Rita Panahi: Homeless activists are just bullies
IF FERAL activists are genuine about helping homeless people they’d stop harassing public figures and work with welfare groups to alleviate homelessness, writes Rita Panahi.
Rita Panahi
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FERAL homelessness activists are finding new and despicable ways to coerce, harass, and intimidate public figures.
The lawless mob of anarchist parasites has already caused untold damage to Melbourne’s reputation and has now put together a three-page action plan to cause more mayhem.
Make no mistake: this group is made up primarily of organised, “professional” protesters, not downtrodden homeless folk.
Indeed, their abhorrent behaviour makes the lives of genuinely homeless people far more difficult.
Emboldened by soft policing, this small group of agitators feel entitled to damage public and private property and abuse those who speak out against their grubby tactics.
Today the Herald Sun revealed their methodical approach to activism, which includes plans to trash the city by “creating rubbish everywhere’’ and “stalking” Lord Mayor Robert Doyle and other councillors who voted for new council by-laws.
SECRET DOCUMENTS REVEAL ORCHESTRATED CAMPAIGN TO TRASH CITY, STALK LORD MAYOR
There are plans to “maintain liaison with Greens (sic)” and to “contact George Soros (open societies)” for assistance.
The Greens within the council and at state level need to explain their ties to this group and whether they support littering the city as a legitimate form of protest.
Nothing less than full disclosure is acceptable after Cr Doyle’s home became a target at the weekend, in a contemptible move that represents a worrying escalation of the group’s activities.
Cr Doyle has already been likened to a Nazi for his efforts to clean up the homeless camps outside Flinders St station and at other spots around the CBD.
Last month the Homeless Persons Union Victoria posted an altered image of Auschwitz concentration camp on Facebook comparing council officers, including Cr Doyle, to Hitler.
PHOTO ESSAY: A DAY IN THE LIFE AT A HOMELESS CAMP
D-DAY AT FLINDERS ST HOMELESS CAMP
Late on Saturday night the attack against Cr Doyle intensified further when a small group of homelessness protesters gathered outside his family home.
The group shouted abuse and held up signs threatening to damage or squat in Cr Doyle’s “summer house”, frightening both the Doyle family and their neighbours with their carry-on before leaving the street in a mess of empty beer bottles.
Cr Doyle has informed the police of his concerns and accused protesters of hijacking the debate.
“It’s very organised. It wasn’t some spontaneous demonstration of homeless people themselves. They were professional protesters,” Cr Doyle said.
Premier Daniel Andrews was among those who condemned the activists.
“I haven’t had a chance to call Robert, but I think it is simply wrong to be targeting his house,” Mr Andrews said yesterday.
“The people of the City of Melbourne and Victoria know he is a fine person doing a fine job, and to be targeting him and his family is simply just wrong. You would hope that people who act that appallingly are not too common.”
However, the “professional protesters” were unrepentant.
RITA PANAHI: HOMELESS CAMP LIKE A THIRD WORLD CESSPIT
Spike, a spokesman for the Homeless Persons Union, defended the group’s tactics.
“There was no threat on his life or his kids; it was just a bit of noise to remind Mr Doyle that you can’t clock off when you’re making decisions of this gravity,” he said on Melbourne radio.
That really sums up the keen sense of entitlement among this group.
One look at their secret dossier and it’s clear that they are willing to go to extreme lengths to achieve their aims, including bullying individuals who stand in their way.
The document is quite the manifesto; who knew unemployed anarchists were capable of such organisation and planning?
One idea explored in the dossier is to lobby “corporate do-gooders” to support the campaign as well as to “educate the public about negative gearing”.
Another strategy is to “look into the legality of the laws” and explore whether they constitute “human rights abuses”.
It’s an indictment of the system that groups such as this can exploit Victoria’s Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act to make a nuisance of themselves and cost taxpayers even more money.
It’s precisely what they did last year when the state government tried to evict squatters from more than a dozen inner-city properties that had been acquired for the doomed East West Link project.
SQUATTERS LIVING IN VACATED EAST WEST LINK HOMES EARN WEEK’S REPRIEVE
The homes were meant to house battered women and children.
But squatters refused to move out, and around 50 of the illegal occupiers went to the Supreme Court, claiming that the eviction notices breached their human rights.
Never mind the rights of domestic violence victims languishing on waiting lists for desperately needed emergency housing.
If these activists were genuine about increasing public and government support for the homeless, they’d abandon these cynical tactics and work with Melbourne city council, Victorian government bodies, the Salvation Army, and other welfare organisations — groups that are devoted to alleviating the problem of homelessness.
By indulging in bullying tactics and lawlessness they reveal themselves to be nothing more than professional troublemakers.
Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist
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