APEC: the final insult

The Focus – September 10th, 2007 by Sarah

Ok, so I submitted. I went to the APEC protest on Saturday even though I said I wouldn’t. You’ll be pleased to know I wasn’t arrested (obviously), nor physically harmed in any way, however I am a little disturbed by the whole event.

Being a country girl, I had never been to a protest before, so I didn’t really know what to expect. Sure, I knew there would be yelling and chanting and lots of people dressed up in funny outfits, but it wasn’t really those elements of the event that I found alarming, more so the absolutely overwhelming police presence that could not be ignored no matter how hard you tried. The streets were lined with officers, just waiting for someone, anyone, to look even slightly suspicious or behave remotely in a way that was out of line. Entire intersections were blocked off with gigantic police buses, and trying to leave the protest when we reached Hyde Park was almost impossible. I don’t think it would be unreasonable to say we were all treated like animals. Or terrorists. I’m not quite sure which is more insulting. I noticed a woman holding up a sign which I found particularly interesting, saying ‘I don’t care about anything, I’m just here for the violence.’ This is exactly what all these ridiculous security measures implied, that we were marching simply for the sake of causing trouble and creating inconvenience. What war in Iraq? What climate change? We just wanted to band together, be crazy and hopefully violent with one another, because clearly that’s what social deviants do. Caring about the world and our country? Pfft. We want BLOOD, damn it!

Clearly, George Doubleya is afraid. He must realise that the Australian people as a whole aren’t too happy with him, or particularly impressed with the relationship going on between him and Little Johnny. Surely, if the relationship between Australia and the United States was going along so swimmingly and there was a feeling of overall public support, the state government would not have felt the need to instigate such extreme security measure. Sure, there are always going to be people who do intend to be more violent and extremist when vocalising their viewpoint, but most of us just want to be heard, feel as though our country truly is our own, and that our civil rights are being respected. This respect was certainly not demonstrated on Saturday, and it’s an absolute travesty.

On a similar note, hats off to the Chaser team I say! It is just so great to see them exposing all the flaws of our society in such an entertaining fashion.

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