Sydney party-goers have slammed NSW Police for raiding their party and using pepper spray on them on Saturday night over an 8.30pm noise complaint. Just in case you thought the night life in this city wasn’t dead.
Sophie Teo was at a house party on Foveaux street in Surry Hills when police raided the property at 12.20am Sunday morning.
According to some pretty cooked videos on her IG stories, a dozen or so NSW police officers attended the premises and broke beds and TVs in order to “seize audio equipment”.
“Raptor squad called for the most relaxed party,” Sophie wrote on Instagram. FYI, NSW Police’s raptor squad is a specialised task-force who are supposed to deal with bikie gangs, not house party nose complaints.
“The most unnecessary bullshit I’ve ever experienced,” she said.
Police said officers spoke to someone at the party about the noise complaints at about 8.30pm, who they said was “uncooperative”. They later spoke to a 26-year-old man at around 10.30pm and issued a formal noise abatement direction, which they allege wasn’t followed.
Police then got a warrant to enter the house and rocked up with Strike Force Odin officers, the Raptor Squad and the Public Order and Riot Squad. They allege party goers threw bottles and ice at them. The officers then beat up and pepper-sprayed people to disperse the party.
Sophie shared confronting footage of the raid, which included a video of police kicking a man that was already on the ground before pulling him up and throwing him down again. More footage showed police pushing and shoving party-goers, with some appearing to be dragged by their arms.
One video showed people sitting on a kitchen floor with their hands in the air while police shouted and physically removed them from the house. Screaming and crying could be heard in the background.
Sophie accused police of “laughing and high fiving after kicking/punching people, breaking someone’s ribs, breaking people’s teeth and pepper spraying everyone”.
“We were cornered into a small kitchen and abused,” she wrote over a video.
“These are our so called ‘protectors’. Yet I’ve never felt more unsafe and traumatised in my whole life.”
One of the people who attended the party told The Daily Telegraph they were allowed to have music playing until midnight and complied with that rule.
“At 9.30pm the cops came and told us to turn the music off as they’ve had noise complaints,” they said.
“We told them we knew we are legally allowed to have music on until 12[am], so we kept the party inside the property and turned the music off at exactly 11:50pm.
“At 12.15ish the cops kicked the door in … they continued to stay in the house for almost an hour.”
Two 21-year-old people were arrested at the party and charged with assaulting and hindering police. The occupant who allegedly failed to follow the noise abatement direction from police will be fined.
