Elite police squad prepares to take on Extinction Rebellion in a week of guerilla protests designed to disrupt Australian cities to bring attention to climate change
- Police are being sent out to keep an eye on protesters from Extinction Rebellion
- The group is launching multiple protests across 60 cities around the world
- Officers are being sent out to monitor the protests rather than general duties
An elite police squad is preparing to take on militant climate change activists who are planning to bring parts of Australia to a standstill.
Members of Extinction Rebellion will storm the streets next week in Melbourne and Brisbane to protest against climate change.
The Queensland police’s Public Safety Response Team has already been used to combat the group by removing protesters who locked and glued themselves to streets to cause disruption to traffic and bring attention to their cause.
And both police and protestors will be out in force throughout next week as Extinction Rebellion plans days of rolling protests.
Police are being sent out to keep an eye on members of Extinction Rebellion who use non-violent civil disobedience to raise awareness of issues they’re passionate about
An Extinction Rebellion protestor (centre) is seen being arrested by police after abseiling off William Jolly Bridge in Brisbane
Acting Chief Superintendent Tony Fleming told The Courier Mail operation Romeo Arrowhead was launched months in advance to help the team prepare for the situation.
He bemoaned having to use police resources to remove protestors rather than combat crime – a position supported by police union chief Ian Leavers.
‘These rolling guerrilla strikes are taking up a huge amount of the time and resources of police and that is starting to impact on our ability to address legitimate calls for service from the public as we’re too busy babysitting these protesters,’ Mr Leavers said.
The squad will deal with different tactics by the activists, ranging from ‘tripods, barrels with concrete, lock-on devices, sit-ins, swarming across intersections, sit-ins and marches, ropes off bridges, gluing to the road and interfering with businesses’.
Despite having the right to express your opinion and protest about it, Mr Fleming said Extinction Rebellion didn’t have the right to shove their views on others (In Brisbane)
He said officers are expecting disruptions to occur throughout the ‘International Rebellion’ week.
‘We are finding Extinction Rebellion are difficult to deal with. It appears their approach is designed to cause significant disruption to the community, to interfere with ordinary people going about their business,’ Mr Fleming told reporters.
‘Our goal is to try and balance the right to protest with the right of people to have freedom of movement and freedom to live their lives.’
Extinction Rebellion protestors on bicycles are seen during a rally in Brisbane (pictured)
This year alone, 128 people have been arrested on 167 charges for their involvement in protests, and most of them were members of Extinction Rebellion.
It has also been confirmed that companies are hiring police to assist them with the disruptions, and that many have been paid overtime for working on their days off.
Adani Mining CEO Lucas Dow said miners were inundated with 10 protests in the past fortnight with many covering their faces.
He questioned why they were hiding their faces if they weren’t doing anything wrong.
The State Government has since introduced which could see protesters who use ‘dangerous attachment devices’ facing fines of up to $7000 and two years in jail.
They are expected to be effective next year.