Police say they will be out in force and searching for weapons on Saturday to keep it safe

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Hundreds of police will patrol St Kilda on Saturday searching for weapons among extremists planning to gather at the popular Melbourne beach.

Convicted criminals Blair Cottrell and Neil Erikson want to gather a rally of far-right extremists at the beach on Saturday to “discuss” Melbourne’s youth crime problem.

The event, promoted on social media, has sparked the interest of anti-racism protesters and authorities.

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“Let me be clear – there will be hundreds of police there, there will be specialist police, there will be the dog squad, the mounted squad, the transit teams, the public order response teams, they will be conducting weapons searches,” the police minister, Lisa Neville, told reporters on Friday.

“Whether you are on the ultra-right or the ultra-left, this is a family beach and Victoria Police will be there in force to keep it safe.”

Neville pleaded for those looking to cause trouble to “please rethink” and “don’t wreck a great weekend for Victorians at that beach”.

“Protesting in Victoria is legal and we want that to be the case,” she said. “What isn’t legal is public disorder, violence, inciting violence and that’s why

Victoria Police will be there tomorrow.”

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Last week Erikson confronted young men of African background who were playing football at the beach.

In 2017 Cottrell and Erikson were convicted and fined for inciting contempt and ridicule of Muslims by making a video in which they beheaded a dummy with a toy sword in a protest against the building of the Bendigo mosque. Cottrell is appealing against the conviction in the county court.

He has also been reported to have called for a portrait of Hitler in classrooms, which he has denied.

Last year Erikson was also found guilty of contempt after uploading a video that showed him calling the former Labor senator Sam Dastyari a “terrorist” at a Melbourne pub.