After three years, the NSW police have dropped all remaining charges against Occupy Sydney protesters. Occupy Sydney was part of a global movement that started in September 2011 with Occupy Wall Street in New York. The Occupy movement demanded a world fit for the 99%. It was an expression of anger and hope against a backdrop of economic crisis, high unemployment, bank bailouts and a political system which served only the 1%.

In Sydney, a permanent protest camp was established on 15 October at Martin Place, outside the Reserve Bank of Australia, after a rally of thousands. The protest camp – a feature of Occupy – was an organising and symbolic centre for the movement, and immediately faced a campaign of police harassment.

On the first evening police raided the camp, tearing down tents and tarpaulins, trashing makeshift kitchens and libraries, taking away sleeping bags and mats. Protesters were routinely threatened with “move on” orders, “staying overnight” and other charges, as the police searched for a pretext to end the Occupy movement in Australia.

At 5am on Sunday 23 October, I woke to see about 200 riot police surrounding our protest camp. They quickly advanced from three sides and started physically removing people, using painful wrist-locks, and occasionally throwing punches, one of which left a protester in front of me bleeding.

After assaulting a group of sleeping protesters, the police then charged a number of us with assault police, resist arrest and staying overnight (a charge usually reserved for the harassment of the homeless). A constitutional challenge to the police’s actions has dragged through the courts for the three years since. The highest courts in the land have found that the protesters were not protected by any constitutional right to protest. Nevertheless, the recent dropping of all charges against protesters is an admission – three years after the fact – that the arrests were baseless.

Wenny Theresia, who helped coordinate legal defence for those charged, said: “By my count there were almost 100 arrests made of Occupy Sydney protesters over at least four months. Almost all the charges that were contested by defendants were withdrawn by police or dismissed by the court.”

“The police are usually extremely dodgy in their policing of protests and ultimately they know that the charges they give to protesters often won’t stand up in the courts, but they arrest us anyway to hurt and intimidate us.”

In this case, with the backing of a public campaign, the protesters have taken a stand against police intimidation.