Police Brutality and the Landforces Expo

The Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre just hosted the 2024 Land Forces Exposition where hundreds of companies attended to view leading technologies in the defence industry. This included the promotion of military weapons and equipment advertised as ‘battle tested’ in places such as Gaza and Ukraine. According to their website, the Land Forces Expo is aimed at governments and companies who wish to build connections, promote networking and present awards although the criteria of these awards was not specified.

In response, thousands of protestors gathered to object this war profiteering and blatant disregard for the Genocide in Palestine. 

The level of violence executed by the police was exceedingly out of proportion to the protestors. Police used violent and dangerous tactics such as rubber bullets, stun grenades and OC spray which led to over 100 protestors requiring medical treatment. The Government has spent millions of dollars deploying police resources, even shipping off NSW officers to these protests in Victoria, wasting funding and resources that could have been used in many other, more effective ways– funding grassroots campaigns to cease the genocide in Palestine, for instance. An excessive police presence was also known, with VicPol often outnumbering protesters. The fact that these police have also been known to receive training from Israeli Defence personnel makes this scenario even more ironic and disturbing. Some protestors have stated that police used force against those who were running away or shielding themselves and a photographic journalist’s ear was shot off by a misused rubber bullet.

The media have voiced issues with the violence of some protestors who have been accused of harming police horses and throwing objects such as baked beans at police officers. Legal observers reported police utilising excessive force which led to a response and clash with some protestors. Greens MP Gabrielle de Vietri was also in attendance and listened to her constituents voice their objection to war and the weapons profiting discourse. Labor and Liberal members largely denounced this appearance and the actions of protestors, instead supporting the weapons expo over their constituents. 

It is clear that the police violence here outweighed the protestor’s violence. The media’s presentation of this is a very similar rhetoric employed against Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, where protesters were painted as violent criminals, police as heroes and the real issue was swept under the rug. 

The violence of police at these protests attempted to hide the message protestors have pleaded for over the last week; they will not stand for war profiteering and blood money. Instead of discussing semantics, it is crucial that the media and public turn their attention to the violent genocide that is occuring in Gaza, fueled by the military industrial complex showcased at the Landforces Expo.