Report
- Title
- Occupy Policing: A Report into the Effects and Legality of the Eviction of Occupy Melbourne from City Square on 21 October 2011
- Imprint
- Occupy Melbourne Legal Support Team, Melbourne, 2012, 83 pp
- Url
- https://occupypolicing.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/occupy_policing_2012.pdf
- Abstract
This Report documents the personal experiences of those who participated in the Occupy Melbourne protests and their stories of policing and the forcible removal of Occupy Melbourne protesters from City Square on 21 October 2011. These stories demonstrate the effects that the forcible removal of Occupy Melbourne protesters and the manner in which this was carried out had on an emerging political movement and the individuals participating in it.
This Report complements these personal stories with an account of the relevant law, addressing three central interrelated questions:
What are the effects and consequences of the policing of Occupy Melbourne on individual protesters and on the rights to freedom of assembly and political expression?
What was the legal basis for the forceful removal of Occupy Melbourne protesters from the City of Melbourne?
Were the tactics used by Victoria Police and Melbourne City Council against protesters lawful? Or in other words, was their use of force legally justified in the circumstances? [From report]