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Salient. Official Newspaper of Victoria University of Wellington Students Association. Vol 40 No. 20. August 8 1977

Violence Against Protestors

Violence Against Protestors

His public appearances since 1975 were marked by the violence they engendered — mainly on the part of the police attempting to protect him. At one of his appearances in Melbourne I had the privilege to attend, several hundred people were lined across a road leading up to the Restaurant in which Kerr was to dine. As Kerr's Rolls royce appeared, flanked by eight mounted police, we linked arms across the road — at that point, over a 100 police attacked us from behind, punching and kicking us indiscriminately. Simultaneously, Kerr's car and the horses drove straight at us at 20 - 25 mph, making no attempt to avoid us. Many of us were crushed between the two groups — two were taken to hospital severely injured, one with crushed ribs from a horse hoof. The police made no attempt to ask people to leave — of even to arrest them. They appeared solely intent on 'beating up' as many protesters as possible.

Given such occurances, and that was only one of the many similar, it was no wonder that people retaliated with such actions as tacks and marbles thrown under horses hooves and the odd missile smashing the Rolls Royce's windows ! Not since the Depression has Australia witnessed such sustained political violence — ordinary citizens battling the forces of the state.