NSW Police pay for wrongful arrest
Activist Paddy Gibson, 26, from St Peters, has won a payout from NSW Police after suing them for wrongful arrest during the APEC protests in Sydney in September 2007.
Gibson and 60 other activists were put on an excluded persons’ list during the APEC conference. Being on the list meant that Gibson and other activists were banned from about half the Sydney central business district. This was the case even though, as in Gibson’s case, many on the list had no criminal record or history of violence. A large number of those excluded were from Greenpeace.
Police say they arrested Gibson by mistake as officers were confused about where Gibson was allowed to be. The arrest of Gibson was a prominent feature of that night’s TV news. Other events receiving widespread attention included New York-based photographer Paula Bronstein being shoved to the ground with such force that she urinated herself, two police officers holding down a man while a third punched him in the head, and police officers routinely telling cameramen from commercial media outlets not to film arrests.
Under the terms of the payout, Gibson is unable to reveal the amount he was paid, but says he is “surprised and very happy” with the settlement. Gibson was quoted as saying that he has “used part of the payment to fund [his] campaigning against the Federal Government’s racist intervention in the Northern Territory and to support those who are still facing charges over G20 in Melbourne.”
“The police operation at APEC was solely an attempt to intimidate progressive social movements off the street,” Gibson said, revealing that police had visited his house warning him not to join the APEC protest. “Police files show that the only reason for this was a history of involvement in activist campaigns against war and for public education,” he said.
“In Hyde Park after the protest I was, along with many others, wrongfully and violently arrested by a police force eager to justify both their new powers and the millions of dollars wasted on the APEC operation. This legal victory vindicates all people ‘prescribed’ under the APEC laws who refused to be silenced and is further condemnation of the draconian approach taken by the NSW government through APEC”.
Gibson’s lawyer, Lisa Powell of Edwards Michaels Lawyers in Sydney, is preparing to assist other people who were wrongfully arrested to launch actions against the police for compensation.
– BY DALE MILLS
