(Staff article from the GUARDIAN UK on July 24, 2021.)
Thousands of angry, unmasked people marched through
the Sydney central business district on Saturday afternoon demanding an end to
the city’s lockdown, which is entering its fifth week. After protesters were
dispersed, the New South Wales police minister, David Elliott, announced the
formation of a strike force to identify each of the 3,500 protesters at the
“super spreader” event.
Elliott said 57 people were arrested and several police officers had been assaulted. “If we don’t see a [Covid] spike in the areas these protesters came from in the next week I’ll be very, very surprised,” Elliott said. “It was just a whole lot of halfwits.”
Demonstrators
broke through barriers in the Sydney CBD and threw plastic bottles at police. Similar
scenes unfolded in Melbourne and Adelaide, which are both in lockdown, and
Brisbane, which is not.
As demonstrators
were gathering in Sydney, the New South Wales health minister, Brad Hazzard,
revealed a record number of new coronavirus cases had been detected – 163 in
the previous 24 hours – and pleaded with people to stay at home. “We really
need our community, particularly in south-western and western Sydney, to stay
at home, to hear the message and stay at home,” Hazzard said.
The NSW police
said officers from across central metropolitan region, assisted by specialist
resources, were deployed in response to the unauthorised Sydney protest. “The
NSW police force recognises and supports the rights of individuals and groups
to exercise their rights of free speech and peaceful assembly, however, today’s
protest is in breach of the current Covid-19 public health orders,” it said. “The
priority for NSW police is always the safety of the wider community.”
Hazzard
condemned the planned protests as “really silly” on Saturday morning. “We live
in a democracy and normally I am certainly one who supports people’s rights to
protest ... but at the present time we’ve got cases going through the roof and
we have people thinking that’s OK to get out there and possibly be close to
each other at a demonstration.”
NSW police
deputy commissioner Gary Worboys said police wanted to work with the organisers
to make sure people were complying with public health orders and that it did
not turn into a “disastrous” mass spreading event.
‘Very selfish Boofheads’: Police Minister
 |
| Boofhead: Bloody Old Fart? |
What we saw
today was 3,500 very selfish boofheads,” Police Minister David Elliott said. Protesters
shouting “freedom” marched in their thousands to stage an unauthorised
anti-lockdown protest in Sydney causing chaos in the CBD and leading to violent
protests with police.
The
demonstration started at Victoria Park in Camperdown and moved down city
streets bringing traffic to a standstill as protesters walked down Broadway
shouting: “freedom”. Near Town Hall protesters threw items at mounted police
and a violent clash occurred on George street where officers formed a
barricade.
Speaking at a press conference on Saturday afternoon
Police Minister David Elliot said nearly 400 police officers had worked under
“very difficult” circumstances with many coming back injured. He revealed 90
infringement notices had been issued and 57 people charged with multiple
offences throughout the day.
“There is no
doubt in my mind that at least one individual there had COVID. It is
statistically impossible for us not to consider that,” he said. Mr Elliot has
asked all people involved in the protest to go for a COVID-19 test tomorrow in
a bid to reduce the risk of a major outbreak. “This selfish, inappropriate
behaviour is what is going to continue this city in lockdown. It cannot go on.”
“For those who
are calling for it to occur again next week look out because these 400 officers
will turn into 4,000 if needs be,” he warned. “The appeal is simple. If you
don’t want to be in lockdown obey the rules. This is not a time for us to push
the envelope, not a time for us to game the system. This is a time for us to be
at home, get tested, get our jab and then get on with life.”
Under current
health orders people from different households are only allowed to gather in
groups of two for exercise. Similar demonstrations have taken place today in
Brisbane and Melbourne which is in the middle of its fifth lockdown. It comes
as 163 cases were reported in Greater Sydney on Saturday breaking the daily
case count for a fourth consecutive day.
(Blogger's notes: Australia seems like being run by bloody Socialists for all the state governments have been shutting down the whole country willy-nilly just because of few little COVID deaths! Like what Chinese Communists did in Wuhan. Frightened people of Wuhan under the commie guns had to take it but freedom-loving proud Australians should not take that shit at all.)
l 
