The police watchdog has announced it will investigate officers and NSW Police more broadly after their actions at Sydney’s anti-Herzog protest on Monday drew major scrutiny.
The independent investigation was launched after the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission said it received a “significant number of complaints” after the protest, which took place at Town Hall in opposition to Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s Australian visit.
“Following the receipt of a significant number of complaints, the [Commission] has decided that it is in the public interest to investigate the police operation,” a spokesperson for the police watchdog said in a press statement.
Alongside “incidents of alleged misconduct on the part of NSW police officers”, the investigation will cover individual officers’ behaviour and analyse “all available material” from the protest, including mobile phone footage, documents and other records held by police.
The LECC said it will hold hearings as part of the investigation, with a public report to be tabled in NSW parliament once it concludes.
The inquiry comes despite NSW Premier Chris Minns saying just yesterday that he does “not support an independent investigation” into police behaviour at the rally.
He has repeatedly and publicly defended the police response, saying they were put in an “impossible situation” as protesters “repeatedly breached” police lines.
However, NSW Greens members and even Labor backbenchers in attendance have described the response as everything from “over-the-top” to “corporal punishment against a peaceful community”.
Shocking footage has circulated on social media since Monday.
One clip appeared to show police punching a man who had his hands held up, while another appeared to show officers forcibly dispersing a Muslim prayer group.
The latter prompted Australia’s Islamophobia envoy Aftab Malik to demand a public apology from Minns, who refused to do so in an interview on Thursday.
“I won’t [apologise],” Minns said, per 9News. “I don’t do that in an antagonistic way, but the circumstances are important. I don’t believe [police] intended to cause offence.”
Nine people were charged by police in relation to the protest with offences ranging from behaving offensively in public to assault.
Herzog’s four-day visit was framed on one side as an act of solidarity after the Bondi massacre and on the other as an outrage given the president’s connection to the alleged atrocities in Gaza.
More anti-Herzog protests were held across the country on Thursday night, with a protest against police brutality taking place at Surry Hills police station in Sydney on Wednesday.
Lead images: Getty Images
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