Arrested anti-lockdown mum: police admit ‘we stuffed optics’
Victoria police chief defends arrest of pregnant anti-lockdown campaigner, but admits it was ‘never going to look good’.
Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Luke Cornelius has defended the arrest and handcuffing of a pregnant mother in her pyjamas, but admitted the “optics” were “never going to look good”.
“We absolutely stuffed that in these circumstances,” Mr Cornelius told reporters on Thursday.
However, he insisted police had acted appropriately when they arrested Ballarat mum Zoe Lee Buhler for posting about an anti-lockdown protest on Facebook.
“The members behaved appropriate and in accordance with our policy,” he said.
There has been a widespread outcry over Ms Buhler‘s dramatic arrest in her home on Wednesday afternoon in front of her children and husband, with the arrest live-streamed on social media.
More than $8000 has been raised on a GoFundMe page and a top legal team, including Stuart Wood QC and solicitor Stephen Andrianakis, has been formed to fight the charges.
The Institute of Public Affairs has thrown its support behind Ms Buhler, with policy director Gideon Rozner calling Victoria a “police state”.
“This arrest is a disgrace to the police force and a mark of shame on the Andrews Government,” he said. “Under the guise of ‘public health orders’, police are arresting people for speaking out against the government.
“Zoe Lee’s fight against Daniel Andrews’ draconian lockdown restrictions is now everyone’s fight.”
Ms Buhler told Sky News she was terrified when police entered her house.
But Mr Cornelis said the handcuffs were removed from Ms Buhler, 28, as soon as police finished searching her home.
“[Our] members conducted themselves entirely reasonably,” Mr Cornelius said.
He said police also contacted Ms Butler’s doctor to reschedule her ultrasound appointment.
Federal MP Craig Kelly has also come out in support of Ms Buhler, posting on Facebook that her family contacted him last night.
“What’s interesting, while the Labor Luvies like to always claim the high moral ground on Human Rights, their silence on this issue is deafening – and it’s the conservatives standing up to protect Zoe’s rights,” he wrote.
Arrest ‘the stuff of a police state’
Victorian opposition frontbencher Tim Smith described the arrest of pregnant Zoe Lee Buhler in front of her children as “absolutely terrifying”, and “the stuff of a police state”.
Mr Smith said no one should be protesting in Victoria amid the coronavirus pandemic, but that the same principle applied in June, when 10,000 people gathered in Melbourne’s CBD for the Black Lives Matter protest.
“The rule in June was that there was to be no greater gathering than 20 people outside, yet 10,000 people walked through the streets of Melbourne, and only three of them were fined,” Mr Smith said.
“Well, why now are people being arrested in front of their children at home for an inappropriate Facebook post?
“I mean, that is the stuff of a police state. It’s wrong.”
Mr Smith said Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Luke Cornerlius had used some “very tough language” in describing anti-lockdown protests as “batshit crazy”.
“Well, I think a lot of Victorians looked at that (police) activity yesterday, and will call it ‘batshit crazy’,” the opposition planning spokesman said.
Mr Smith said the Black Lives Matter protest organisers should “absolutely” have been charged with incitement, as Ms Buhler was.
“I mean, let’s be consistent,” he said.
“If those that are trying to organise a protest this weekend, and they shouldn’t be ... if it’s good for the goose it’s good for the gander, and frankly, people that were organizing the BLM protest in June, they should have the book thrown at them as hard as these people that are organising the anti-lockdown protest.
“The law should apply equally to everyone.
“But seriously, police going into people’s homes, arresting pregnant women in front of their children because of a Facebook post?
“I mean heavens above, where are we? Melbourne? Australia? A free country? What’s going on here?
“And I think that there is genuine outrage across Victoria. My inbox has been inundated with people who cannot believe that that happened.”
Arrest ‘a matter for the police’: Andrews
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews says the arrest of a pregnant Ballarat woman for allegedly inciting people to attend an illegal protest against his lockdown is an “operational matter for Victoria Police” and he cannot comment on whether they acted appropriately.
Mr Andrews said the subject of the protest should have no bearing on any punishment, but he also declined to say whether police had acted appropriately in refusing to issue fines to 10,000 people who attended a Black Lives Matter protest in Melbourne’s CBD on June 6, despite having supported Victoria Police’s position at the time.
Three organisers of the Black Lives Matter protest received $1652 fines for breaching coronavirus restrictions, but no other action was taken against any organisers or attendees.
Asked whether the organisers of the Black Lives Matter protest should have been charged with incitement, as Ballarat woman Zoe Lee Buhler was, Mr Andrews said: “I would need to refer you to Victoria Police in relation to what occurred with those people.”
“I’m not sure whether state of disaster versus state of emergency may have been a relevant factor there. I don’t know the answer,” Mr Andrews said.
Asked why he had supported the police decision not to lay charges or fine attendees at the time, the Premier said: “Well, I’m very clearly on the record as saying that those are matters that Victoria Police should have absolute control over.”
“It is not my practice to be directing police on how to enforce the law. That really is a matter that, I think, they need to have that absolute sense of control with the full benefit of any context that may or may not be there, with any given case,” he said.
‘I was scared I was being kidnapped’
Ms Buhler has spoken of her fear when uniformed police entered her home, but admitted the post was a “bimbo moment”.
The 38-year-old told Sky News she was terrified when police entered her house. “I was scared I was being kidnapped,” she said.
She told radio station 3AW the ‘Freedom Day Ballarat’ event was a protest against lockdown and for human rights.
“I didn’t actually realise I was not allowed to do that though,” she said on Thursday morning.
Ms Buhler, who said she had lost her job due to the lockdown, said she knew protests weren’t permitted in Melbourne but thought Ballarat’s lighter restrictions would allow a protest if people wore masks and socially distanced.
“I suppose I had a bit of a bimbo moment and didn’t realise it wasn’t okay,” she said.
She said police had taken the handcuffs off and had explained to her at the police station that they were just doing their job.
“They were very nice to me off camera,” she said.
However she added that police could have made contact with a simple phone call.
Ms Buhler said she didn’t believe COVID-19 was a hoax but wanted to protest about the impact of the lockdown on employment, suicide and domestic violence.
“I wish I could see a happy medium,” she said.
Ms Buhler was open in saying she wasn’t remorseful about her actions and said perhaps the event would be a slap in the face for Premier Daniel Andrews
“I probably wouldn’t change anything to be honest,” she said.
Asked on Sky if she still planned to attend the protest, she shook her head.
“I’m too scared,” she said.
Protester’s arrest ‘overkill’
Ms Buhler’s arrest, which was live-streamed on social media, has been called a “symbol of dictatorial control in Victoria” and “overkill”.
The pregnant mum was handcuffed in her living room and arrested for incitement on Wednesday afternoon while her children and husband watched on.
She had earlier posted on Facebook an invitation to people to attend “Freedom Day Ballarat” — a “peaceful protest” calling for an end to Victoria’s Stage 4 coronavirus lockdown.
“Excuse me, incitement for what, what on Earth? I’m in my pyjamas, my two kids are here,” she can be heard saying in the video.
“I have an ultrasound in an hour because I’m pregnant.”
Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie said there was no need to arrest and handcuff the woman in front of her children.
“I’m usually one of the first to stand up for the police,” Ms Lambie said.
“All the hard work they have been doing and respect they have been building on the streets — and they’ve handled themselves pretty well through COVID-19 — to come in like that and put a woman that’s pregnant in handcuffs when it was quite peaceful in there, there was no need and to do that in front of her children. (It) is just absolute overkill.
“There was no need for it, they could have knocked on the door and said, ‘Please come to the station, we’ll need to get a statement off you’, and do it peacefully.”
Sky News Australia broadcaster Alan Jones took to Facebook to criticise the arrest, saying Premier Daniel Andrews was the “only person guilty of incitement.”
“Thankfully I am not the only Australian who thinks this is appalling, disgusting and disgraceful,” he wrote.
“The only person guilty of incitement is the premier of Victoria.
“His outlandish grab for power, his disdain of any accountability is forcing people to behaviour simply designed to take back their freedom.”
2GB broadcaster Chris Smith described images of the handcuffed woman as “symbolic of dictatorial control”.
“You have so many Victorians angry, upset about the situation at the moment — and I’m not saying they shouldn’t partially lock down the state, in particular Melbourne, I’m not saying that.
“They have gone over the top in terms of lockdowns and curfews. This is dictatorial control and the symbol will be that woman in handcuffs when she comes from Ballarat, she was talking about a gathering and discussing social distancing.
“Is it the crime of the century to do that? She probably only would get 20 people at the event and they’d all be social distanced.”
With Imogen Reid
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