Two Arrested As Army Of Cops Evicts Rough Sleepers From Flinders St

At approximately 1:50pm, according to The Age, a man on a mobility scooter and a woman were arrested as protesters yelled “let them go’ and “fuck the police”.

The visual of the cops moving in on the camp is pretty shocking:

Breaking: Heavy police squad moving into homeless Camp on Flinders Street @abcnews @abcnewsMelb pic.twitter.com/1hJUzOe5Ob

— James Dean (@JamesDeanNOW) February 1, 2017

The pretence for moving the rough sleepers on is a $100 million project to restore Flinders Street Station and the area around it. Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle made a number of inflammatory (and ultimately unsubstantiated) comments over the past few weeks suggesting the people were “pretending” to be homeless in order to “shake down” money from tourists.

Warnings were issued that homeless were going to be moved on by police, and many of the rough sleepers had voluntarily vacated the area – often due to harassment and the constant presence of media.

Homeless person shouting at police as they prepare to move in on the campsite at Flinders Street @abcnews @abcnewsMelb pic.twitter.com/IGVBxdBjpY

— James Dean (@JamesDeanNOW) February 1, 2017

The people from the encampment has been offered temporary accommodation at the Coburg Motor Inn, which The Age said “does not enjoy a good reputation“. Housing Minister Martin Foley said Tuesday that 15 people from the camp had been “successfully housed” while four others had been placed in drug and alcohol residential rehabilitation facilities.

Foley had said the people needed to accept a “path out of homelessness” or be evicted.

Video was captured by the ABC of police using force on protesters as they were moved on:

Scuffle breaks out as police escort two protestors from street #Flindersst #springst huge crowd booing police pic.twitter.com/xKpVspDM72

— ABC Radio Melbourne (@abcmelbourne) February 1, 2017