This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

More than 150 people have surrounded a Sydney police station to protest against the treatment of sandwich board activist Danny Lim after footage of him being arrested sent social media into a frenzy.

The cult Sydney figure is now considering legal action against police.

The former councillor was fined on Friday after three police officers arrested him at Exchange Place in Barangaroo about 9.20am. It is unclear what the offensive behaviour involved or who made the complaint, though one woman, on Facebook, said she called the police because Lim was “in the way” and “disturbing”.

Video of the arrest shows an officer holding a sandwich board sign that reads: “SMILE CVN’T! WHY CVN’T?”

Serial Sydney protester Danny Lim arrested for offensive behaviour Read more

Social media was flooded with calls for a protest against the police after Lim released images of his bruised wrists following Friday’s arrest. Lim told social media he had been left distressed after his dog, Smarty, was also caught up in the arrest.

Crowds converged on the CBD’s police station after midday on Sunday.

Many carried signs with inverted A symbols, including “STOP CORRUPT GOVERNMENT CVNTS”.

Lim, wearing a large sign calling on politicians to act on chemical contaminations, thanked the crowd and those who had recorded his arrest on their phones.

“I couldn’t thank them enough,” he said. “I asked for help, help. I told them I had to pick up my dog, Smarty.”

His lawyer, Bryan Wrench, told the crowd the pair would not tolerate “political censorship”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Protesters outside of Sydney city police area command. Photograph: Danny Casey/AAP

“The only thing offensive was how they treated Danny on that day, and Smarty,” he said. “We are not going to let this go. We are going to fight all the way.”

Wrench represented Lim in 2017 when a district court judge overturned a conviction and fine after finding a similar sign worn in 2015 mocking the then prime minister, Tony Abbott, was unlikely to offend the average Australian.

Using an inverted A in the word “can’t”, those signs said “TONY YOU CAN’T. LIAR, HEARTLESS, CRUEL” and “TONY YOU CAN’T SCREW EDUCATION”.

Wrench said they would repeat history.

“We did it before and we are going to do it again,” he said. “And this time they’re going to pay. We’ll see you when we go to court.”

A GoFundMe page has been started to raise $500 for Lim’s court costs following his arrest. By Sunday afternoon it had almost tripled its goal and raised $1,300.