We the undersigned demand that the Victorian Police be banned from using potentially deadly riot control weapons.

On the 11th of September Victorian police used a series of potentially lethal riot weapons to brutalise a community picket organised by Students for Palestine and Disrupt Wars against the LandForces weapons expo. While the warmongers inside the conference discussed how best to commit mass murder around the world, the Victorian Police rained rubber bullets, batons, stun grenades, tear gas and pepper spray on the community picket outside. These weapons are designed to injure and intimidate. A local activist photographer was struck in the ear by a rubber bullet and required hospital treatment, while many protesters suffered serious bruising from batons and injuries from the inhalation of tear gas and pepper spray. These injuries could have been much more severe and this must not be allowed to become the standard practice of the Victorian Police. We demand the democratic right to protest against injustice, genocide and war and to preserve this right, we demand that the Victorian police force be disarmed of potentially lethal riot weapons including OC spray, rubber bullets, stun grenades and tear gas.