Protesters sparked chaos at Sydney’s Mardi Gras parade after storming onto the parade route and fought with police in front of the NSW Premier’s float, with eight people now facing criminal charges.
Shocking video of the moment, just after 9.30pm, showed a woman from a pro-Palestinian protest group appearing to pass a flare to someone watching on from behind the metal fencing set up along the route as police wrestled a large banner reading ‘queer solidarity with Palestinian resistance’ from her.
The woman moved toward the middle of the street, before four officers managed to move her back to the fence.
More protesters were then seen running around, their faces covered as they waved green and white smoke sticks.
As police flooded the area to remove the group, signs for Rainbow Labor could be seen directly behind them.
Mr Minns marched with Rainbow Labor on Saturday night, marking the first time the NSW Premier had taken part in the parade.
Minns was still with the Labor contingent at the time, participating in a live interview with the ABC while marching about 20 metres behind where the pro-Palestinian group broke onto the street, but was not caught up in the chaos.
The Premier left the parade shortly after, though NCA NewsWire understands this did not mark a change in his original plans.
According to NSW Police, seven men and two women were arrested for entering the parade route as the Premier approached.
Later on Sunday, police confirmed eight people, one man and seven women, had been charged, while another woman, 29, had been released pending further investigations.
The seven women, aged 29, 31, 35, 38, 39, 41 and 42 - were all charged with more than three people use violence to cause fear.
A 25-year-old Concord man was charged with more than three people use violence to cause fear, and possess bright light distress signal etc in public place.
They were all granted conditional bail to appear at Downing Centre Local Court on Thursday 28 March 2024.
The group of protesters released a statement following the incident and claimed that police used “excessive force against activists”.
“As a queer person I feel that it’s our responsibility to express support and solidarity here at Mardi Gras with Palestinians resisting the settler-colonial zionist entity and its genocidal violence,” said an anonymous member of the group responsible for the protests, Queers in Solidarity with Palestinian Resistance.
“The Labor party do not deserve to be celebrated here, they deserve to be held accountable for their active support of the zionist state.”
The spokesperson added that the activists vehemently deny that they used flares, stressing that they instead “released smoke effects which are legal in NSW, and are regularly used at events such as weddings, gender reveals, parties, and protest marches.”
Earlier in the evening, another 20-year-old woman was arrested at Hyde Park after allegedly trying to enter the marshalling area with a packet of screws.
The woman was issued a future service court attendance notice for possession of an offensive implement.
Despite the arrests and protests, operation command assistant commissioner Anthony Cooke said the overall behaviour from an estimated 120,000 spectators and 12,500 participants was “pleasing”.
“Yesterday’s celebration was a great example of a successful Mardi Gras event. The majority of people were well-behaved and enjoyed the event safely and responsibly,” Mr Cooke said.
Saturday’s chaotic ending to the parade fit with its heated start, as anti-police protesters marched through the city to join up with other groups ahead of the march.
The group, Pride in Protest, were protesting the inclusion of a NSW Police float in the 2024 Mardi Gras parade, following the arrest of a serving officer, who is alleged to have killed two men.
Beau Lamarre-Condon, a senior constable with the NSW Police Youth Command, has been charged with the alleged murders of Jesse Baird and his new boyfriend Luke Davies.
Police will allege in court he used his service weapon to kill the pair, after a failed fling with Mr Baird.
Mardi Gras organisers had formally uninvited police from taking part in the parade, but backflipped on the decision after a meeting with top brass – a move that has angered parts of the LGBTIQ+ community.
Marching through the park towards the marshalling area for the parade on Saturday, the crowd chanted “stop police attacks on gays, women and blacks”.
Pride in Protest organisers had summoned those marching with the group to Town Hall for a “speak out” event from 2pm, with the march towards the marshalling area in Hyde Park taking place just after 4pm.
Sharing a photo of the police contingent assigned to the group’s pre-parade protest on Instagram, organisers remarked: “This might as well be their float”.
In the marshalling area, one protester brandished a large sign showing a gun with blood splatter, flanked by the rainbow flag.
A costume police uniform was draped on top of the canvas, which read: “Missing these?”
The organisers, Pride in Protest, also sparked chaos in Darlinghurst on Friday night, when about 300 people arrived for a separate event to protest police involvement in the march.
Sydney’s first Mardi Gras, on June 4, 1978, was held as part of a protest to mark the anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York nine years earlier.
Police efforts to end the authorised protest early disperse the group, which swelled in numbers as marchers made their way along Oxford Street, proved ineffective, and the night ended in 53 arrests, which were later ruled unlawful.
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