MELBOURNE — Premier Steve Bracks and the commanders of the Victoria Police are under heavy fire for their backing of violent assaults on peaceful S11 protesters during the September 11-13 blockade of the World Economic Forum's summit in the Crown Casino. And so they should be — the police operation was amongst the most brutal of any in the state's history.
Here we reprint an edited and abridged account of a submission to the official ombudsman's inquiry into police actions by RHONDA JANKOVIC, who was a first aid volunteer during the protest.
I was invited to join the "Union First Aid" team on September 9. My duties were to be the night shift (6pm to 6am), beginning on September 10 and concluding September 13.
On my arrival at the protest camp on the corner lawn on Queensbridge Street, facing the casino, I was amazed to see hundreds of police officers barricaded behind 12-foot fences of concrete and metal.
Their image was in vast contrast to the bustling groups of people, meeting and greeting on the lawn and erecting the tents and sorting the goods which would become legal support, communications, the HQs of various political associations, Healing Space, Food not Bombs, and other facilities. The stage had already been constructed and we erected a marquee, which was to serve as the first aid base, directly behind it.
Sunday night was, in terms of first aid, very quiet. Not even a band-aid was required. But the weather began to change from a gentle spring night to gusty winds and the occasional cold shower.
At 6am on September 11, protesters arrived individually and in groups. The visible police numbers grew around the perimeter of the casino.
Later in the morning, while working as a mobile first aid unit with Ben, I witnessed one of the first serious confrontations between the Victorian police and protesters, in Whiteman Street. The confrontation was between protesters and police officers in front of and behind their barricades; a number of officers on horseback were also involved.
The injuries which resulted from this fracas were predominantly crushed foot injuries from horses and facial injuries resulting from punches and kicks from horse riders. There were obvious broken bones in the fingers, arms and wrists of some protesters, caused by baton hits.
Another form of injury that is noteworthy from the morning of September 11 were testicular injuries, resulting from deliberate kicking.
Second night
From when I went back on shift at 4.45pm, there was a regular flow of patients. The injuries were shock, hypothermia, a few injuries due to officers hitting protesters' hands with batons and the usual bumps and scrapes which always happen in large crowds.
By 8pm all but the Haig Lane entrances to the underground car parks had been deserted by protesters; however large numbers of Victorian police officers and casino security guards remained.
From 6am, the sleeping camp became a hive of activity again. By 7am the crowds were larger than those on Monday. At approximately 7.10am the first police baton and horse charge began, at the corner of Queensbridge and Power Streets.
From the corner of Southbank Boulevard and Queensbridge Street I could hear screaming and had a view of people, horses and blue uniforms. There were no visible police lines, horses were scattered in the crowd — it was mayhem.
Soon after, the first of the walking wounded arrived; he had a broken nose but was of good cheer. He told us about how the officers had not given any warning to the protesters, of how they were sitting on the ground with their backs to the police line and how the officers had walked on the heads of protesters and had beaten them with their batons.
Two men ran into the tent, asked for a stretcher, took one and ran towards Power Street. Large groups of walking wounded began to come in. The two men with the stretcher brought in a 25-year-old male, who was unconscious and not breathing. Nick revived him with the oxyviva and an ambulance was called.
As a result of the first police assault we might have seen as many as 200 patients. The majority of these were head injuries and suspected or obviously broken bones, due to horses stepping on people or officers wielding batons. Others were traumatised and suffering physical shock.
One young woman presented with deep cuts in her right hand. While she was explaining how this injury occurred, I noticed that three of her fingers on her left hand were fractured and bones were protruding through her skin.
A male, mid-30s, informed me that his head injury had been acquired by the butt end of a baton being driven into the top of the neck at the base of his head. He was traumatised and concussed.
A male, 30+ years, was hospitalised due to multiple baton hits to the back of his head and neck. Over a period this man began to lose the ability to speak coherently and was hospitalised.
A woman, 40+ years, barely walking, had been hit with a baton several times in the kidney region. She too was hospitalised.
Evacuating injured people from the site was difficult. The police would not allow us to bring in private vehicles to take non-urgent cases (for example, broken wrists) to hospital and initially ambulances found it difficult to find our location.
We discovered that the most sensible solution was to seat the patients near the area where the ambulances would park and load up to five people per vehicle. I do not know how many people were sent to hospital but I do know that the media has grossly underestimated the number.
During the afternoon I came across a 14-year-old male who was in severe shock. He described being picked out of the crowd on Queensbridge Street by a group of Victorian police. They did not tell him that he was under arrest but took him through the barricades and into a room where they verbally terrorised him. He was later released into the crowd.
I discovered another man on Queensbridge Street who had just been released after a similar experience. He was beaten and said that the officers took and did not return a number of personal effects.
Third night
I arrived back at base about 5.45pm on September 12, just in time to begin night shift. The numbers of first aiders had diminished, due to exhaustion and the psychological impact of the injuries that we had treated during the day. We had a regular flow of patients with head injuries.
One group of people who were treated for bruising and concussion told me that they had been standing with their backs to the police line and were singing songs. Occasionally an officer would mount the plastic barrier and without warning would bash people over the head from behind. One of the patients commented, "If they didn't like our singing, all they had to do was tell us".
Night fell. In the growing coolness of the evening many people left the site. It was in this lull that the riot squad attacked. Our radios suddenly came to life. There were calls for mobile teams and ambulances.
A flood of people arrived at first aid and in the orange light provided by the stage crew we treated an extraordinary amount of head injuries, obvious and suspected broken bones, cuts and abrasions.
It was a busy night. There was a fleet of seven ambulances, filled to capacity, which made round journeys between three hospitals, the Alfred, the Austin and St Vincents, which were keeping patient lists as they would during a natural disaster.
I actually have no idea of how many people were sent to hospital. We no longer had the time or people to record the details of the patients, who arrived in large numbers.
Unlike in the morning, when we had enough people to do a "bush triage", that night we dealt with what was in front of us. The ambulance officers assisted us and worked with us when people with suspected spinal injuries needed to be moved.
My memory of that time is a blur of changing gloves, making icepacks, establishing how severe head injuries were and applying pressure to stop the flow of blood. I remember treating a man who had been repeatedly beaten over the head. He had a large open wound that would require stitches.
Another patient, who had a head wound and was very traumatised, told me that as the riot squad advanced on the protesters they were chanting, "You will be hurt, you will be hurt".
By 10pm all was quiet. Most of the first aid volunteers had gone to get some well-earned rest. It was about this time that I was visited by a cameraman I had met early Monday morning. He was in shock and in pain.
He told me that the Victorian police had destroyed his $85,000 camera and that the station was finding him a replacement. He explained that two officers had hit him in the kidney region with batons and he had fallen to the ground. He said goodbye and headed to his vehicle — he understood that he needed immediate medical attention.
During the night the police made their presence felt. A number of times unmarked police cars would speed backwards and forwards past the camp. Once in a while groups of two or three walked through the camp and paused to listen to conversations.
Wednesday morning brought fewer injuries, although the nature of them remained the same. An ambulance was called for a man with suspected broken ribs. I was relieved of my duties on October 13 at 8am and went home around noon.
[Anyone who was injured by police, or witnessed someone else being injured, is urged to contact S11 legal support on 0500 806 806.]