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Warring groups of activists are expected to face off in Melbourne CBD again this weekend, triggering another massive police response weeks after violence exploded at an anti-immigration march.
Police said their intelligence indicated four separate groups, including some who held far-right and extreme ideologies, could try to confront each other on Saturday.
March for Australia protesters rally in Melbourne last month.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
In a statement on Wednesday morning, police said specialist squads, including the public order response team, critical incident response team and mounted officers would be deployed.
“The role of police on the day will be to maintain public order and prevent breaches of the peace,” police said.
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They said troublemakers would be arrested.
“Anyone who is attending these events to cause trouble or behave violently can expect to be arrested,” police said.
Ten days ago, anti-immigration and counter-demonstrators clashed repeatedly on Melbourne’s streets.
About 150 far-right National Socialist Network members led the anti-immigration rally.
Twenty people were arrested on the day or have since been charged, and are now not allowed in the CBD as a condition of their bail, police said.
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The CBD has been declared a designated area, giving police the power to search people for weapons and direct them to remove face coverings.
“Everyone has a right to protest,” said Superintendent Troy Papworth.
“But like the rest of our community, police are completely sick of people using protesting as a veiled excuse to punch on.
“Throwing rotten fruit, taunting police, and violently attacking people based on their race is not protesting – it’s gutless.”
The second major CBD operation in three weeks comes as more than 400 officers continue to search for armed fugitive Dezi Freeman in Porepunkah, in Victoria’s north-east.
Ahead of the August 31 protests, Papworth said on 3AW Melbourne radio: “It’s extremely frustrating that in the midst of a major police operation in Porepunkah we’ve got to allocate significant resources to these protests.”
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