activism under capital?? it's closer than you think!
I was going to publish this when my investigation was complete. I have spent a long time, tonnes of resources and time to expose this problem and find accountability. I emailed the guardian about this about six months ago and heard nothing back, assuming it was auto-filed in a 'cooker bullshit' inbox. Well, they published something a few weeks back, taking all credit and inadvertently stonewalled further investigation by triggering the cops to refer it to IBAC.
Here's the incomplete version that's mostly about activism under capital
That is so much time and money I'm not getting back so, don't trust establishment media even if they're not of the murdoch variety, apparently
i run a little web application called vicpolsearches.
when I had a twitter account many moons ago, one of the accounts i followed was @vicpolsearches - a simple aggregation of control of weapons search area notices (i think manually scraped).
okay, so, let me explain - in victoria, we have an act called the control of weapons act 1990. it basically outlines powers around possessing various weapons in the state, like what counts as a weapon, who's allowed to have a weapon and where they can be... haved?
as an act of parliament it also outlines the penalties for possessing weapons wrong. it was most recently amended a few months back as part of the highly publicised machete ban; on the surface, it just made it so you can't own and sell machetes. if you're hiding danny trejo, you gotta give him up, sorry :(
as a part of this amendment, though, they also massively expanded the police commissioner's powers to declare what they term a 'Designated Search Area'. these are the areas that are described in the notices @vicpolsearches posted.
designated search areas are places where anybody can be stopped and searched by police and moved on without a warrant, without probable cause, for any reason, at any time. the justification for this is to search for weapons. the rate at which they actually find a weapon is 1%. rounded up.
so, they're not very good at finding weapons.
the areas do have parameters that must eb met before they can be declared, as described under section 10D(1) of the act:
now, idk if you've lived in melbourne before, but disorder is basically the background of life. there is no definition of disorder in the act. disorder could be basically anything. weapons are more clear-cut. slightly.
combat knives, guns, yeah that's all good. whips? i mean, there is a big bdsm community in melbourne. fake guns probably puts cosplayers at risk. "Any other article that is carried with the intention of being used as a weapon." is the vaguest catch-all i've ever seen. burden of proof is doing a lot here - it's impossible to prove that you're not using your walking stick as a weapon.
due to a massive lack of transparency, it's also impossible to know exactly what weapons were allegedly found to justify the declaration of a search area.
the recent legislation change made these powers broader and longer-lasting; before september 1 there was a limit of 12 hours that a declaration could last. now they can be declared for up to six months at a time, and in fact the day the amended legislation came into effect the police commissioner enacted three six-week long search areas declared around every major transport hub in the melbourne cbd. this is nothing short of dick-swinging display of power (which you'll be familiar with if you've lived in melbourne long enough, it's something our political and police class will do at the drop of a hat).
overwhelmingly these designated areas are enforced racially and used to brutalise protesters.
section 10D and E of the control of weapons acts purpose is not to control weapons - it's to justify oppressive policing.
look i gotta point out now that australians are largely spineless dumb racist bootlickers who cheer on the murder of homeless black men while complaining about the renters in one of their sixteen investment properties. also im a socialist.
okay there is section 10D(4)(a) of the control of weapons act 1990 a notice of the declared area must be published in the government gazette and they just have not been very consistent in doin that lately. under section 10D(6) the declaration "has effect, after the date of publication of the notice in the Government Gazette". which means that if the declaration is not published in the government gazette, it cannot come into effect. but the police have been acting as though they have come into effect regardless. this is unlawful.
remember the blog title?
this has been frustrating for me on two fronts:
i have started investigating the reason behind the non-publication of these missing notices (did you know its like, $30 to lodge a FOI request now? i pay significant taxes this is fucked) and it will be many, many months before they even consider actioning it. i have emailed the commissioner and tried to contact other authorities to no avail. there is a rotten culture of opaqueness and secrecy that permeates all throughout victorias public service and alone we are powerless to change it. as an outsider i am doing one thing: trying to find out why something didn't happen and publish the reason; maybe it'll make sure it doesn't happen again. and none of this is my job. somebody is paid probably more than i am to do this in the corporate structure of victoria police and they... just didn't.
activism isn't primarily people jumping on coal trains or blowing up pipelines - it's just doing another persons job for them and trying to find accountability.
it turns out! that these structures are designed to stop you doing that and elide accountability. they are designed to waste your time and hope you just give up. your stamina is a limited resource and they know this, so they will wear you down until the fatigue sits in and you acquiesce.