Competing narratives have emerged from NSW Police and protesters who were at Monday night’s demonstration against Israel’s President Isaac Herzog near Sydney’s Town Hall.
NSW Premier Chris Minns on Tuesday defended the actions of the police, with Assistant Commissioner Peter McKenna saying officers were “threatened, jostled and assaulted” during “a number of melees, rolling fights” and “violent behaviour”.
Assistant Commissioner McKenna said officers had been “significantly outnumbered by the protesters and the people who wanted to act in a violent and offensive manner”.
“I absolutely think police actions were justified,” he said.
Nine protesters have since been charged, with five of those accused of assaulting police.
Several violent clashes took place near Town Hall. (ABC News: Abubakr Sajid)
NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said all officers would be held “accountable for their actions” and has committed to an investigation with a review of all body-worn camera footage.
Protesters have accused NSW Police of assaulting members of the public, saying police met them with “sickening state violence,” while the NSW Greens have called for the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission to establish an investigation.
ABC NEWS Verify has gathered footage and spoken to witnesses at the protests in an early attempt to examine what happened in detail.
Key event 1: Man with hands up punched by police
Video posted by Greens senator David Shoebridge begins with a confrontation underway between a member of the NSW Police bike squad and a man in a collared shirt.
Loading…
ABC NEWS Verify understands the video was filmed at approximately 7:36pm while protesters were gathering on George Street near Town Hall.
Three seconds into the video, shot by an anonymous source and sent to Senator Shoebridge, a man in white is holding up his hands, while the bike squad officer is grabbing hold of his shirt.
A second later, the officer appears to trip forward over his bike and the man in the white shirt appears to place his hand on the officer’s shoulder as he does so.
The man was seen holding his hands up before falling over. (Getty Images: Izhar Khan)
Two other officers then rush at and appear to punch the man in the white shirt multiple times. He falls onto the ground with the bike squad officer.
Footage of this incident filmed from another angle shows police throwing punches at the man in the white shirt and at another protester.
Loading…
ABC NEWS Verify has not yet been able to obtain footage showing the lead-up to this incident, leaving no context as to how this particular confrontation started.
From the videos examined, there is no visual evidence from either angle of the man in white trying to assault police.
Key event 2: Police rush at crowds
Protester Jarrah White told ABC NEWS Verify he arrived at Town Hall station at 7:32pm.
In a series of videos uploaded to Mr White’s YouTube, he documented the throng of people at the protest.
Loading…
Mr White says this video was filmed from 8:22pm, confirmed by ABC NEWS Verify, as police formed a line along George Street and the light rail tracks.
For several minutes, protesters can be heard chanting as some stand in a line directly facing police. Others can be seen washing their eyes out with water.
Protesters can be heard swearing at and abusing police for several minutes, and the video shows scuffles between police and protesters.
Do you know more? Contact ABC NEWS Verify.
Capsicum spray is deployed just after the six-minute mark as protesters are urged up Bathurst Street.
A water bottle is thrown towards the line of police eight-and-a-half minutes into the video.
Nine people charged over violent CBD protest clashes
Just before 10 minutes into the video — or at approximately 8:32pm — an officer gestures for the police line to move forward.Â
Police can then be seen charging towards protesters and one officer is seen deploying capsicum spray multiple times.
Mounted police officers can be seen behind the main line of police.
Mr White said protesters were given no warning that police were going to charge, something that is supported by the footage.
“I glance suddenly over my right shoulder, and I see this enormous swarm of about maybe 50 or so officers rushing towards us,” Mr White said.
“They just charged us. I turned around and I just ran, I shouted, ‘Run, run run’.Â
“And I’m just running, I honestly thought I was going to die at that point because I feared I was going to get trampled to death.”
Mr White said he entered Gadigal Station with other protesters and watched as the officers moved towards Hyde Park.
“I managed to get through the barricades, I turn around and I see the police, they just came crashing up the street, you know, after these protesters, they were chasing them up towards the park,” he said.
Loading…
In a second view of this incident, local resident Karl Kloppenborg told ABC NEWS Verify he looked down to Bathurst Street from his Euro Tower apartment.
The line of police can be seen rushing towards protesters in two bursts.
Mr Kloppenborg said he was cooking dinner at the time when he heard an intense scream.
“The pro-Palestine marches happen often there so I’m used to them,” he said.
“But I saw this massive line looked like a Roman military style line … Then all hell broke loose.”
Mr Kloppenborg said that up to 70 officers ran at the crowd two more times.
“It was really, really confronting, I’ve never seen anything like that in Australia before,” he said.
“I didn’t see any violence from protesters. And while I was looking from my balcony there wasn’t any violence from protesters, not that I saw.”
Key event 3: Group praying
This two-minute video posted by Dr Mohammed Mustafa on Instagram shows police forcibly dispersing a group performing the sunset or Maghrib prayer, and went quickly viral when it was posted last night.
ABC NEWS Verify has since viewed multiple videos showing the moments leading up to this incident.
Sunset was at 7:53pm on Monday evening in Sydney.
Loading…
Sheikh Wesam Charkawi was leading the prayer.
“It was the time of our sunset prayer, it was already 15-20 minutes after the time … and we made sure that we got into a corner where we thought we would be uninterrupted,” Sheikh Wesam said.
“[Prayer time] are part of what it means to be a Muslim, it’s the backbone of our faith and hence why it’s so disrespectful for any Muslim to be physically carried away from our prayer.”
Sheikh Wesam Charkawi says the group went to a spot where they thought they would not be disturbed. (ABC News: Sean Tarek Goodwin)
In several videos filmed after sunset, protesters can be seen being gradually moved in a westerly direction along the southern side of Town Hall and away from George Street by a line of uniformed police.
Multiple protesters can be heard in a video time-stamped 8:07pm asking police to stop because the group was praying.
At approximately 8:09pm, police start forcibly moving people praying off the ground, pushing protesters who had formed a human chain around the group.
Loading…
Greens MLC Abigail Boyd can be seen being pushed by police in multiple videos.Â
She claimed it was assault and said she planned to take legal action.
“The only violence I saw was from police, and it was indiscriminate,” Ms Boyd said.
“When they were picking up people who were praying because it was prayer time … the sun was going down, it was prayer time — the people that they picked up and then threw to the ground who were peacefully praying, they were not a threat to police,” she said.
Loading…
Dr Mustafa shared multiple time-stamped videos with ABC NEWS Verify showing the same incident.
“We had told the police multiple times, people had to, you could see them multiple times before they charged at the people that were praying, guys that were, you can hear that over and over and over again,” he said.
“They were told multiple times that they were praying but they didn’t care because they do not respect Muslim people.”
NSW Police did not respond directly to detailed questions sent by ABC NEWS Verify about these three incidents.
A spokesperson said, “Your questions have been addressed in press conferences by the commissioner and Assistant Commissioner McKenna.”
Protesters who are aged from 19 to 67, have been charged with offences ranging from assaulting police, hindering police and refusing to comply with a direction.
All were granted bail to appear at a later date, except for a 28-year-old man who was due to face a Sydney bail court on Tuesday.
In a statement, police said officers were in the process of charging six others with criminal offences who will also face court at a later date.
Mr Minns said police negotiated with PAG for days to move the protest to Hyde Park, which was excluded from the current protest restrictions.
He said authorities had attempted to do “everything possible” to avoid clashes.