Two men have been arrested and riot police were deployed after LGBTQIA+ protesters and police were attacked in Sydney’s southwest outside a Christian Lives Matter-promoted event featuring One Nation MP Mark Latham.
This comes after Christian Lives Matter group members had foreshadowed violence with protesters in the lead-up to the event, and in its aftermath have defended the attack.
A small group of activists from the Community Action for Rainbow Rights (CARR) said they were punched and pelted with glass bottles and rocks while protesting a preelection community meeting hosting One Nation MP Mark Latham at St Michael’s Church Hall in Belfield last night.
“Several people were punched in the face multiple times and hit with rocks and bottles as they were surrounded by a mob 30 times their size,” they said in a message posted on Facebook later.
A CARR protest participant, who asked not to be named due to fears for their safety, said that a group of 15 protesters were speaking to police a block away from the church when they saw people running towards them.
“We saw a bunch of them running around the corner with their phones. There were 50 to 80 people running towards us. I’ve been to protests before but never at one where I felt genuinely afraid for my life,” they told Crikey.
They said that members of the group were able to break through a line of police to punch them in the head. People threw glass bottles and rocks while protesters waited for police vans to safely transfer them away. When police dropped them off two blocks away, they said people followed them in cars, yelling at them to “go back to Newtown” and “never come back to Belfield”, forcing the police to pick them up again.
NSW Police alleged glass bottles and projectiles were thrown at them from an assembled group of 500 people outside of the church.
A statement released by police said a male police officer has suffered an injury to his hand from a projectile and that a 38-year-old man was assaulted. Two men, aged 34 and 41, were arrested and charged with encouraging the commission of crimes and assault, respectively.
The Mark Latham event and a public rosary prayer held outside prior to the meeting were promoted by Christian Lives Matter, an online conservative religious group that has been involved in campaigns against LGBTQIA+ figures and causes in Sydney.
The purpose of Latham’s event was to discuss One Nation’s “parental rights and religious freedom” policies, which include a suite of anti-trans rights policies.
Prior to the event, Latham criticised “LGBTQ protesters” for “rainbow fascism” on Twitter, claiming that the small group blocked access to the church. Latham later condemned violence while speaking during the event and in tweets published after the event.
A live-streamed video of group leader Charlie Bakhos speaking on his @christianlivesmatter_ Instagram account was interrupted as members of the crowd left to go to the confrontation with CARR protesters. The video was subsequently deleted.
Footage shows crowd members pushing independent streamer Chriscoveries to the ground and surrounding him. A voice is overheard: “They just bashed some little guy with a camera.” Chriscoveries told Crikey that his phone was smashed and that he was shaken but uninjured.
“The guy that saved me I’ve seen. He had told me off at past CLMish [Christian Lives Matter-ish] rallies. Last night he saved me. They took the blows while the pepper spray rained down on us all,” he said.
Over the weekend, members of group chats organised by Christian Lives Matter promoted the event and then reacted to CARR’s announcement that they intended to protest outside of the event.
A forwarded message in the group first promoted the event as an opportunity to “stand in defence against the continuous attacks by the fanatical and leftist LGBT and media movement who continue to twist the truth and fabricate lies”.
When CARR’s Facebook post about their protest was shared in the group, one person said, “They are knocking on our doors if they come down. We won’t let them!! To [sic] close to home!!”
Another Christian Lives Matter member, Christian Sukkar, posted a video on Monday telling other attendees to “go there tomorrow and you fucking shake them up and you drag them by their fucking head and you remove them from St Michael’s Field. Time to rise. Time to let them know where we stand.”
After the event, one of the Christian Lives Matter organisers, Charlie Taouk, voiced a message of frustration on a Nine news television report of the violence.
“Look at the way we look. This is not on [at] all,” he said to the group.
“This is not what we are standing for. I don’t care if they pedophiles [sic] or gay or even a tree, we can’t be violent it’s only hurting us and making them look like victims.”
Despite this condemnation from a group leader and other members, others pushed back. Multiple members claimed it was staged, whereas others defended the violence.
“They’re rocking up in your back yard and when your Christian brothers pushed back ONE TIME you turn on them? … Fight for your kids [with] ANY means necessary,” one person wrote back.
“Tonight was not meant to happen … But what must and should be addressed is that this is what a leftist government has pushed the people too [sic]. It’s like if you back a dog into a corner sooner or later it will bite,” they messaged.
“Tonight was a glimpse into what will happen if the leftist govt take away parents rights over raising their [sic] children.”
