(Fergus Hunter’s article from the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD on July 25, 2021.)
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| Joel Jammal |
The widely-condemned protest was linked to a
“worldwide rally for freedom” and NSW Police said they were not taken by
surprise by the event, having monitored plans as they developed in groups on
encrypted platform Telegram and spread further on Facebook and Instagram.
Police on Sunday said they had received more than 5500 tip-offs about attendees and identified more than 200 people involved. More than 350 officers policed the event and a dedicated strike force of 22 officers has since been launched to investigate public health order breaches and any other offences.
“What took us by
surprise and what disappoints me so greatly is the level of violence that
people were prepared to use. That was unprecedented. That’s not Sydney,” NSW
Police Deputy Commissioner Mal Lanyon said on Sunday.
Police arrested
63 people during the protest and 35 have been charged with various offences,
including assault of a police officer. At least 90 fines were issued for
breaches of the public health orders and two men, aged 33 and 36, were arrested
and charged overnight for striking a police horse.
Online activists
were promoting protests in Sydney, Melbourne and other Australian locations in
the weeks before the July 24 events. Popular anti-vaxxer organisations and
figures were among the pages then spreading the message to a larger audience.
Joel Jammal, a Sydney activist who promoted the
event on Facebook, spoke on the steps of Town Hall on Saturday, rejecting
vaccines and lockdowns. “The organisers said this must be a peaceful protest,”
he told the crowd. “This is not a violent revolution.” (He gave a rousing speech on Sydney Townhall Steps, surrounded by cops, during the July-24 anti-lockdown protest.)
Various national
and city-based channels on Telegram, where the plans for the rallies gained
momentum, appear to share some of the same organisers. Administrators of the
channels have also promoted far-right groups and figures such as the Proud Boys
and Avi Yemini.
One of the key
organisers in the channels appears to be 24-year-old programmer Harrison
Mclean, linked to previous protests in Melbourne. Mr Mclean did not respond to
a request for a comment. In a video posted on his Telegram channel on July 18,
Mr Mclean said the protests were about resisting “authoritarian restrictions”
and declaring that “we will not comply”.
“This Saturday,
the 24th of July, in over 100 cities around the world, we’ll be taking a stand
for five important freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of movement, freedom of
assembly, freedom of choice and freedom of health,” he said. Inside the groups,
users have shared a vast amount of conspiracy theories about global warming,
the mainstream media, vaccines, QAnon, Freemasons as well as anti-Semitic
material.
The gathering in
Sydney attracted a diverse crowd numbered in the thousands. It included
anti-vaxxers, political activists and people angry at the strict public health
orders put in place in response to the outbreak of the highly contagious Delta
variant of COVID-19.
Jon-Bernard Kairouz, a 24-year-old TikTok
personality who recently attracted attention for revealing NSW COVID-19 case
numbers before official announcements, attended the rally and was issued with a
fine on Sunday. Speaking at the event, Mr Kairouz told the crowd: “For everyone
that’s here – small businesses, people that are doing it tough – all we want is
freedom.”
A man standing next to him as he spoke wore a vest promoting notorious English conspiracy theorist David Icke – who believes an ancient race of reptilian beings secretly rules the world – and the next speaker said COVID-19 did not exist.
Former Liberal
Party figure John Ruddick, now running as the Liberal Democrats candidate in
the federal Sydney seat of Warringah, posted on Twitter about his attendance at
the rally and said he was among those to be fined.
“Just had two
courteous police officers at my door to advise I will be getting a $1000 fine
for attending the Sydney Freedom Rally,” he said on Sunday. “No problem – I’ll
frame it and put it on the wall.”
NSW Police
Minister David Elliott said there were a number of “political wannabes” trying
to use the protest to make a name for themselves. “That’s very disappointing. I
think those individuals need to reflect if they are suitable for public
office,” he said.
NSW Premier
Gladys Berejiklian said she was “absolutely disgusted” by the protest and
warned that participants were endangering those closest to them by attending
the illegal gathering. “Can I say how absolutely disgusted I was. It broke my
heart,” she said. “Millions and millions of people across our state are doing
the right thing and it just broke my heart that people had such a disregard for
their fellow citizens.”
A number of
proposed dates for protests in the coming weeks and months are already
circulating among activists on Telegram. “September too far away,” said one
user on Sunday. “This needs to happen sooner whilst we have traction, otherwise
the evil side will continue to accelerate.” Another said, “So whenever the next
one happens, we need to agree on it and then hype it up.”
Alan ones's "End The Lockdown" from SKY NEWS.