Flashback: authoritarianism in Australia
Shocking testimony re the land of the "fair go" in 2021
Dear Church Leaders (and everyone else)
I don’t often post articles on Sundays, but it seemed somehow fitting to put this one out on Remembrance Day.
For those largely unaware of what was happening in the land of the “fair go” during the covid era, consider what the Aussie playwright Michael Griffith has to say here…
…and particularly from 5:43 in this segment (transcript below):
I went down to my first [covid protest] rally… I was going through the city [of Melbourne]. And I was very nervous because I was thinking, “Am I the only one here? Am I just going to find a little handful of people?” There were cops everywhere, and we were told that it was illegal to be in the city. But I felt determined to be a part of this march. I kept going… I felt like a Jew hiding from Nazis.
And then suddenly I spied this river of people… no masks. And I just entered this throng of people, a river… like a river of refugees escaping tyranny. And these people just touched me and shook my hand and patted me on the shoulder and said, “Welcome, brother.” And I wept. Because you suddenly realised you weren’t insane. There [were] lots of people who thought like you…
For context, see e.g. the video here:
And for a moment, we had this moment of feeling “Thank God.” And then we came round the corner, and that’s when the police pepper-sprayed that 11-year-old kid who held up a sign that said [“Let me play”]. He’d gone up to the line of police and they had pepper-sprayed him.
Footage from shortly after the incident can be seen here:
And then when we came round the corner, in front of Parliament House, all hell broke loose. The police were just insane. The crowd was very peaceful, and these police just wanted to fight. It was very clear that it was a clash of ideologies — I know it now, looking back. The police were the guardians of the new Australians who just wanted to comply. They just had to follow the rules. Fear was out to get them all. And the only way to stay safe was to do exactly what the government told you. And anybody who wasn’t obedient to what the government was saying was an enemy. And that’s how the police treated us…
I saw brutality there. I couldn’t believe it. The pepper-spraying… they didn’t shoot bullets then. They were shooting… gas things at us… We walked right round the city… That’s when they had… policemen all dressed up in armour. And I had a sign that… I didn’t want to give up, but I was terrified I was going to get caught with it. And it said: “Australia, land of the free, as long as you do what you’re told”.
And so I was there right at the moment that Matt Lawson got shot in the belly at point-blank range… They pepper-sprayed all of us. And the men were angry because that was the first time that they brought out these gel guns. And these gel guns just look like rifles. And we thought that they were actually going to shoot us with real rifles — that’s what they look like. And instead of backing off, the men were infuriated… the protesters… “We’re your brothers! Are you going to shoot us? We’re your brothers.”
Re Matt Lawson, here are two posts from Queensland Senator Malcolm Roberts:
And then they did. They shot Matt Lawson. They pepper-sprayed us. And I was walking down the street getting progressively blind… pouring water in my eyes… The last images I had seen was the police heading my way… and I was completely blind. And I started laughing at the absurdity of it, that I was in my 50s, I’d come here just to peacefully protest, and now I was blind walking down Elizabeth Street. I didn’t know how I was going to get home. I didn’t know where I was going.
And then a woman pulled me aside and said, “Are you okay, old-timer?” I said, “I’m blind, I can’t see.” And then she took me aside, sat me down. And then a group of young people started pouring milk on my face. One gave me their T-shirt. And that restored my faith in humanity. They were the Australian spirit under duress. And I walked… to where… my car was parked… miles away... I walked there and then I went home…
And when I went home I told my partner my life was now the Freedom Movement. There was something happening here. And I couldn’t let this happen. And so I started going to the protests again. And eventually, on the day of the Shrine [protest]1 we went up on the West Gate Bridge… I was… in the city streets in the morning and I was terrified because… there were so many cops, and they were being so brutal.
Here is a photo of the Shrine protest:
And here is video footage of the police firing at protesters:
More information can be found here, including a video of police apparently chasing an unarmed group and firing on them from behind (just over halfway down the page):
I actually prayed then, for the first time in my life. And I prayed to have my fear taken away because I couldn’t leave what was coming to my children without fighting. But I was too scared to stay, because they were being so brutal. And so the coward in me and the warrior in me had a real clash. And so I appealed to God… that I didn’t owe him anything because I had spent most of my life trying to be an atheist and then I couldn’t get there, so I was agnostic, and I never asked him for anything much really. And now I said, “If you take my fear away, I’ll fight for you.” And my fear left.
About an hour later I was shot by a rubber bullet. That’s where I took the photo of the armoured car. And then following that I had a hand broken and then following that I was at the Shrine. And I did a speech at the Shrine on the steps which ended up on American TV. But I think that’s why the cops thought I was the leader briefly. Because I had undercover detectives sitting next to me trying to negotiate terms. I’m like, “I’m not the leader, mate. I’m just here. Someone just gave me a megaphone.”
Here are some photos of people wounded by rubber bullets:
Anyway, when they came to arrest us… there were a group of 50-year-olds sitting together, and I thought they would just tap us on the shoulder and say, “Come on, old-timers.” But instead they beat the living sh*t out of us. The guy had a shield and he was bashing my head into the ground. Three times he did, and he kept saying, “Stop making me do this. Stop making me do this.” And I didn’t know what he was talking about because I had four or five cops on me, and there was nothing I could do.
And then I was thrown through the air — literally thrown, I mean just like a bag of potatoes — and then two other coppers got on my back. And for about 10… 20 seconds — probably less, but it felt like a long time — I could not breathe because of the coppers on my back. And I thought, “Wow… George [Floyd]… being killed this way… suddenly, was I going to be next?”
But then they pulled me up again, handed me to another copper... And he led me away, and as he was leading away, he whispered, “This is not personal mate, it’s not personal.” And I said, “Well it feels f*cking personal.”
And that was it really. I went home. But when I went home I knew… without doubt that this was a war. And that they had revealed themselves. They were Victorians.2 I don’t believe they were United Nations… I was listening to the coppers talk. These were Victorian police who were told to fire upon their own citizens, probably by their Premier — that’s the rumour… I don’t know who gave the word.
But they had been telling us all day they were going to fire upon us. And we didn’t believe them. And then they did. I was being arrested when they were firing upon people. And so that made me realise that history was here. And I chose a side. And I decided to fight.
A contender for the most striking image of the covid era in Australia is this one, described by Griffith below:
Her name is Mary.
72 years old, she was born in a communist country and came to protest to see what was happening. She wore the Australian flag like it was a superhero cape. As the police came toward her, she didn’t run away, for she knew Australian police officers wouldn’t hurt an old lady.
She was wrong. First, they pushed her over. Then, these two pepper-sprayed her and left her like that. Six more officers walked past her as she suffered, until the seventh cop tended to her.
There followed a media silence. Was she alive or dead? We all thought this image would be the line in the sand, the point at which Victorians would say, “Enough.” It wasn’t.
The police and the mainstream media then lied, claiming it was a man dressed up (so the cops were brutalizing a trans person?). And the public not only bought this lie, but propagated it.
Why?
Because fear had corrupted them to such a degree that they needed to believe the police were heroes. But how to reconcile this image with that need? Simple — lie.
And then, to defend that lie, attack those who stubbornly continued to point out the truth. And the price for lies?
The loss of their city’s identity.
For they all knew that in the Melbourne they loved, this incident wasn’t possible. But here it is. The police officers were just the front-line weapon of tyranny. The ones wielding these weapons were the public, who, in silence, condoned everything.
They still do.
That’s why the mainstream media won’t publish this historic image — because what this image really is, is a mirror. And the reflection is still too unfathomable to look at.
I have spoken to her since, and she won’t do an interview because she is scared of you.
Well done Melbourne.
Michael Gray Griffith
Griffith has a positive and constructive approach to fighting back against the tyranny, as exemplified by the approach of Cafe Locked Out:
Related (and particularly this section):
And also:
For the record, I recently sent a link to the latter of those two articles to the senior staff and wardens at the church of which I have been a member for many years. The wardens wrote back shortly afterwards to request that I stop sending messages to the staff and wardens about covid and other related matters — which I presume would include the content of this post (which I will not be sending to them).
I have had no response from any of the staff.
Somewhat ironically, one of the wardens is from the land of the “fair go”.
Dear Church Leaders most-read articles
Some posts, including a version of this one, can also be found on Unexpected Turns
The Big Reveal: Christianity carefully considered
The Shrine of Remembrance was built in 1934 to commemorate those who have served and died in Australia’s wars
Melbourne is the capital of the state of Victoria