Activists have splashed red paint on the road outside Flinders Street station where hundreds gathered to protest the acquittal of a man who ran over Aboriginal boy Elijah Doughty in Western Australia.
The protest, part of national action, started at the Victorian Parliament on Friday afternoon and moved through the CBD, blocking trams, traffic and pedestrians.
Red paint was poured on the road outside the station where protesters had been sitting for more than three hours.
A large police contingent, including mounted officers, cleared the intersection just before 8pm. Police said a man in his mid-20s has been arrested.
A "sacred fire" that was burning in a small cauldron in the Flinders Street intersection was put out by firefighters, who used a hose to douse the flames.
"And in the most glorious overreaction known to humans... the fire brigade brought into put out the sacred fire," protester Nicola Paris wrote on Twitter.
The protest leaders earlier told the crowd: "Sit down, get comfortable, we're going to be here a while."
The crowd was holding a large banner that read "Justice for Eliijah", and other signs saying "black lives matter" and "leave our kids alone".
A woman held a sign above her head that read: "Murdering a child is a traffic offence?"
A 56-year-old man was last week acquitted of manslaughter over the death of the 14-year-old in Kalgoorlie, and was instead sentenced to three years jail on a lesser charge.
The man admitted to dangerous driving occasioning death after he hit the teen with his ute. He had been chasing the boy who had stolen his motorcycle.
The man said the motorbike veered in front of his car, and he was unable to avoid the collision.
The Supreme Court jury deliberated for six hours before finding the man -- whose identity is suppressed -- guilty of dangerous driving occasioning death.
Share
