Police have arrested four people following angry confrontations between police and protesters who converged on Melbourne’s CBD to counter a rally.<\/p>\n
Vision shows a group of people dressed in black with their faces covered clashing with officers on Russell Street on Saturday morning.<\/p>\n
It is believed the group was connected to a counter-protest against a rally organised by Women’s Voices Australia called ‘Women Will Speak’ at Victorian parliament on nearby Spring Street.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A scuffle broke out as the counter protesters moved along Russell Street. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Police said they made four arrests. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
Police also said they used OC spray, conducted about 145 searches and directed numerous people to remove face coverings.<\/p>\n
Officers estimated about 120 people attended the Women Will Speak protest while there were about 80 counter-protesters.<\/p>\n
Arrests included a 21-year-man from Flemington who police said allegedly struck a police officer with an umbrella.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A 19-year-old woman from Wallington and a 27-year-old man from Coburg were arrested for allegedly being in possession of flares. And a 33-year-old man from Oakleigh South was arrested for failing to move on.<\/p>\n
Three officers were injured but did not require hospitalisation.<\/p>\n
Protest and counter-protest<\/p>\n
Women’s Voices Australia’s Instagram account describes the group as “working to maintain and strengthen women’s and girls’ sex-based rights”.<\/p>\n
“We work with a coalition of women’s groups to support freedom of speech and expression,” the description says.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Police blocked counter protesters from reaching state parliament where the Women Will Speak rally was being held. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Women Will Speak rally was organised by Women’s Voices Australia. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
A social media call-out by Trans Queer Solidarity urged counter-protesters to come wearing masks and to cover identifiable features.<\/p>\n
“Be ungovernable,” a post said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Counter protesters gathered on Spring Street before the rally started. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The counter protesters banged drums, blew whistles and waved transgender flags near the Women Will Speak rally. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
Police set up barricades on Spring Street to keep the two groups apart.<\/p>\n
A small group of counter protesters banged drums, clapped hands and blew whistles while waving transgender flags.<\/p>\n
Most members of the group did not directly confront officers on Spring Street or the rally attendees, but there was a report of a small scuffle with a member of the media.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Police pushed back counter protesters after a small scuffle with a member of the media on Spring Street. (AAP: Con Chronis)<\/p>\n
On Friday, Victoria Police alerted the media to online posts encouraging some of the protesters to interfere with journalists covering the event, including damaging cameras.<\/p>\n
News outlets were encouraged to consider their security arrangements.<\/p>\n
Melbourne’s CBD was declared a designated area for Saturday, allowing police to randomly search people and ask them to remove headwear, scarves and outer clothing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police have arrested four people following angry confrontations between police and protesters who converged on Melbourne’s CBD to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":149829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[88115,4740,88117,85292,50,1809,19127,88116,8344,88113,88114],"class_list":{"0":"post-149828","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-anti-trans-rights","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-bec-freedom","11":"tag-clash","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-protest","14":"tag-rally","15":"tag-trans-queer-solidarity","16":"tag-victoria-police","17":"tag-women-will-speak","18":"tag-womens-voices-australia"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115037047737496148","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149828","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=149828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}