OZschwitz gulag: Cairo-style policing in Hyde Park

WHAT did the police think they were doing in Hyde Park on Sunday? There had just been a very well-organised rally of Egyptian Australians supporting the democracy movement in their homeland. Maybe 200 turned up, including a small number of other Australians like me. It was a friendly crowd with people catching up after not seeing each other for, in some cases, years. And there was plenty to talk about: 30-year dictatorships don't fall every day.

Lots of uniformed police were there. Who knows what poor intelligence they had if they thought there would be ''trouble''. They looked as if they were in operation mode, with a man with two pips on each shoulder giving orders. Yet it was a relaxed affair and the happy crowd just stayed between the fountain and St James station.

Then our friends in blue decided to break up the clusters of chattering friends. They walked through in twos and threes demanding that we ''move on''. When we asked why, we were told that we were ''blocking the thoroughfare''. When I pointed out there were no cars trying to get through, a grim female officer replied it was not about cars but about ''other people''. Yet it was not a busy time in the park and we were merely standing chatting in little circles, not holding hands in a line or sitting down across the pathway. No thoroughfarers were being inconvenienced.

When people objected to being told to stop hanging with friends on a path in a public park, the officers of the law threatened that people were ''showing defiance'' and their names and addresses would be taken down. They duly did this as people just kept talking to their friends as they were before. I don't know if people will get fine notices in the mail or not.

The only danger I saw was when a little girl accidentally smashed a juice bottle. Three cops rushed over to see what the noise was and then, realising they could help to pick up the glass for the safety of other thoroughfarers, walked away. The girl's parents cleaned it up.

The over-the-top behaviour - which seems more frequent when people express a political opinion in this city - left a sour taste. We are not children. I don't think I was alone in seeing the irony of police hassling peaceable citizens in Sydney who had just protested the deadly behaviour of Mubarak's police.

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OZschwitz gulag: Cairo-style policing in Hyde Park PgkowJT

OZschwitz gulag: Cairo-style policing in Hyde Park PgkowJT

OZschwitz gulag: Cairo-style policing in Hyde Park

OZschwitz gulag: Cairo-style policing in Hyde Park

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