Deadline: Imbeciles fuel duelling pepper spray narratives
Truth dies on social media and nothing proves that more than the lies spread about an elderly woman pepper sprayed at a protest — even by those supposed to uphold the law.
Police & Courts
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Andrew Rule and Mark Buttler with their weekly dose of scallywag scuttlebutt.
WHERE THE TRUTH GOES TO DIE
It came to light last week that a woman in her 70s who was capsicum sprayed at Richmond during a recent anti-lockdown rally did not want to lay a complaint.
Video caught by the Herald Sun’s Jason Edwards showed her on her back and, apparently, presenting no threat as she copped a faceful of the hot stuff.
But her treatment on social media has been just as distasteful.
It had for weeks been broadcast online, even by a police officer, that the lady in question was in fact a man in his 30s.
Because she chose not to come forward, maybe it was a case of people filling in the gaps of what they did not know.
Or, maybe it was a case of those with an interest in discrediting the protesters spreading the lie?
It was repeated by some interesting and influential online players who should know better but can’t help pushing whatever barrow suits their views.
Members of the other camp are also hard at work distributing untruths.
They have continued, wrongly, to claim that a particular policeman sprayed the woman.
The Herald Sun has published the fact that the cop named was on leave at the time, but that hasn’t stopped imbeciles from pushing fake news.
BAD GUY NAILS GOOD TURN
Mick Gatto is, of course, known as a Carlton identity regardless of which postcode he rests his weary head after a hard day’s negotiating.
In recent years, he has moved from the discreetly fortified family five-bedder in the Lower Plenty area to spend more time on the Mornington Peninsula.
He is a man of many vehicles, including the odd Roller or Bentley, but when he moved to the peninsula he was mostly using a dark-coloured luxury SUV.
Let’s say it was a black Range Rover, but it could have been a navy Porsche or a grey Beemer and not alter the storyline.
In any case, it was the sort of wagon popular in the vineyard and pony club set.
The story circulating legal circles is that Gatto noticed a lawyer living nearby who was driving a vehicle strikingly similar to his own.
One day he approached the surprised driver for a little chat.
It turned out he was offering some free and friendly advice — which makes a change from his day job.
And the advice to the lawyer was this: maybe consider getting rid of the black Rangie.
Er, why?
Because someone, the big man explained gently, might think it’s mine.
It took the lawyer a split second to get the friendly hint: it would be a pity to get shot at in a tragic case of mistaken identity.
Cars come and go but bullets are forever.
GOOD TURN NAILS BAD GUY
The senior lawyer, a prosecutor in his day, had got plenty of thieves locked up. Now a thief had returned the favour, unlocking his wife’s new car and driving off in it.
It happened within days of the spotless German hatchback arriving from the inner-suburban dealership down the road.
The proud new owner glanced at her shiny new car parked in front of their house, just in time to see it speeding away.
It had been expertly pinched by a tea-leaf with a device which, within a certain radius of the vehicle’s electronic key, can open and start the car — but can’t start it again once outside range.
The new car was gone. At least, gone long enough that the insurance company paid out on it. Then someone noticed it gathering dust in a busy car park at Doncaster Shoppingtown — the same place, incidentally, where Russell “Mad Dog” Cox was caught after a gun battle with the armed robbery squad in the 1980s.
The car had a note on the dash, left by some good Samaritan. The note stated: “Your motor was left running so I switched it off.” (Easily done, as the car has a stop-start button that will kill the motor without the ignition key.)
When police checked the car, they found a change of clothes in it.
They interpreted it this way: a well-connected crook, acting on inside info about the destination of the new car, had gone to the buyer’s address and stolen it.
Then collected a change of clothes and anything else he might need to commit a crime, then parked in the busy car park at Shoppingtown, assuming he could leave it running ready for a getaway.
The motor, of course, had to be left running because it was out of range of the car’s ignition key, which was in a different postcode.
But when the crook returned and found the engine had been stopped by a helpful passer-by, he was a shot duck. Poetic justice.
SCARY MOVIE
An important notice recently alerted the public that Showbiz Cinemas near Ballarat was a tier-one coronavirus site.
The warning applied to the audience of a film shown between 9.20pm and 11.10pm on October 1.
The film title … Don’t Breathe 2.
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THE LENS OF HISTORY
Zarina McGhan is now 53 and a relatively law-abiding mother of five but has found you can’t always leave your past behind.
As Zarina freely admits, she was once a troubled teenager and had a few small brushes with the law.
Back then, she got her life back on track with the assistance of youth worker Les Twentyman, who would eventually escort her down the aisle at her wedding.
Thirty years have passed. In June this year, Zarina was a fraction late crossing a red-light on Middleborough Rd in Box Hill North.
She decided to fight the fine and received a police summary of what would go before the court.
The Templestowe mother is quite open about having an adult conviction for drink driving and some other low-level police matters from decades ago.
But she is outraged at the police’s inclusion of her court appearances for unlawful assault and theft back to the 1980s, when she was only a teenager.
“Anything that is relevant, okay, but we’re talking about when I was (a teenager),” she said. “We all make mistakes.”
The result is that she won’t be paying the ticket without a fight.
“I’m going to court because I don’t think I should have to pay $413 and lose three demerit points for .8 of a second.”
And she especially doesn’t think what happened to a schoolkid in the 1980s has anything to do with that. As a magistrate might well agree.
AMBO VANS DEAD AT SCENE
Ambulance Victoria is in a $230,000 legal stoush over a workshop fire that destroyed two of their vehicles.
Court documents show that the ambulance people want compensation for the destruction of two Mercedes Benz Sprint vans that went up in flames while in dock for repairs at Sunshine West last year.
A writ alleges that the fire started in fabric rags, that there was not an adequate system of fire warning and prevention and that the vehicles were left in an area where they were at risk of being destroyed by fire.
What’s the legal Latin for “the thing speaks for itself”?
CASEY’S ROBBIE WILLIAMS
The Casey district Eyewatch lists 49-year-old Steven Chaskaris as being wanted by police.
But one of our spies believes Robbie Williams’ management might also be interested in the elusive Chaskaris as a potential stand-in for the British singing star.
It is unknown how well Chaskaris can sing but it is unlikely he would need a bodyguard, unlike the real Robbie.
Terrified prison guards ‘buying’ safety by bribing young inmates
Traumatised prison guards have lifted the lid on the desperate lengths some staff are going to protect themselves from violent young inmates, including bribing them with drugs and porn.
Victoria Police facing IBAC probe for ‘failing’ to tackle anti-Semitism crisis
Victoria Police may be probed by the anti-corruption watchdog over allegations it failed to crack down on the dangerous rise of anti-Semitism in the state.