Sydneysiders were intimidated at the recent APEC conference. Did it make anyone feel more safe or more violated? After watching The Chaser's stunt, only the very naive would answer that they actually feel safer. Apart from the massive waste of our money, we've seen ordinary Australians terrorised by outrageous security that resembled marshall law. A father of three who was violently arrested after attempting to cross the road near an APEC motorcade has spoken about his traumatic ordeal, including the 22 hours he spent in jail.

"I crossed the road. That's all,"

Police then prevented ninemsn from filming as they took Mr McLeay to a secure zone. His wife who tried to see him in custoday told the Sydney Morning Herald that she was not allowed to speak with him because of APEC.

The worst thing about the situation was that it had happened in front of his son. "You want your children to grow up respecting police but how can they when they see this kind of thing?" he said. "I was just crossing the road. Never have I felt so mortified, embraced and invaded. I feel violated."


In my opinion any serious terrorist attack would have been as simple as obtaining a map of the sewer system. Why?

Because the entire exercise was about intimidating the public into submission, and security below ground would do nothing to further their cause.

There were about 20 world leaders, so adequate arrangements for their safety did have to be made.

I don't know if "safety" is the right word. I would say that they suffer a totally inadequate amount of danger. Maybe if they did, they wouldn't be so amoral.

Its hard to say whether the approach of police was over kill or not. There were about 20 world leaders, so adequate arrangements for their safety did have to be made.

However, I agree that Sydney was probably a poor choice as its too big a city to disrupt for a conference. They could have just as easily held the conference in Cairns or Adelaide or elsewhere where the disruption would have been less pronounced.

No it isn't. Apart from the Chasers stunt, was there ever a real security threat against anyone, foreign or otherwise? No, there wasn't, so obviously it was overkill and a waste of taxpayer money which had little effect other than disrupting the lives of everyone in Sydney.