More than 100 men dressed in black \u2014 who the premier has described as “Nazis” \u2014 marched through Melbourne’s CBD early on Saturday morning, carrying Australian flags and chanting.<\/p>\n
Police responded to what they described as a “pop-up protest” about 12:40am.<\/p>\n
In a video shared on TikTok, a man can be seen carrying a placard while the masked group walks through Bourke Street Mall.<\/p>\n
On Saturday morning, Premier Jacinta Allan said: “Nazis don’t belong in this country and they know it. That’s why they hide behind masks in the dark.”<\/p>\n
Police said they responded quickly and the protest group eventually dispersed just before 1:30am, after arriving at Flagstaff Gardens.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Police descend on Bourke Street Mall as the protest group approaches. (2fast\/TikTok)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
An altercation allegedly occurred during the protest, when a 26-year-old man confronted the group and was assaulted, police said.<\/p>\n
The man, of no fixed address, was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.<\/p>\n
Premier says anti-vilification laws on the way<\/p>\n
Ms Allan thanked police for maintaining public order.<\/p>\n
“It’s clear they need more powers, and we’re giving it to them,” she said.<\/p>\n
“Our criminal anti-vilification laws come into effect next month. We will introduce powers for police to unmask cowards at protests after that.<\/p>\n
“We’re not afraid of these goons \u2014 but we won’t tolerate them, either.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Victoria Police said no arrests were made during the protest, with police maintaining a strong presence throughout.<\/p>\n
“Victoria Police respects the right to protest; however, there is absolutely no place for antisemitic, racist or hate-based behaviour in our society and police will not tolerate such activity.”<\/p>\n
Anyone with information has been urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or via www.crimestoppersvic.com.au.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 100 men dressed in black \u2014 who the premier has described as “Nazis” \u2014 marched through…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":130697,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,73629,41047,50,1809],"class_list":{"0":"post-130696","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-jacinta-allan","10":"tag-nazi","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-protest"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114996632956555929","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}