protests with an armed military response is neither professional nor necessary, and as we have seen, it generates disgust and opposition. Hardly the way that a community based police organisation behaves if it wants to gain and retain community support in its Law and Order role. Now is the time for VicPol to make amends and once again become the proud and respected police force it once was. In that regard, I wish Chief Commissioner Paton every success. But to regain community confidence he does need to immediately purge his Command Team of the useless left over has beens from previous administrations.
Yet another example of the lack of separation of powers between the government and Police Command.
There were numerous examples of these weapons, which are meant to be used to defend officers under attack, being used offensively, eg: fired at demonstrators who were running away in Carlton Gardens.
On a less serious note, many officers hid behind their masks, removed their name tags, and refused to give their names and rank when asked. To the best of my knowledge, Standing Orders require officers who are on duty to provide those details, when asked by a member of the public. I saw many examples on the 6 o’clock news and on social media, where these Standing Orders were not adhered to.
Why would so many officers break so many rules unless they were told they would not be punished? Where did these orders come from? Obviously Police Command. Why would they allow such egregious breaches of protocol? Because they were ordered by higher command. There is only one person higher than the Police Commissioner and that is the premier, LockDan Andrews. Why did the Police Commissioner not stand up to the premier? Because the whole state has been corrupted from top to bottom by this premier.
We need no more proof than the statement from Police Command that they will not be re-opening the Red Shirts Rorts case, ‘because there is no new evidence’????
One of the crooks has admitted to the crime, under oath, and dobbed in others, but there is ‘no new evidence’?
There is plenty of evidence of a gutless Police Command, and a puppet as a Police Commissioner!
Dont waste your time complaining,when it comes to Vicpol they are protected by their master Dodgy Dan his list of crimes is beyond belief and their total lack of respect for Victorians has been well and truly visible during his time in office.If you have had enough of their lack of competence vote Dan and his friends out come November and then demand your new MP raises your concerns.I personally have contacted 3 sitting labor MPs over recent events and guess what, one said there was nothing he could do the other accussed me of listening to fake news and the last one has not responded rubber bullets and riot police fake news
My son suffered a three round bean bag assault and the resulting injuries required hospitalization, surgery to remove pallets from his arm and weeks of injury recovery. His crime? Mental health issues, drunk in a public place and refusing to obey a police command.
To me, what’s really scary is that whilst he was lying hospital under guard one of the officers whilst talking to his sidekick said ‘I would have just shot him.
I’ve always respected Victoria police but these day I tend to refer to them as ‘Dictator Dan’s Hired Thugs’. In most cases adults are not their target unless they question the status quo. Their brief seems to be ‘Target youth’, harass them until they lose it and then beat them up & or arrest them.
the vicpol are lawless and this problem is never raised , if the terrorist vicpol just leave the public alone Victoria would be a much better place to be in , being at the Victoria market when the riot police showed up was totally uncalled for just because some people did not wear face masks and had exemptions to be without one if the pandemic was such a threat to everyones health why would such a vast space be open to the public ? the riot police beat people up but why to show thier own misgivings they were in full helmets with guns
and amunition they certainly did not step back and assess the innocence of people shopping but went into the Victoria market on a mission to clearly disturb the peace and harm people l hid behind a counter shaking and my hand bag was lost during this senseless display of thuggery l cannot forget what they did to innocent victorians shopping at the market it was the most frightening situation l was ever in one man was watching me and gathered my hand bag up for me to cope with this public assault on civilians l have had to put this to the back of my mind like a selective memory . this dispicable behavior of the police in Victoria is inexcusable and there was indeed no reason to deliberately assault and harm the public , l cannot look at a police person as a part of society they are a lawless bunch of crooks and unfortunately are protected like judges & magistrate’s and politician’s and MP’s , The fact that the Ombudsman of Victoria , and IBAC both take police complaints back to police to investigate leaves all Victorians in a vulnerable position a totalitarian police state that is governed by a complete incompetent psychopath Dan Andrews who all Brighton Residents like as he lives there .
with mostly every single Victorian trying to get rid of Dan Andrews as the Premier it seems all attempts fail to undermine his Communist disgusting Dictatorship
The criticism’s surrounding recent demonstrations, the Bourke Street massacre and other major policing incidents is mainly due to failures surrounding Command and Control. Basically it is about someone in charge with the relevant skills and experience to control and manage such incidents.
Who was in charge when James Gargasoulis went on this rampage and crime spree over three days. NOBODY at a senior level. Surely an Officer (150) was notified of this incident but where were they.
My observations of the anti-vax demonstrations, revealed a complete lack of Command and Control, but this is not surprising as:
> In 2008 when I retired there was not a single course dedicated to Command and Control
> Training establishments such as Airlie were done away with
> Promotion is focused on gender and diversity rather than experience and knowledge, the best person for the job etc.
> Many other issues
Although I spent 23 years of my life under the oppressive communist regime, I do not remember the usually brutal police using rubber bullets or other weapons apart from batons, on demonstrators. I am very concerned how politicised the peoples’ police service in Victoria has become. And talking with others about this subject it is clear that I am not alone. Our democracy is seriously threatened if police allow themselves to be an extended arm of Government. What we saw during recent overall peaceful demonstrations in Melbourne is something which should make every freedom loving democrat worried. Police in a democratic society must be apolitical. The
Chief Commissioner of Police must never be in the pocket of any political party of the day.