A College of Sydney regulation professor, who was observing a pupil protest on Wednesday as a part of analysis into protest regulation, was thrown to the bottom by police, then arrested and fined.
Prof Simon Rice stated he was not taking part within the protest and was attempting to maneuver previous it when he was pushed to the bottom by police with “disproportionate drive”.
A number of college students and workers had been arrested on the college as lots of protested the federal government’s modifications to larger schooling, college funding cuts and job losses.
Earlier protests on the college have additionally been disrupted by police with arrests made.
Footage captured by the college’s pupil newspaper, Honi Soit, confirmed Rice being pushed to the bottom by police, and one other pupil thrown to the bottom.
Honi Soit
(@honi_soit)Legislation Professor Simon Rice was roughly pressured to the bottom by police as he left the protest. 3 different fines passed off alongside this. pic.twitter.com/yBQtYV4xhY
“I’ve been working an extracurricular volunteer regulation agency analysis venture,” Rice advised Guardian Australia. “I’ve a bunch of scholars who’re engaged on reforming protest legal guidelines. I advised them there’s a protest at present and it’s possible you’ll wish to watch. I additionally selected to observe.
“The footage exhibits from a distance them pushing me down. That’s truly the second time, they’d kicked my legs out from underneath me and that was me attempting to stand up once more, then they pushed me down.”
Rice, who’s the College of Sydney’s Kim Santow chair in regulation and social justice, stated he was attempting to stroll across the protest when he was arrested.
“The one method I may get out was to stroll by to Parramatta Street, then once I walked previous the police they made a transfer,” he stated.
“It was violent with out inflicting any explicit hurt. Disproportionate drive, fully unjustified.”
A separate video seems to point out a male police officer shoving a younger lady to the bottom, who proceeded to nurse a light-weight arm damage.
Honi Soit
(@honi_soit)Cops violently drive college students from the highway, throwing one younger lady to the bottom. pic.twitter.com/egb5DkIFyM
Rice stated he had been arrested and fined $1,000 for breaching the Covid-19 well being restrictions.
Below the NSW Covid-19 restrictions, teams of separate individuals might be thought of as one gathering if they’re gathering for a “frequent function”.
“The police have this concept of frequent function,” Rice stated. “I used to be not a part of any group, I used to be by myself. I used to be strolling by a big group, I used to be not gathering. I don’t settle for that I used to be in breach of the order.
“I used to be standing aside from it, I used to be standing nearer to the police than the scholars more often than not.”
The tutorial stated it was the primary time this 12 months that he had been current at one of many college’s many protests.
Previous to Wednesday, greater than $43,000 of fines had been issued by police to college protestors, in accordance with Liam Donohoe, the president of the college’s College students’ Consultant Council.
