APEC/see no evil followup
I didn't expect any followup after this post about trying to exclude the public from a huge fireworks display in downtown Sydney for the APEC summit, but I suppose they set themselves up.
The fireworks themselves were nice, and as far as I know, uneventful. Some pictures and a video clip can be found here. Restricting the fireworks was just part of a larger security plan, and they clearly went overboard.
Apec security leaves bitter taste in Sydney
...
Like many, he is incensed by what he regards as the needlessly aggressive and restrictive policing, which carried a heftier security price tag than the 16-day-long Olympics and led to the construction of the 5km ( three mile) "great wall of Sydney".
...
Consider the experience of Greg McLeay, a 52-year-old accountant and father of three.
On Friday, with his 11-year-old son looking on, he was arrested by the police in the central business district. Thrown in jail under special Apec powers [my emphasis] which allowed the police to hold people without bail, he was strip-searched and forced to spend the night locked up with a drug addict.
His offence? Crossing the road incorrectly during Apec near a cordoned-off area.
Makes you wonder how many people got beat up and jailed by security for just trying to watch the fireworks. APEC is about freedom for markets, not people. Now show me your papers, citizen.
