Peter Lalor, pepper-sprayed, debunks the Herzog propaganda

Sportscaster Peter Lalor Pepper sprayed by NSW Police at Herzog protest in Sydney. It refutes propaganda.

I was among the protesters attacked by police in Sydney last night, and while being pepper-sprayed is frightening, unnecessary and unpleasant, I did not fully appreciate the extent of police violence until I saw social media videos this morning.

I feel the need to speak out because the government, the police and the usual suspects have come under attack to misrepresent the incident.

Police should be praised for using rubber bullets, Tony Abbott has said.

Perhaps a special award could be given to the police officer who sprayed a young woman (pictured below) twice more after seeing her convulsing on the ground from the effects of pepper spray.

“I started having a seizure, I fell to the ground vomiting, I heard one of them say ‘he’s faking it’ and while I was on the ground they sprayed me two more times,” the distressed young woman says in a video shot by Andrew Brown. Michael West Media.

We also see police officers repeatedly punching a man they pinned against the tram tracks.

And the officers did the same to another protester on a bike.

Or the police officer who pepper-sprayed another elderly couple.

“I was trying to protect him, he’s 70, and I said we’re going to back off, we’re going to back off, and he tried three times. To his face,” the man told Brown.

Let me tell you what I saw.

Hymns are banned everywhere

After the speeches near City Hall, there was still a feeling that we could peacefully walk a few blocks and disperse into the gardens.

Negotiations about the march were ongoing, but we were trapped between a group of police on the steps of City Hall and a group of police on foot and horseback who prevented us from crossing the street to leave.

Josh was a bit cheeky towards the police policing the protest, but he was good-natured.

“I think we should say it was a great success, but it would be better to end on a positive note and go home,” he said.

Some chanted, “Let’s march,” but in reality it seemed all was lost (except for the chants).

The police never told us where to go or warned us that they were about to attack, but they did. Before giving any warning and leaving.

It has nothing to do with public safety

Next time NSW police talk about public safety…

I was with a 72-year-old woman who was asking the police how we were going to get out of there when suddenly the police charged the horses and started pepper spraying people.

It was a dangerous situation, the crush was terrible and people were having difficulty breathing due to the poison in their lungs. Everyone was coughing and wiping their eyes. Some fell to the ground and had to get up with help. It looked like we were all trying to get out of there and escape, but as you can see, the police continued to press on.

While we tried to get away without crushing those around us, protesters went into survival mode and tried to help those worst affected.

Naturally, we will be portrayed as sacks of rats.

Hundreds of thousands of ordinary Australians who marched across the Sydney Harbor Bridge last year were accused of being anti-Semites.

The overwhelming majority of us wanted an end to the slaughter of innocents in Palestine. Nothing more, nothing less.

We later heard that Israel’s most senior politician, who signed off on bombs intended to be used to kill innocent Palestinian women and children, had not only been invited to Sydney, but the streets would be closed to Sydney citizens to ensure ease of access.

You may recall that a last-minute application was made to the courts to continue the Sydney Harbor Bridge protest, which the police and genocidal groups wanted to ban.

Australians who wanted peace had to fight in court for their right to do so on their own streets.

A man who is the head of the state, responsible for the murder of many innocent women and children, rolled out the red carpet for himself.

Are you itching for a fight?

Understandably, many Australians were outraged by this and this week they found themselves fighting in court again for the right to have their views heard in their city.

The NSW State government and police were determined to stop us and this time they won in court.

Then we were attacked on the streets of our town by police eager for a fight.

Maybe some protesters wanted to start a fight, but everyone I saw was calm and had no stomach for it.

Most of us were trying to get home, accepting that the police would not allow us to walk even a short distance from City Hall to the gardens.

Wouldn’t it be easier to just let this happen?

Doesn’t the Premier of NSW have a big stake in social cohesion?

The 30 minutes it took for thousands of people to reach the park may have caused difficulties for a few drivers; This was a right the State Government had no hesitation in granting to a man wanted for questioning for his involvement in war crimes.

Instead, the police chose violence.

I never thought I would encounter such situations. I foolishly thought it was morally right and acceptable to object to Israel’s atrocities, but apparently speaking out is such egregious behavior that it causes people to lose their jobs and have their reputations tarnished.

Journalists are banned from covering the situation in Palestine and we all dare not talk about it.

We are encouraged to look away and say nothing. This will not happen.

This was planned. And Chris Minns owns it.

Peter Lalor is an experienced sports journalist, author and broadcaster