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Today, antifascist protesters converged upon Spring Street in Melbourne near the Parliament of Victoria. They went there to counter racist rallies being held by Reclaim Australia and the fascist United Patriots Front.

As usual Victoria Police was also in attendance, and in the days leading to the protest it had promised a large presence and random weapons checks in response to rumours of fascists bringing weapons and intending violence.

Victoria Police’s goal for the day was to facilitate Reclaim Australia and the United Patriots Front holding their rallies out the front of Parliament House. In order to achieve this mounted officers and members of the Public Order Response Team (PORT) complemented uniformed officers on the streets, and OC (Pepper) spray was deployed against counter-protesters.

Amongst those affected by the OC Spray was a casualty who began to experience respiratory distress, a not uncommon side-effect of OC spray and other such “less-than-lethal” chemical weapons. In the course of attending to this casualty and decontaminating others who had been affected, members of the Melbourne Street Medic Collective (including one pregnant woman) were attacked by police with OC Spray and kettled in a small space at the top of Little Bourke Street.

Footage of the incident will be reviewed as it becomes available but at this point there seem to be only two explanations for the deployment of chemical weapons against the Street Medics: some witness reports have indicated that Victoria Police officers were spraying the crowd indiscriminately and did not check who they were attacking until after the fact. Others have said that police ignored the shouts of the crowd advising them that someone was receiving medical attention and with the decision to spray all medics this action should be seen as a deliberate attack upon medical personnel and their treatment space.

As one of our medics has since remarked:

“Possibly more than 100 people needed to be treated today as police indiscriminately fired pepper spray into the crowd, including onto an injured man who was struggling to breathe, was losing consciousness, and was awaiting an ambulance. They also sprayed the medics treating him. Someone had a seizure, two were taken to hospital and a few were sent home (by us as medics) due to the after-effects of the pepper spray (namely hypothermia-like symptoms of shaking and an inability to normalise body temperature). It was absolute fucking carnage and it was completely unnecessary and provocative. The racists didn’t cop any of the pepper spray at all as far as I know, and they got a three-line police escort away from the area.”

Victoria Police should rightfully be condemned for the deployment of chemical weapons, the targeting of medical personnel, casualties and medical treatment spaces with such weapons and, most of all, doing this in order to facilitate a public rally of racists and overt fascists and neo-nazis. Any assessment of the actions of antifascist protesters will conclude that they were inherently defensive: against threats of violence and the use of weapons by fascists and nazis as part of the United Patriots Front, and against the violence of racism and systematic oppression on the parts of Reclaim Australia, the United Patriots Front and Victoria Police.

The officers in command of PORT and of the event should immediately be suspended from their duties and investigations launched into how and why chemical weapons came to be used, and used against medics, injured persons and in treatment spaces. These investigations should be conducted with the possibility of demotion, termination from employment and/or laying of criminal charges (such as for assault) as outcomes.

Melbourne Street Medic Collective encourages all witnesses and concerned persons to lodge complaints with Victoria Police’s Conduct Unit and the Police Minister.

Police Conduct Unit
GPO Box 913
Melbourne VIC 3001

Telephone:1300 363 101
Email: “PSC-POLICECONDUCTUNITCOMPLAINTSANDCOMPLIMENTS@police.vic.gov.au”

Role Occupant The Hon Wade Noonan MP
Phone 03 8684 0900
Email Address wade.noonan@parliament.vic.gov.au
Portfolio Minister for Corrections
Minister for Police

Legal Aid Victoria has additional information on lodging complaints with police well worth a read.

by ·Comments Off on First Aid Pledge Welcome, but a Distraction

In the lead up to the State Election, the Napthine government has pledged some $21 million to teach Year 9 students first aid.

On paper this is impressive: students will be taught “to administer first aid to victims of heart attacks, strokes, burns and other medical emergencies” and Dr Napthine has suggested it will bolster students employability as employers will give preference to new workers with first aid qualifications. Yet the good Doctor’s enthusiasm belies a simple fact: without a properly equipped, staffed and paid ambulance service the efforts of the best first aiders will be thwarted. Without properly funded, equipped and staffed public hospitals our ability to provide full care to casualties is also compromised.

First aiders have a vital role to play in the workplace and the community, providing initial care for the ill or injured until medical help arrives. In the US, several states have now made it a mandatory requirement for high school students to become CPR-certified in order to obtain their high school certificates; various jurisdictions in the EU also require drivers to have basic first aid skills. As the EU Red Cross says, first aid is an act of humanity and so should be encouraged where possible.

However, it is impossible to ignore the emphasis placed upon waiting for ambulance support in the Emergency First Aid and Provide First Aid courses. When teaching first aid we emphasise the necessity of following the Chain of Survival, which urges prompt access to ambulance and advanced life support services (such as those provided by MICA Paramedics). We also make the point that while one can elect to leave out rescue breaths when performing CPR this brings with it a severe risk of brain damage in the casualty, especially in Melbourne where less than three-quarters of top priority calls are able to be met by ambulance crews within 15 minutes. Ambulance Victoria’s refusal to release detailed insights into ambulance response times on the grounds that it would “excite public controversy” is a clear indication that response times are falling behind.

This policy, if enacted, would be of benefit to Victoria and its people – of this there is no doubt. However considering the track-record of the Baillieu and Napthine governments, which have spent much of their time trying to beat back the rights, benefits and conditions of public sector nurses and paramedics, this policy must be seen for what it truly is: a distraction from the ongoing crisis in the public healthcare sector. If this is an achievable policy there should be no reason for the ALP, Greens and whomever else wishes to contest the election to make similar pledges as well. But we must not sell out our health and wellbeing for a gimmicky election promise.

 

Other articles of relevance:

Vanstone’s Sham Solution: “Let the sick die!”

Mandatory Training and Marginalisation

 

by ·Comments Off on Statement from our medics

The members of MelbSMC have decided to release a statement about our positions on sexual assault in the community and Transphobia.

As a group we actively support all members of the community and therefore we will not be silent on the issue of sexual assault in our community.

We as a collective also want it known that we stand against Transphobia and providing a platform to known transphobics.

 

http://www.anarchistaffinity.org/2014/06/no-platform-for-transphobia/