Claire Harvey: Police actions have a significant ripple effect
Cops and politicians clearly have no idea what it’s like to parent through the COVID-19 crisis and they — along with other random citizens — are treating mums and dads like idiots and criminals, Claire Harvey writes.
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Get off the beach, you bitch.
Go home, you f...... slut, you c …, you dog. Don’t you know the police have closed all the beaches?”
That was my Wednesday morning.
I went to one of Sydney’s still-open beaches with my children for a walk and a splash in the rock-pools, in line with police advice that outings for exercise are allowed.
We didn’t come within 100m of another human being. We waved at some other families from a distance. We touched only sand and salt water. We went straight back to the car, and home for the rest of the day.
This was the morning after NSW Police sent the Public Order and Riot Squad along Coogee Beach to tell dads pushing prams and toddlers sitting on picnic blankets to return to their homes.
And I’m here to tell you, it wasn’t a coincidence.
The person I encountered – a fit-looking middle-aged man who continued to shout abuse and threats in my direction as I walked away with my frightened kids – wasn’t a cop.
But there is no doubt in my mind that he felt empowered to speak to me in that way because of what had been on the news the previous night: police treating ordinary citizens like idiots and criminals. Patrol cars driving across the grass to tell a man lying on a towel to go home; officers ordering young families with strollers to keep moving rather than sit down on a park bench for a moment’s rest.
Later on Wednesday, a young uniformed officer would muster his most dismissive tone of voice to tell middle-aged women at Bondi Beach: “Go home. A quick walk, then go home.”
Well, says who?
Commissioner Mick Fuller, in sort-of-not-really attempting to excuse this small number of disgracefully heavy-handed police actions, later admitted his own wife had taken their children to a park for a run around that very same day. I wonder if she knew “a quick walk” was the new limit.
And if she had, I wonder if she might have inquired why it’s still OK to use a personal trainer, go to the hairdresser, work on a building site, jump in a taxi or (my favourite) meet a friend at the golf course for a cheeky nine holes.
I can’t help feeling a lot of this policy is being made by people who haven’t spent much time with children, and who have absolutely no idea what it’d be like to be cooped up with three of them in a tiny flat.
I also think our policymakers are the few members of society who presently have absolutely no idea what it’s like to be at home, trying to work and homeschool, fearing the future, worrying about money. They might, you’d think, grasp why we care so much about the chance for some fresh air.
I’m not blaming the police for coronavirus. They’re trying to enact government policy, which is that we all stay home as much as possible and maintain significant physical distance from others.
That’s for the good of all of us.
But Australians are smart enough to keep a distance. This is not Manhattan, where everyone must use public transport and the sidewalks are crowded. It is perfectly possible in the vast majority of Australian suburbs to visit a park or a beach without touching or even seeing another human being. It’s not Wuhan, where lies and misinformation allowed the virus to get such a grip that ‘social distancing’ was completely futile.
I trust and respect police. I want them to keep us safe. I would never demean the work they do.
But I also want them to remember their actions have significant ripple effects, and in this case I think they’ve effectively turned an atmosphere of anxiety and concern to one of fear and aggression.
Originally published as Claire Harvey: Police actions have a significant ripple effect