CHOGM protest organisers claim homes raided, phones confiscated

WA Police Commissioner Karl O’Callaghan said police would use all the powers at their disposal in the lead up to CHOGM after three protest organisers claimed their Perth homes were unfairly raided and accused police of heavy-handed tactics including surveillance and harassment.

Two men and a woman from the CHOGM Action Network, which today revealed it would target “war criminals and parasites” in “non-violent” protests at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth later this month, said they were arrested on Wednesday on suspicion they spray painted the word ‘protest’ on public property.

The trio was released without charge and did not comment on whether the allegations were true.

They claimed police confiscated property and suggested they had been under surveillance.

Mr O’Callaghan said he was not surprised that such complaints had been made.

“We are investigating unlawful activity – we have the power to do it, we will continue to do it,” he said at the launch of the CHOGM Police Command Centre today.

“There are lots of powers that we have currently. Our focus is on making sure that delegates that come to CHOGM are well protected and well looked after and as Commissioner of Police that’s exactly what I intend to do and I intend to use the powers at my disposal to do that.”

One of the protestors, Colleen Bulger, claimed while her house was being ‘raided’ police suggested they had been conducting surveillance on her.

“They kept asking about CHOGM and were very interested in leaflets we had around the house,” Ms Bulger said.

“When they arrested me they kept saying ‘we know more than you think’, and suggesting that I had been under surveillance.

“It’s absolutely harassment and an attempt to intimidate us into stopping lawful activities.”

The group said their phones were confiscated in what they claimed was a move by police to download information in “an unnecessary breach of privacy”.

Seamus Doherty said his car was confiscated after he was released without charge.

Mr Doherty, who is disabled, said he told the police that his car and phone were his lifelines to work and family and without them he risked losing his job and was stressed.

The third member of the group, who did not want to be named, was not at home during the alleged raid but claimed he was followed by police to university where he was arrested on Thursday morning.

“They implied that the suspected offence wasn’t what concerned them, and that it was the protest that they were interested in,” he said.

Pearl Lim, from civil rights action group Search For Your Rights, which is not associated with the CHOGM network, said the police action was heavy-handed.

“How can we claim to promote civil democracy across the Commonwealth when peaceful activists are intimidated by police in our own state?” she said.

“If the police were so interested in getting flyers about the protest, they could have saved themselves the manpower and downloaded them off the website – it is an approved, public event.

“This kind of behaviour is deplorable, and is a worrying sign of what is tolerated by the government that supports top and search laws, anti-association laws and prohibited behaviour orders.”

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