A Canberra bar has been raided by police and declared a crime scene over five “anti-fascist” posters depicting world leaders and Elon Musk in Nazi uniforms.
The Dissent Café and Bar in the city centre was shut down for hours on Wednesday evening, the venue revealed on social media, and shared photos of the posters of Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Benjamin Netanyahu and JD Vance, some of which contained banned swastika and double sig rune (SS) symbols.
The bar also has pro-Palestine slogans in the windows, and Palestinian flags hanging up.
“Just a timely reminder that your freedom to use art to express a political point of view can be removed at any time. Dissent closed for 2.5 hours on a gig night (yes gig cancelled) because we were displaying political art (which btw is freely available online),” the bar wrote on Facebook.
ACT Police said in a statement on Thursday officers were responding to a complaint about “possible hate imagery”, and established a crime scene when the owner refused a request to remove the posters.
Five posters were subsequently seized and will be considered under recently enacted Commonwealth legislation regarding hate symbols. Enquiries in relation to the posters are continuing, including seeking legal advice on their legality,” police said.
“ACT Policing remains committed to ensuring that alleged anti-Semitic, racist and hate incidents are addressed promptly and thoroughly and when possible criminality is identified, ACT Policing will not hesitate to take appropriate action.”
Owner David Howe told ABC News the posters, made by a UK creator and available to purchase online, were anti-fascist art and “clearly satirical”.
“These posters are demonstrably anti-fascist in their message, yet we have police coming in and shutting us down for displaying them,” he said.
“It’s appalling that you call out fascism and no surprise the fascists try to shut it down.
“It’s clearly satirical, it shows you how utterly ridiculous the police force are at missing the point, wasting everyone’s time. Speaking out about the rise of fascism, racism, capitalism and genocide isn’t a hate crime.”
The federal Nazi symbols laws referred to contain defences for display that was “genuinely engaged in” for “a religious, academic, educational, artistic, literary or scientific purpose” and not “contrary to the public interest”.
The raid comes after a Wagga Wagga graphic artist was charged with displaying Nazi symbols for depicting former Opposition leader Peter Dutton and local MP Michael McCormack as Nazis on a satirical poster in his shop window last year.
Header image: Left, the posters. Right, police in the bar (Dissent Café and Bar).
