Police 'arrogance' slammed in call to drop charges

The protesters were hit with a slew of charges including assault, intimidation and throwing a missile at police officers during the protest on February 9. 

The rally was prevented from marching by laws passed following Bondi's terror attack in December, which have since been struck down in the NSW Supreme Court.

"A law is found to be unconstitutional, and yet the NSW Police act with a level of arrogance that they continue to pursue charges and intimidate activists", NSW Greens MP Jenny Leong told the crowd.

"We need to drop the charges and we say that right now we need to recognise that the NSW Police are not acting in the interest of anyone."

The decision from the state's highest court has already resulted in charges being dropped against some activists, but the charges against 16 protesters remain. 

The group hope their charges will be dismissed when they face the local court on Wednesday. 

The February protest was also separately prohibited by a major events declaration, which was not affected by the court's ruling.

Dozens of protesters reported being beaten and pepper sprayed by officers, while police drew criticism for shoving a group of Muslim worshippers performing the sunset prayer.

"There was no excuse for the horrific police violence on the ninth of February, there's never an excuse for such violence", Civil Liberties Defence Centre head Nikolai Haddad told the rally.

"Horses and police officers charged into the crowd and displayed crowd control tactics that left protesters with broken bones and battered bodies."

An independent probe is investigating police actions at the rally, including incidents of alleged misconduct. 

Adorning the courthouse rally was a banner reading "globalise the intifada", a slogan NSW Premier Chris Minns previously indicated he would seek to ban. 

However, he later declared he would wait to see if a Queensland prohibition on the chant "from the river to the sea" survived a legal challenge.