Premier Chris Minns has defended the police response at Town Hall last night, urging the public not to judge the actions of officers simply from short videos posted to social media.
Minns conceded the images posted online didn’t “look good”, but found that the demonstration could’ve turned much uglier if protesters breached the containment line at Town Hall, which he said was attempted on two occasions.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog addressed a crowd of Jewish mourners at the nearby International Convention Centre while the protest occurred.
“The circumstances leading to the confrontation are incredibly important. And perhaps even more important than that is the fact that NSW Police and the government did everything possible to avoid a confrontation last night in the middle of Sydney,” Minns told Seven’s Sunrise.
“Now what’s not shown on the videos because it didn’t happen, is what would have happened if protesters had breached police lines in the middle of Sydney, it would have been chaos, even worse than the scenes that were reported on the news.”
The premier also responded to footage of police forcibly moving on a group of Muslim men while they prayed near Town Hall, saying there was “no way” NSW Police would have “tried to or deliberately provoked confrontation on those lines”.
Speaking on Nine’s Today, Minns described the demonstration as an “impossible situation” for officers, as they fiercely protected the containment line at Town Hall while Herzog addressed a crowd of Jewish mourners.
“At the end of the day, we had the president of Israel, 7000 mourners, all in the city at the same time,” Minns said.
“It would have dangerous. As difficult as the scenes were to watch, it would have been infinitely worse if NSW Police didn’t do their job last night.”
Police made 27 arrests at the demonstration, including 10 for assaulting police.
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