Police Warn School Student Protesters : We Cannot Guarantee Your Safety
President Bush's Early APEC Arrival Will Cost Taxpayers $6 Million
The $331 Million Party You're Not Invited To, But You're Paying For
The Daily Telegraph's Kara Lawrence and Joe Hildebrand use their remarkable psychic powers to predict what will happen in Sydney during the coming APEC summit, when thousands of Australians exercise their democratic rights to free speech and right of assembly :
A WEEK-long campaign of mayhem involving every major protest group in Sydney will cause mass CBD disruption during next month's APEC summit.
Unlike the APEC summit itself which, of course, will cause absolutely no mass disruption to the centre of Sydney at all. Except for the ten foot high, five kilometre long 'steel wall' cutting the city in half, BlackHawk helicopters sweeping over the city, massive presidential motorcades blocking traffic for hours at a time, and the deployment of more than 5000 police, armed soldiers and foreign secret service onto city streets who have the right to body search and detain, without charge, anyone they feel like.
The organisers of the APEC summit, according to the Daily Telegraph are bracing "for protests from a range of radical groups..."
Radical groups? Oh my gawd. Hizbullah? Hamas? Tamil Tigers?
Ah, no. Some of the radical groups the Daily Telegraph is referring to, in regards to their self-proclaimed 'campaign of mayhem', include :
Amnesty International, the Greens, Vietnamese and Chinese groups, and Critical Mass...Amnesty International is a radical group? Chinese groups protesting Communism and campaigning for human rights are radical groups?
Well, Critical Mass sure sound like a bunch of dangerous radicals. Who are Critical Mass? They're bike riders, celebrating their love of biking, and promoting the riding of bicycles as an alternative to filling city streets with more cars.
Yeah, that's pretty radical.
Clearly the Daily Telegraph has already decided that 'MAYHEM' will be the action word in all its stories and headlines covering the protests surrounding the APEC summit. Even if there isn't any mayhem.
Here's a couple of headlines you'll never see in the Daily Telegraph :
'Thousands Of Australians Celebrate Their Love Of Democracy'
'Peaceful Protests Turn Sydney Streets Into One Big Party'
Meanwhile, police are warning that they cannot "guarantee the safety of children caught up in the protests".
As long as the 21 world leaders at the APEC summit don't get tasered, hit by water cannons, targeted by disorientation weapons or stepped on by police horses, how could any parent complain?
The Daily Telegraph also helpfully provides starting times and meeting place locations for a variety of rallies and marches, something the mainstream media rarely does, usually because police would prefer they didn't reveal such details.
By publishing full details of the events, the Daily Telegraph now stands accused of actively encouraging and promoting the rallies and marches by the very groups they've deemed to be 'radical' :
September 7 and 8 - the peak of APEC leaders' week - have emerged as the most popular for protest groups.
Hyde Park, Martin Place, Sydney Town Hall, Belmore Park and Milsons Point will all be occupied on these days.
On Saturday, September 8, at least 15,000 protesters are expected to clog the CBD. The biggest protest, at 10am on that day, is expected to be the 10,000-strong Stop Bush Stop Howard rally and march from Sydney Town Hall to Hyde Park North.
...the Vietnamese community is also staging a protest on that day, which is expected to attract thousands of protesters to Belmore Park, opposite Central railway station.
The Stop Bush Coalition is also organising a stunt protest at Sydney Town Hall to coincide with the arrival of US President George W. Bush on September 4.
Students from at least five Sydney high schools will also walk out of school in a student strike at 1pm on September 5 for a protest at Belmore Park.
The group is to then march along Elizabeth St and back to the park.
Assistant Commissioner Dave Owens, who is heading the police APEC response, said school students who attended protests put themselves at risk.
"These kids might get caught up in a violent protest but, as police, we cannot guarantee their safety if they do," he said. He said police were well-briefed on plans for a student walkout and said "the same rules apply to them as anyone else".
Hear that, children? You have been officially warned that if you turn up and exercise your democratic rights - you know the kind of democratic rights that Australian went to war in Iraq and Afghanistan to help spread around to the oppressed - you may be deemed to be posing the same level of threat as violent anarchists and ski-masked agent provocateurs.
Interesting that nobody organising the numerous rallies is planning for, or even anticipating, "violent protest".
The police and the Daily Telegraph aren't trying to scare off people from exercising their democratic rights in the streets of of an Australian city by any chance, are they?
The irony is that the people who have actually unleashed untold violence, death and destruction will be the ones ringed by the kind of ultra-security never seen deployed before in Australia's history.
A report aired on Channel Seven News on Monday night revealed that the APEC summit will cost Australian taxpayers more than $331 million. One lunch alone will cost $12,000. And President Bush's early arrival in Sydney, throwing years of security planning into chaos, will cost an extra $6 million.
But forget about all that. Lookit! School students are taking part in democracy and demanding that vile war makers be held responsible for their actions. Quick! Somebody stop those kids before they start making sense!
The New South Wales Premier, Morris Iemma, has warned "ferals" to stop trying to recruit school students to take part in the protests around APEC.
That's right, students. If you're politically motivated and you want to make a real difference, then think about joining the Young Labor Party. It's a hive of action, and change. Kind of. Then again, not really.
Iemma has to get in early. That way, "ferals" can be blamed for brainwashing students into marching and protesting, when thousands of them turn out in opposition to the anti-environment policies and anti-human rights doctrines that about half the world leaders present at APEC actively support and practice.
Students, particularly high school students, aren't allowed to be motivated by what they see happening in the world around them, and genuine concern for their futures, to take to the streets of Sydney.
They have to be recruited, by "ferals", as though they're taking part in the rallies against their will.
Cops In Disguise - Agent Provocateurs Busted Trying To Cause Mayhem At Protest
Revealed - White House Manual Details How To Isolate, Marginalise Dissenters And Protesters
Police Reveal Secret APEC Weapon - Motorcycles
Water Cannon Can Break Limbs and Blind - Welcome To APEC Sydney, 2007
APEC : Eight Year Olds Subjected To Security Checks
Mobile 'Prisons' Readied For APEC Summit Protesters
Sydneysiders Told To "Leave Town" During World Leaders Summit
