In short:
Police used capsicum spray on neo-Nazis who disrupted an asylum seeker rally in Melbourne last night.
The group was clad in black and chanted white supremacist slogans while holding an offensive banner.
Police said no arrests were made and nobody was injured.
Am I missing something or does the article not make sense?
Police formed a line to separate the far-right group from a group of around 300 asylum seeker demonstrators and were forced to use capsicum spray.
Victoria Police said there were no arrests and no reports of injury and they are reviewing footage of the incident.
So did they choose not to arrest neo-nazis breaking the law or did they deploy chemical weapons on people that weren’t breaking the law?
I don’t see the contradiction, they sprayed them as a deterrent without making an arrest. (And apparently chemical irritation doesn’t count as an injury)
The government is proposing to introduce two new serious vilification offences with higher maximum penalties, but it is not clear whether yesterday’s neo-Nazi protest would fall within the scope of the laws.
…
Dr Roose said recent changes to laws that had seen people successfully prosecuted for performing the Nazi salute had forced neo-Nazis to change their behaviour.
“They used to have swastikas, they used to do the salute at every protest, they now can’t do that,” he said.
"They’ve become quite skilful at reaching the threshold but not necessarily stepping over it.
I’m not sure I see the contradiction either. From the reporting it doesn’t sound like the neo-Nazis broke any laws. Are you aware of something which says Victorian Police can only use capsicum spray on people breaking the law? This suggests they also have the power to use it as a deterrent before illegal behaviour has occurred, which I imagine could have been the case if they were attempting to separate neo-Nazis from pro-refugee activists.
