Black Lives Matter protests took place across the country last weekend, with most events seeing peaceful interactions between police and protestors.

One exception to that took place in Sydney on Saturday, where protesters inside Central Station were hit with petter spray by police after the official protest had ended.

Despite protesters telling the ABC that there was no violence or antagonism inside the station, Police Minister David Elliott has said the pepper-spraying wasn’t “unprovoked”.

He told 2GB’s Ben Fordham that some of “these kids” broke windows and spat at police. “So police responded. And I think that’s unfortunate, but it’s an appropriate response.”

“There was no movement from the protesters hurting the police or anything like that, there was none of that, there was no violence,” protestor Jane Margaret claimed to the ABC.

“It was literally just words and even those words they weren’t calling the police officers names or trying to antagonise them, they were yelling and they were passionate but there was no violence.”

NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon has also alleged that several people were acting “aggressively and inciting police.”

“Police attempted to quell the situation and move those persons on. One of the males chose to act aggressively towards police at which time he was placed under arrest,” he said. “Subsequent to that arrest and because of the ongoing violence of the persons that were there, OC spray was deployed to actually curb that violence and the potential of it.”

“I support the use of the capsicum spray and the way police responded in order to ensure there was not further violence,” he said.

Protestors clash with police at Central Station:

Get unlimited access to the coverage that shapes our culture.
to Rolling Stone magazine
to Rolling Stone magazine