Arrest of pregnant mum shows world how hopelessly politicised Victoria Police is: Rita Panahi
The pregnant Ballarat mum who shared a video of her arrest on Facebook after planning an anti-lockdown protest may be a wackadoodle or a concerned citizen — either way, it’s impossible to defend the disproportionate police response, writes Rita Panahi.
Rita Panahi
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Footage of a distressed pregnant mother being handcuffed in front of her children has gone viral and made global headlines.
While the arrest of Ballarat woman Zoe Lee for an anti-lockdown Facebook post has polarised opinion in Australia, with some defending the heavy-handed actions of Victoria Police, the verdict from international observers is almost universally damning.
Victoria has been condemned as a police state and a cautionary tale of how hard fought-for rights and civil liberties can be lost when a populace is scared witless by hysterical politicians and an equally hysterical and largely compliant media.
Many are asking how a civilised country could fall so far so quickly that authorities in Victoria can justify terrorising a pregnant woman in her own home over a Facebook post?
In the video seen around the world, but somehow missed by Premier Dan Andrews, the young mum informs officers she is pregnant and has an ultrasound appointment in an hour. That does nothing to quell the overbearing police response.
In the second video posted on social media the Ballarat mum, now in handcuffs, is weeping as she’s told police will seize her computer and all her devices as well as the mobile phones of others in the house, including her sister.
Ms Lee’s alleged crime is a Facebook post planning a protest against Victoria’s stage four lockdown, a post she immediately offered to delete.
This alleged Facebook post read: “Peaceful protest. All social distancing measures are to be followed so we don’t get arrested. Please wear a mask unless you have a medical reason not to. As some of you may have seen the government has gone to extreme measures and are using scare tactics through the media to prevent the Melbourne protest. Here in Ballarat we can be a voice for those in stage four lockdowns. We can be seen and heard and hopefully make a difference. End lockdowns. Stand for human rights. We live in a *free* country.”
That’s it. That’s what saw police barge into a woman’s home and arrest her for “incitement”.
Now she may be a wackadoodle of the highest order or just a concerned citizen, either way it’s impossible to defend the disproportionate police response but that’s precisely what Assistant Commissioner Luke Cornelius did on Thursday.
“I’ve seen the footage. The members have conducted themselves entirely reasonably, they’ve been polite, professional,” he said. “In this case we’re alleging this individual engaged in serious criminal behaviour inciting a public protest at a time when public protest is unlawful.” Then Victoria’s own Chief Wiggum switched to medical advice: “The best way to get out of this is to reduce movement across the community.”
I wrote on Wednesday about Victoria Police’s twisted priorities and double standards. They refused to fine 10,000 protesters taking part in a BLM march during a pandemic, when mass gatherings were banned, and police command declined to play an active role in the hotel quarantine program and pushed for private security guards to oversee returned travellers.
When it mattered most, Victoria’s police were missing in action but they are world leaders in handing out fines and arresting people posing no risk to anyone, including themselves.
Folks sitting in their own car or laying flowers at a cemetery have copped crippling fines but you can travel across town, even after curfew, to shoot up ice in Richmond’s drug injecting facility and fear no action from the police.
It’s clear deep cultural problems remain and the response to Ms Lee is symptomatic of a police force that has become hopelessly politicised. It was less than two years ago the High Court slammed Victoria Police for their unscrupulous antics.
“Victoria Police were guilty of reprehensible conduct in knowingly encouraging EF (Lawyer X) to do as she did and were involved in sanctioning atrocious breaches of the sworn duty of every police officer … the prosecution of each convicted person was corrupted in a manner which debased fundamental premises of the criminal justice system,” the High Court said.
We cannot have a police force that selectively applies the law according to political and ideological considerations.
Benjamin Franklin famously said “Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
How apt for the Dan Andrews cult who cheer on each draconian restriction, no matter how illogical, and ignore the fact Victoria, which accounts for around a quarter of Australia’s population, is responsible for 74 per cent of infections and 87 per cent of COVID-19 deaths in the country.
Cracking down on citizens and instituting crippling lockdowns will never be a substitute for sound governance.
IN SHORT
ABC brekky bloke Michael Rowland should remember that he’s not a spokesman for the Dan Andrews government. His criticism of the Herald Sun’s exclusive on the draft road map out of stage four was ill-founded. The real journalists at the ABC would give their right arm for a scoop like that.
Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist