Police filmed at the University of Sydney have been accused of using heavy-handed tactics to disperse a student protest, knocking a senior law professor, who was observing the event, to the ground.
Around 200 students gathered at the university's Camperdown campus around 1pm on Wednesday to participate in a "public teach out" run by the Sydney Branch of National Tertiary Education Union over proposed changes to .
Members of the Public Order and Riot Squad, Mounted Unit and Highway Patrol Command attended after receiving information of “unauthorised” planned protest activity, NSW Police said in a statement.
"About 1pm, a large group of people began protesting inside the grounds of the university, before moving out onto the surrounding streets," police said.
"Members of the group attempted to disrupt traffic on multiple occasions and were removed from the road by officers."
Students ran across campus and made their way through nearby Victoria Park towards City Road, where they were blocked by police officers, according to .
They say they were again surrounded by police as they attempted to move onto nearby Parramatta Road.
“From behind us, there were riot police pushing us through, we had nowhere else to go except forwards,” UNSW Student Shovan Bhattarag told SBS News.
“But in front of us, of course, there was also police stopping us from being able to try and cross the road.
“Students were basically packed in and pushing up against them. Their response to that was shoving us back onto the curb.”
Vision captured at the event, and published on social media by Honi Soit, shows two officers grabbing Ms Bhattarag and throwing her onto the pavement.
“They threw me like in the air and so also, when I landed on the curb, I was millimetres away from hitting my head,” she said.
“I think I have bruises all up and down my spine, and the left side of my body … as you can see my elbow is bleeding.”
University of Sydney Law Professor Simon Rice was also involved in an altercation with officers.
Shovan Bhattaraj recieved cuts and bruises after being thrown onto the pavement by police. Source: Supplied
Professor Rice, who is the university's chair of law and social justice, told SBS News he was not taking part in the protest, but simply observing the event and the police response with some of his students for a university assessment.
After asking officers why students were being handled by police, Professor Rice said he found himself “frog-marched” away from the protest by three officers.
“I couldn't see the officers who were pushing me along, and I was attempting to turn around to ask them why they were treating me like this,” he said.
“As I was turning and asking, one of them kicked my legs out from underneath me and I fell to the ground on my hands and knees.”
Vision of the incident shows the academic attempting to regain his feet, before being pushed back down by police officers against a stone pillar.
Mr Rice said he was issued a breach notice for contravening a COVID-19 public health order, and was later released.
He said there had been nothing had he witnessed from protesters to provoke such a strong police response.
“If I was in breach, then the police had plenty of opportunities to act on that beforehand, and they certainly didn't need to engage in violence,” he said.
“There was no violence directed anywhere else towards them. They chose to behave like that.
"On any occasion, what I saw happen was unjustified."
NSW Police said fourteen $1,000 infringement notices were issued to protesters for breaching public health orders, which limit public gatherings in outdoor places to 20 people.
Vision published by Honi Soit before the event shows police officers asking organisers who was responsible for the "protest".
Organisers argued the gathering was not a protest but a teaching event, which fell within the university’s health exemptions.
“I'm doing my normal job here at the university…I don't understand being inundated by the police doing it,” NTEU organiser Nick Remier was heard telling police.
A statement from the University of Sydney said it was "disturbed" by the videos, and encouraged anyone who was treated poorly by officers to file a complaint.
