10 April 2001 Inspector Ian Fitzsimons
Duty Officer
NSW Police Service
BRYON BAY 2481

Dear Ian,

Thank you for meeting me last Friday 6 April and at such short notice. It was good to get the planning of the Byron Bay protest rally against the sniffer dog squad on Good Friday 13 April underway.

Our common ground - and I am talking about you and me personally, but also for everyone else with whom I have met since our meeting and discussed the action - is that no one wants any confrontation. We want to present good humour and respect towards the police and we want the police to respect our peaceful, but flamboyant, ways.

As I explained, I will be bringing Peacebus.com, our colourfully painted Toyota Cruiser bus with its banner rig and PA. Peacebus.com will be effectively the organising HQ of the action and the driving PA. As such its role in crowd management is crucial.

I also explained that whereas I am talking to all the principal organisers and will be a major player myself, I am not the official spokesperson of GRASS. That's Sam Leonard (0402 258 612) and I have urged her to speak to you directly. May be you could ring her. She is in Byron Bay today.

Over the weekend I had a series of meetings and passed on your proposals and every one was delighted to know that you were offering such respectful cooperation.

Here is my understanding of the action and its crowd movements as it stands midday Tuesday 10 April. Sam Leonard is meeting people in Byron today and will have new agreements to bring to it.

Assembly from 11 am
Peacebus.com will arrive in Apex Park and park against the grass verge of the Park in the car park so its headlights are facing the Beach Hotel with its speakers directed towards the surf club. We will erect banners and get the PA working and play CDs while the crowd assembles.

As you suggested, I will contact Byron Shire Council and arrange to reserve the parking space(s).

Rally noon ­ 1 pm
The Rally against Police Sniffer Dog begins. Sam Leonard is negotiating a program of speakers for which she will be Mistress (?) of Ceremonies. Richard Jones MLA, Byron Mayor Tom Wilson and various people well known locally and statewide will be speaking from in top of Peacebus.com

The theme of the speeches will be civil liberties and appropriate community policing. Tom Wilson and some others have asked that cannabis law reform be kept as a separate issue.

The speeches are expected to go on for an hour. I understand that I will be invited to speak last and it is my job to get the crowd (them that want to, that is) rolling in the parade to the police station.

I have passed on to the GRASS organisers your assurance that there will be no police presence in the crowd and certainly NO sniffer dogs.

Parade 1 pm - 1.30 pm
Peacebus.com will lead the parade out of Apex Park going east and on the route you have proposed. We will ove down Fletcher Street and turn into Lawson Street at the roundabout. We will then proceed along Lawson Street, over the railway line and into Butler Street and assemble the crowd outside the Police Station.

The departure time will be hard to predict precisely. But if we keep in contact on our mobiles I will be able to let you know when we are leaving Apex Park.

I understand that traffic is going to be a heavy and that we must move the crowd as quickly as possible across the railway line in order to prevent traffic build ups on Byron's access roads.

I do not expect any other vehicles to be in the parade except Peacebus.com. I am confident that the protest crowd will happily use walkways, stay on one side of the street and move around and between any stationary vehicles. Basically the crowd will be following,, or just preceding, Peacebus.com which will be providing music for the dancers on its PA as it rolls.

Nobody wants to take up your offer of having a patrol car ahead of Peacebus.com to clear the way. I would be grateful for some traffic direction from officers on foot at the two round-abouts.

The key to smooth movement of the crowd and the traffic is getting Peacebus.com through. For negotiating the passage of this parade I will be the chief liaison person.

Passion Play 1.30 pm - 2.00 pm
The aim is to gather the crowd outside the Police station and keep Shirley Street, best we can, clear for traffic.

I need to get Peacebus parked as close as possible to the Police station so that its speakers are part facing the police station door and part facing the crowd as they arrive from the parade. I will need to talk more about this positioning with you.

Outside the Police station I will be overseeing the theatre. I expect there will be some drumming (intense as the crowd assembles), speakers and rappers on Peacebus.com's PA, a passion play in which Rusty Harris is lifted up on a Cross (see attached media), and the burning of a cardboard sniffer dog.

Thank you for offering us use of the grassed area in front of the Police Station. I propose the crucifixion tableau be set up there near the front entrance. I will need to mark off an area so that the performance is visible to the crowd and the media cameras (we expect heaps!).

I expect that will GRASS and other interested parties present some gift or message to the NSW Police Service. I have passed on your message that you are willing to come out of the Station and personally take delivery of any such but that you would prefer to make no statement in front of the media.

Dispersal from 2 pm
After the gift is made I will be urging the crowd to disperse by moving on up Butler Street and onto the market ground where I have arranged for a reggae band to play.

I would expect that the crowd will readily cooperate and disperse from there over the next two hours. I suggest it would be wise to have no sniffer dogs there either!

We will leave Rusty with you and come back and collect him Saturday morning Š I am kidding.

Peacebus.com will be packing up gear and leaving Byron as fast as we can. We are committed to being on Timbarra Mountain for the Easter Thanksgiving that evening. I will come looking for you before I leave so that we might debrief.

Crowd expectations? Like you I am guessing but since I last spoke to you, there has been a lot of media attention and I am aware of lots of people from Nimbin making commitments to be there.

Maybe 1000 in Apex Park and 500 in the Parade and at the Police station. Only God knows at this time.

Please call me (0412 609 373) if you have any worries about crowd management. I sure we will be able to negotiate a peaceful and productive resolution.

The world will be watching and I expect that, in mood, colour and sound, the event will be do Byron proud. Paradoxically, even though directed against policing, I expect the action will do Byron Police proud too. I sure that afterwards many people, including many protestors, will come to you and thank you personally for your cooperation and good management.

I do hope you have the bigness of spirit to keep your good humour for I expect that you and your officers will be the butt of many jokes and jibes that day. So it goes.

For justice! For freedom!

Graeme Dunstan
Peacebus.com
19 May 2001

PS May I leave my sheep (Molly) and sheep guard dog (Jennifer) tethered in the Police station yard with your sheep during the action?