Anti-vaccination protester Renee Altakrity claims police mishandled her and son
Renee Altakrity has described the NSW Police response as ‘unlawful’ and ‘inhumane’ after she and her toddler son protested in Sydney.
A self-employed cosmetic nurse and prominent anti-vaxxer has described her treatment by NSW Police as “unlawful” and “inhumane” after she was arrested for allegedly taking part in an unauthorised protest against coronavirus restrictions in Sydney’s CBD.
Renee Altakrity, 36, was fined $1000 by NSW Police after she joined a group of about 40 people to protest the NSW government’s COVID-19 stay-at-home orders outside NSW Parliament on Macquarie Street at about 3.30pm on Saturday.
The mother-of-three on Sunday accused police of encroaching “on her rights” after she was “manhandled” into a police van and taken to Surry Hills Police Station for failing to comply with a direction relating to COVID-19 social distancing restrictions.
“Unlawful, inhumane — shame on you all,” she wrote on Facebook. “I held my integrity even when you ripped my son from my arms.”
The vision of the incident was captured by onlookers and uploaded to YouTube by the group Exercising My Rights, whose members claim the government has used “unreliable data” to strip people of “basic liberties” during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ms Altakrity, who was wearing a sign that read “If you don’t know rights, you don’t have any. Magna Carta”, refused multiple orders to move on by police and was issued an infringement notice on Saturday afternoon.
In the footage, Ms Altakrity refuses to give her name to a group of officers and attempts to walk away from police but is brought back and eventually loaded into a waiting police van while her four-year-old son can be heard screaming “leave mummy alone”.
“I don’t know how you guys are going home in honour tonight and trying to infringe me with a notice which I don’t consent to because we’re doing nothing wrong,” she told the officers in the video.
“You guys should be here holding the signs with us, defending us. I don’t consent to what you’re doing,” she says, as a female officer repeatedly asks for her name.
“We’re doing nothing wrong … We’re not acting in aggression … Am I under arrest?”
NSW Police said Ms Altakrity told officers she was “exercising” and continued to argue and resist police despite being told to move.
“Officers moved the group on after explaining they were not authorised to protest and were also not complying with social-distancing regulations,” a NSW Police spokeswoman said.
“Officers moved the group on after explaining they were not authorised to protest and were also not complying with social-distancing regulations.”
Ms Altakrity is a prolific sharer of conspiracy theories on Facebook and has garnered a following among like-minded people on social media who support her numerous posts seeking to link the COVID-19 pandemic to Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates and 5G technology.
A 34-year-old man was also arrested and taken to Surry Hills Police Station. He was charged with failing to comply with a direction made in relation to COVID-19.
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