NSW Police assault photo journalist at "OPEC"

Police Commissioner Scipione probably should have had an extra bus at the APEC security - the drug bus - to perform random testing on his "pumped up" officers, who appeared to target the weakest in the crowds, rather than trouble makers.

One of those assaulted was a senior female photo-journalist who works for the elite Getty Images,
** who at the time, was photographing the violent arrest of a very frightened young woman who was dragged out of the crowd by a group of male officers.

The photographer was forcefully thrown to the ground by several officers(who hopefully got sent to bed with no dinner, after their mums saw their precious babies assaulting women at APEC on the evening news).

**Footage of APEC showed a number of instances where NSW police officers refused protesters the opportunity to "accompany them quietly," instead, groups of officers had a standard restraint technique of dragging protesters along the ground by their shoulders.

It appeared the NSW officers had little regard for the potential consequences of unprotected falls, though police generally are more than happy to arrest and charge individuals for doing precisely what that whole group of officers did to Getty's photo-journalist.

The footage of the officers assaulting the photographer is shown particularly well in a short doco by ManifestoDeSydney and Catallaxy reported it in their usual balanced square head way with heaps of comments about that appalling incident.

A large part of the reasoning behind the whole "storm trooper" mindset of Scipione's goon squad was due to the presence of a non-APEC head of state - Howard's buddy Bush, who had no reason to be here and spent his stay patronizing those attending APEC & Australians, generally.

I cannot imagine a less endearing display for Howard's government to be connected to - it would seem APEC should only take place in the desert where it won't inconvenience and endanger hundreds of thousands of citizens.

If Howard is really unable to fathom why the latest poll has Rudd at 67%, he is past the job. With a bit of luck, Rudd will be happy to push other Australian industries which have huge potential, but have floundered under the leadership of the resources-obsessed & ecological nightmare, PM Howard, for the last 11 years.