Rita Panahi: Pregnant Ballarat mum protester arrest video shows Victoria Police ‘double standard’

Victoria Police is MIA when it matters most but are world leaders in handing out fines and arresting people posing no risk to anyone, like this pregnant Ballarat mum, writes Rita Panahi.

Have we lost our collective minds?

How did a civilised country fall so far so quickly that Victorian authorities can justify terrorising a pregnant woman in her own home over a Facebook post?

The eyes of the world are on Victor ia and the verdict is not good.

We are being condemned as a police state and a sinister example of how hard fought for civil liberties can be lost when a populace is scared witless by hysterical politicians and a compliant media.

Footage of a distressed pregnant mother being handcuffed in front of her children for an anti-lockdown Facebook post has gone viral and made headlines far and wide from France to Canada.

In the video a shocked Zoe Lee, the name she goes by on Facebook, informs officers that she is pregnant and has an ultrasound appointment in an hour.

This is what Zoe Lee allegedly posted:
“As some of you may have seen the govt has gone to extreme measures & are using scare tactics through the media to prevent the Melbourne protest...End lockdowns. Stand for human rights. We live in a *free* country.”https://t.co/MYclWAfwYx

— Rita Panahi (@RitaPanahi) September 2, 2020

That does nothing to quell the heavy handed police response.

In the second video posted on social media, the handcuffed Ballarat mum is weeping as she’s told that 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 4 lockdown, a post she immediately offered to delete.

Police arrest Zoe Lee at her home

Zoe was handcuffed during the ordeal.

The Facebook post read: “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 4 lockdowns. We can be seen and heard and hopefully make a difference. End lockdowns. Stand for human rights. We live in a *free* country.”

In the post she asks people to protest peacefully, wear masks and ensure they are socially distancing.

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That’s it. That’s what saw police barge into her home and arrest her for “incitement”.

I wrote in Wednesday’s Herald Sun about Victoria Police’s twisted priorities and double standards.

Zoe’s children were at home at the time of the arrest.

Zoe was arrested by police in her Ballarat home.

The Hotel Quarantine inquiry has heard Victoria Police command declined to play an active role in the program and pushed for private security guards to oversee returned travellers.

And, Victoria Police, together with the Dan Andrews government, rolled out the red carpet for 10,000 BLM protesters by declaring before the event that participants would not be fined.

Zoe Lee’s alleged Facebook post.

When it mattered most Victoria Police was missing in action but they are world leaders in handing out fines and arresting people posing no risk to anyone, including themselves.

People 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 medically supervised injecting facility and fear no action from the cops.

Pregnant and handcuffed for a poor choice Facebook repost. Meanwhile, 10,000 left wing protesters go unmolested. Victoria 2020. https://t.co/B0WJQfy15w

— Matthew Guy MP (@MatthewGuyMP) September 2, 2020

Any party or politician that leads us down the path of this type of authoritarianism is dangerous. https://t.co/XaMr0xw7yy

— Mark A. López (@marklopeztkd) September 2, 2020

Talk to anyone who LIVED in communism
(my parents and grandparents) and they will quickly note the eerie similarities.....
“We are all equal, just some are more equal than others” 😬 https://t.co/J2gEF9nIUx

— Andrew Bogut (@andrewbogut) September 2, 2020

The disproportionate response to Ms Lee’s alleged offence is symptomatic of a police force that has become politicised and lost its way and of an inept government that thinks cracking down on citizens is a substitute for sound governance.

MORE NEWS:

PREGNANT MUM NOT SORRY FOR PLANNING PROTEST

FIRST RESTRICTIONS TO BE EASED IN MELBOURNE

WHAT AC CORNELIUS FAILED TO CALL OUT IN HIS TIRADE

— Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist

@RitaPanahi