APEC - more information

I said yesterday that President Bush arrived in Australia.

I also said that I would post links in regards to the civil libertarians getting annoyed.

I will start with an article from a news source that people have something against, and someone (*cough* Bush *cough*) has tried to bomb.

This is from Al Jazeera

In this article they say that the actions of the police is 'heavy-handed' and that they are being 'treated like terrorists'.

In this article from the ABC various groups are again annoyed, while the Human Rights Monitors will be filming the police.

This is a Channel 9 News story

Another ABC article

Some opinions from The Australian

I don't know what most people will be complaining about, but some of the organisations that voiced their opinions in those articles are anti-war protesters (Stop Bush Coalition, Stop The War Coalition) and there is the already mentioned Human Rights Monitors.

Now they have compared Sydney to a police state like North Korea, Greens MP Lee Rhiannon described the precautions as 'an absolute insult (to) the process of democracy' (I nicked that from the ABC article) while the Human Rights Monitors are worried that the powers the police have been given will stay.

The powers the police have are actually quite powerful. Anyone who assaults an officer can be remanded without bail, and there is a list of people who can't enter the high security area.
The Human Rights Monitors are worried that the powers will stay in effect.

I don't think that such powers will remain after the event. Once the meeting is over there won't be any large protests and there won't be any need for lists that prevent certain people from entering parts of the CBD. Nor will there be any need for the police to have tougher powers in regards to assaulting an officer.

The reasons for the tough security have to do with terrorism, the people that are there (all high ranking dignitaries and leaders) and that if there will be any protests that turn violent it really won't be from anti-war people, because that does kinda defeat the purpose, but it will most likely be from the 'anti-globalisation' people because they seem to be the ones that turn violent.

That and the idiots who want to turn things into a riot.

Most protests are peaceful and nothing happens, however there are times when they aren't peaceful due to idiots or the ideology that those that start riots follow.

The problem is that those few idiots make it harder for the people who won't cause millions of dollars in damage.