Police were seen beating, pushing and pepper-spraying people at a protest in Sydney after Israeli President Isaac Herzog arrived in Australia on Monday.
Muslim men who were filmed kneeling and praying before being pushed and dragged away by police were scared not angry, Australia's special envoy to combat Islamophobia said.
The force's actions were "disgraceful" and "appalling", Aftab Malik said.
Premier Chris Minns has repeatedly defended police, saying they faced incredibly difficult circumstances.
But Mr Malik said he was brought to tears when the premier failed to call out TV interview questions suggesting the men had been "baiting" police when praying.
"The premier should have pushed back and said … 'I don't agree with that characterisation', and had he said that, things would have been different," he told the Senate on Tuesday night.
"But unfortunately, he responded the way he did and this is part of the normalisation in which day-by-day, Muslims are being degraded … it's the ordinariness of Islamophobia destroying the dignity of Muslims who are legitimate citizens like anybody else."
NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said he had apologised to senior members of the Muslim community for any offence caused.
But he also continued to defend the actions of police, who were instructed to clear protesters from the area surrounding Sydney Town Hall.
A subsequent protest against police violence on Tuesday night resulted in the arrest of teenager Duke Austin, who was charged with assault and held in custody overnight after he allegedly repeatedly shone a torch in the face of an officer.
But the strength of the police case was questioned by Austin's lawyer and the magistrate in a bail court on Wednesday morning.
"There is a legitimate argument whether the flashing of a torch at a police officer is enough to make out an assault," solicitor Wilson Tighe argued.
Police opposed the 18-year-old being released on bail in part because of the possible damage to the officer depending on "how powerful the light was".
But magistrate Daniel Covington said the evidence against Austin was hardly overwhelming.
"To be fairly blunt, on these facts there is no real possibility of a term of imprisonment even if he was convicted," he said.
Police could themselves face legal action over their treatment of protesters.
"Civilians see this kind of violence so rarely in Australia, but when we do, it's shocking," University of Newcastle criminologist Justin Ellis told AAP.
"Police are going to have to deal with any reputational fallout."
But the damage may already have been done.
Greens MP Abigail Boyd is considering legal action after she was struck by police.
Video posted to social media showed one man with raised hands being punched repeatedly in the stomach by officers.
Former federal Greens candidate Hannah Thomas, who suffered a serious eye injury when she was arrested at a protest in 2025, had charges of resisting police dropped before an assault charge was laid against the constable who allegedly maimed her.
Officers arrested 27 people on Monday and later charged nine with offences including behaving in an offensive manner in a public place and resisting police.
Five members of the public were taken to hospital.
