Australia: Police Drag Journalist to the Ground and Arrest Him for Reporting Anti-Lockdown Protest

Yet another shocking example of draconian enforcement of coronavirus rules.

Video footage from Australia shows a journalist being dragged to the ground and arrested by riot police for the ‘crime’ of reporting on an anti-lockdown protest.

Rebel Media’s Avi Yemeni was actually doing a piece to camera at an anti-lockdown 'Freedom March' in Melbourne on Saturday when he was suddenly approached by a police commander who is heard saying: “This bloke here is not here for any purposeful reason, I want him under arrest,” other police officers, some of whom are dressed in riot gear, violently drag him to the ground before arresting him.

His protestations that he is media and that he has a press permit in his pocket fall on deaf ears as the police continue to manhandle him, before placing him in handcuffs and marching him off.

After possibly realising the embarrassment and criticism they faced for arresting a journalist, police later claimed that Yemeni had been “hindering” by getting between police lines after being asked to move and was given a caution. The video footage does not show any police officer asking Yemeni to move, and the police, rather than being in any type of formation can clearly be seen milling around.

Australia has proven itself to be the most dictatorial developed country in the world when it comes to the draconian enforcement of coronavirus rules. As we highlighted last week, a pregnant woman was arrested in her own home, in front of her children, for the crime of posting about the protest on Facebook.

Authorities have also given themselves the power to have police remove children from the custody of their parents in order to ensure compliance with coronavirus rules. Police in Melbourne also announced that they would be using surveillance drones to catch people who don’t wear masks and to keep track of cars that travel further than 5km from home. Authorities have also been given the power to enter people’s homes without a warrant and perform quarantine spot checks.

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