30A.org AT THE OPERA: An eyewitness account

Well I rode into town on my pushbike and went straight down to the Quay to the protest location, got to about Surry Hills and could smell horse shit thinking the cops aren't far off. Sure enough I went around the corner and there were four cops on horseback and they were in riot gear so I avoided them.

I cut across Hyde Park but couldn't avoid the cops on every street corner. Must be hundreds! On my own quite early so I thought I better scan the area to see what the fuss was all about and the chopper was overhead loud as hell hovering above the skyscrapers.

Trying to warn off the protests is not a bad trick from the police gang but there is strength in numbers I thought, touch-wood! So it was quite early about 4pm and I wandered down the mall to get a drink to throw off any suspicion and to see what prevents the protesters getting to the Opera House.

But as I went closer it just got worse. A big cruiser in the harbour and cops walking all around not your average cops either they got the big ones out!

Just then I went over to the water to look into the sea and this bunch of cops comes past in this rubber dingy like the avengers of the neo-cons. Shit I thought, I'd better wait till the tribe gets here before I go any further. And to add to that feeling the atmosphere was bent just like a war zone and now I know what that feels like, cold and uncertain about your presence and future.

I knew I should have been a reporter!

Guerrillas everywhere, so I go over to a table just for fun and ask these tourists, "is this what normally happens around here?" Thinking if I had company it wouldn't feel so bad. Well they looked at me startled and said, "We can't believe it either". Just then they got up and left. I shouted 'be alert and don't be alarmed' they took no notice and I didn't blame them as I was definitely thinking the same thing myself.

Oh well, I thought I've come this far I guess I should have a look at the end. And when I got there it was a dead-end, a trap and I seen about 10 people and a girl with a sign that said 'No to corporate Greed' and a 100 police so I thought no, now is definitely not the time.

Like cold steel I slowly pushed my bike out of there away from the 'rocky web' for fear of prosecution for minding my own business and as I got closer to the Quay I felt relieved.

Then the tribe arrived from the Town Hall and what a relief to be with some real people at last. Then a short time later lots of people several hundred and if I can just say that the atmosphere was back to normal and not like a war zone.

That point I would like to express to everyone of you for this is precious and something we must never take for granted or for that matter ever let john hoWARd forget, amongst other things!

Even with hundreds of people at the Quay the police gang surrounded the people bridging up on three sides and most likely although I did not notice in the building as well and that would have fenced everyone in. The chopper noise drowned out the speakers until it was almost time to march to the dead-end! Coppers on horses, in the harbour, on foot and in the air for what? Forbes!

The police gang like to fence the protesters in and surround them grunting and staring is the tactic and if taxpayers are prepared to be pushed to that level then it is time to stand up for your rights to protest as well. Don't let them stand over your youth and fellow citizens who should be allowed to protest and demonstrate without feeling sick in the stomach with fear and worried about being there.

Or even to walk onto the forecourt of their Opera House and not be stood over by a bunch of cops and goons hell bent on foxing, intimidating and victimising the community so they will either get out of the trap and not protest or get caught in it.

Do we employ our police to intimidate?

You can just go down to Circular Quay sometime in the next three days and stand by your fellow citizens just as observers.

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Revolution Inc: 2005 in Review2

By Just Us 30 August 05

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The delay in sacking married couple Simon Thistlethwaite and Lorraine Hollick from the Prison Service was condemned by opposition MPs and the Government's anti-racist watchdog, the Commission for Racial Equality.

The couple were suspended in July 2001 for allegedly intimidating black staff. Their prison quarters backing on to Holloway jail in north London were raided by police who found one room decorated as Hitler's bunker.

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Butt's report was the result of interviews with Thistlethwaite and Hollick, during which they admitted they owned the racist material, although they continued to deny they were racist.

In his conclusion, Butt wrote: 'There is no doubt at all, that a room (toilet), was used as a room to display German and SS material. It was known by the occupants as "Adolf's Bunker Room".'

During the interview, Thistlethwaite also admitted to being the owner of the 'nigger hunting licences' found by the police, an extreme right-wing magazine called Strike Force and a record by the neo-Nazi band Skrewdriver.

The Commission for Racial Equality has pledged to raise the case at a meeting with the director of the Prison Service, Phil Wheatley.

Prisons Ombudsman is investigating further allegations of racism at Holloway.

Colin Moses, the first black chairman of the Prison Officers Association, said the delay in dealing with Thistlethwaite and Hollick was a disgrace. 'The prison service must now make a point of turning paper policies into real policies,' he said. The Prison Service said it remained committed to rooting out racists among prison officers and had dismissed 15 members of staff since 2001. A spokeswoman said attempts to deal with the case had been hampered by the time taken by the police to decide to drop the criminal case.

By Martin Bright posted 29 September 04

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