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The most sinister aspect of the lockdown in Victoria and, to a lesser extent, elsewhere in Australia and overseas, is the corruption of the role of the police in civil society. Well before the pandemic, we had already seen the British police become somewhat akin to the Stasi. Seemingly unconcerned with catching the perpetrators of the sexual exploitation of young girls in Rotherham, to cite but one example, Britain’s police have been zealously trawling the internet to catch those expressing politically incorrect opinions, following up with intrusive visits and arrests. It seems astonishing that mainstream politicians, including conservatives, and an acquiescent media have scarcely deigned to notice the attack on the foundations of a free society.
With the role of the police already compromised, Boris Johnson’s purportedly conservative government was happy to unleash a police state on its hapless subjects. Truly, governments in Britain and here now see themselves as the masters, not the servants, of the people. The totalitarians of yesteryear would commend our notionally democratic governments for making progress in the right direction.
But didn’t we win the Cold War against the Soviet Empire, I hear you cry? I seem to hear a low chuckle from the totalitarian Left.
And so to Victoria to witness Premier Daniel Andrews, leader of his party’s social left faction and lord and master of his domain, happy to sign up to Belt & Road and a new world order, led by the paramount leader for life Xi Jinping. Imitation being the most sincere form of flattery, if Wuhan could be ruthlessly locked down by edict of the CCP, why not lock down the put-upon subjects of Melbourne? If Premier Andrews has not yet ordered that the doors of troublesome citizens be welded shut it is only because he has been too busy inflicting other manifestations of authoritarian asininity on his hapless subjects.
Victorian Police are now Daniel Andrews’ goons. The members of the force are no longer citizens in blue, pledged to protect fellow citizens from the bad guys. Instead, they enforce restrictions and a mindless curfew not mandated by any professional concern about health. We have seen the chief health officer, Dr Brett Sutton, deny that he recommended such a drastic assault on personal freedom. Premier Andrews has likewise denied being responsible for making it illegal to leave one’s home after 8pm. In Victoria, traditional freedoms are stripped on the orders of …. no one, apparently. One doesn’t need to be in the terminal stages of clinical paranoia to mull the unhappy explanation that the pandemic is providing cover for a far Left attack on our civil society.
We have witnessed the spectacle of a young and pregnant mother being handcuffed in her own home, another internet protester having his front door bashed in by heavily armed police, an elderly lady with her companion, sitting quietly on a park bench, being accosted by a police posse (one of whom snatches her companion’s phone), and the spectacle of a journalist from Rebel Media, (Good Heavens, what a dangerous individual!) being crash tackled by a gaggle of just-following-orders goons that brought to mind First Beast Napoleon setting the dogs on Animal Farm‘s dissenters. As in Orwell’s classic, blatant inconsistency must be ignored, as in the video below which contrasts Premier Andrews’ rationalisation for not proceeding against Black Lives Matters demonstrators with Deputy Commissioner Luke Cornelius vowing that anti-lockdown demonstrators will be given no quarter.
Can we not see the terrible danger to the future of our democracy? We need a strong police force, but that strength, that moral authority, can only be tapped by operating within the confines of a liberal democracy. The “defund the police” movement in the US, spurred on by the far Left fringe of the Democratic Party and led by Antifa and Black Lives Matter (BLM), threatens to plunge large parts of urban America into a murderous and anarchic abyss. Does any sane person want this?
Yet the terrible danger is that the police, especially in Victoria, will be delegitimised in the eyes of ordinarily law-abiding citizens. Below, another scene from the state where, 120 years ago, the very first Parliament was convened. Once again, the officer known derisively by rank-and-file cops as ‘Planet Cornelius’ provides a dictionary illustration of political policing.
Indeed, the police will become the enemy of the people the longer this lockdown continues. Being branded as ‘batshit crazy’ for expressing concern that a once great state is led by a liar and policed by brass-encrusted apparatchiks is hardly likely to restore confidence in a force that fell on its face after framing a cardinal and, as the Lawyer X Royal Commission has uncovered, debased the law by activating a lawyer against the best interests of her clients. (If there is reason to see any improvement in Victoria at the moment it is in Assistant Commissioner Cornelius’ memory and command of language, which has lifted markedly since his three turns earlier this year in the royal commission’s witness box, where ‘I don’t recall‘ was a much-heard response to questioning.)
Meanwhile, as Victoria accelerates down a Himalayan gradient to economic ruin, a man is arrested for being a guest on his neighbour’s front lawn.
In a Melbourne park on a sunny day, two elderly ladies are surrounded by police, one of whom sleazes about behind the duo to grab one of the seniors’ phones which is then examined, presumably for evidence of geriatric hooliganism.
In his home, an Andrews critic has his door stove in.
Civil disobedience and civil disorder could become the order of the day, with dire consequences. We don’t want this to happen, just as we don’t want to see another heavily pregnant women being harassed in a park for the ‘crime’ of sitting down to catch her breath.
This is the final opportunity for Daniel Andrews and his minions to change their ways. If common decency is beyond them, perhaps mere common sense will be enough.
There are many things that a half-decent Liberal Opposition should commit itself to. Not least is the restoration of civil society and the bedrock principle that government is the servant of the people, not their master.
An essential element in any roadmap — a popular word these days — charting the return to decency must be a purge and cleansing of Victoria Police.
Christopher Carr is not a resident of Victoria. VicPol will need to kick in someone else’s door.
It is depressing when you are forced to confront the reality that your own priorities, beliefs, and values are not shared by your countrymen. I realise this article was about the use to which the Victorian government has put its police force, but the truth is Dan Andrews is a politician and he knows that this, is what the majority of the electorate want. In the end what we are seeing is what happens when you have an unthinking populace, combined with an authoritarian government. I am not convinced that the problem is merely the government, in a democracy the public have to wear the blame. I have come to understand that middle Australia long ceased being religious, or was ever cerebral. The majority love authority, the more the better, as long as it’s not their march being banned, or their door being bashed in.
The last film I watched in the cinema back in March was Mr Jones, lockdowns started the following day. The atrocities of the Ukraine Terror-Famine-Genocide and the role the media of the day played in its unfolding made me uncomfortable.
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However, in my circle no one else seemed to care – unable to link the overreach of the government and it’s standing army against the citizens with the inevitable consequences. Not only unable, but sadly unwilling to countenance the possibility that a dictatorial police state is looming around the corner.
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Six months later, that film about the Holodomor should be a screaming warning against what’s happing in Victoria. It’s going to take real leadership to get us out of this mess.
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Review of Mr Jones https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/mr-jones-movie-review-2020
They voted for Dopey Dan so they only have themselves to blame. Oh, the cry will go up “Not all of us voted for him”. Sure enough, but enough did and those who didn’t, did not do enough to stop his election. Were they all out handing out leaflets; did they contribute to other political parties’ advertising; were they at polling booths on election day? Did they hold meetings to teach others how bad Dopey would be? Yeah right. And for all those who say it’s the death of democracy as he has suspended parliament etc etc.. I ask when did a sitting parliament ever have any real democratic meaning when a political party has the majority? Have you read the Constitution of the State of Victoria and seen when parliament has to sit? And finally for “parliament to be suspended” Dopey Dan has not prorogued it, but has simply changed the sitting dates, which Scotty Moronison did back in June too. Changing sitting date is the prerogative of the government. Meanwhile in busy we don’t wear face nappies Sydney….
“A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.” Ed Murrow.
Wholeheartedly agree with NFC’s comment above. Apparently it’s called democracy – you end up with the government you deserve, although whatever they call themselves these days they are all just different shades of socialist. It will be very interesting to see how people in Victoria vote in the next state election. I reckon Chairman Dan will get another go at the top job in the absence of any credible alternative.
“This is the final opportunity for Daniel Andrews and his minions to change their ways.” Won’t happen. Why would it when Melbourne today is the inevitable outcome of Dan’s Woke agenda? Appointing judges who ignore the principle of “innocent until proven guilty”, police who ignore the consequences of perverting the course of justice, teachers who ignore biology, civil servants who value diversity over competence. The list goes on and on, none of it accidental. How can anyone change their ways, when their ways reflect the essence of their philosophy?
Dan’s march through the institutions has reached its apotheosis. From second most liveable city in the world in 2019 to lockdown police state central in 2020. No one can say Dan can’t achieve amazing outcomes.
Lucky these keystone cops are required to wear masks, otherwise the whole world would know who they are as well as what they are. They should change the color of their uniforms to brown.
Do they come any more hypocritical and Orwellian than this Cornelius character? And do they come anymore bovine than the people of Melbourne, who not only tolerate these indignities but appear to actually think they are warranted.
Poor Victoria. Poor Australia.
I still do not understand why firearms should be part of the standard uniform of Victoria Police aka ‘VicPol’. They even ‘wear’ firearms when going to spend a pleasant afternoon bullying innocent citizens by the lake, harassing old ladies in the park and snatching their phones, or intimidating pregnant women at home in pyjamas.
Victorians voted for Dan Andrews so they have themselves to blame. How easy it is to paint all in this state with the same brush, applying universal disdain, and a sniffy judgement of blame all round. One can be both damning end exculpatory at the same time. This sort of facile, muddy thinking is not useful; it also reduces people to a thing to be blamed. People are not masses, to use a favourite construct of the left.
Yes there are, I’m sure, many who use their vote without thinking too much; there are those who are comforted by authority; as long as it doesn’t hurt their interests, there are those delivering the voting blocs which influence the way politicians campaign and governments govern, and there are powerful sectors like the media with an established and lucrative rapport to protect. There are, also individuals who can see Dan Andrews for what he is and abhor his aims and method but cannot recall him or overturn his election. There are many who don’t deserve this government, being oppressed by it, and some that arguably do, as when, in uniform or in suit and tie, they execute it’s prescriptions.
Do people get the government they deserve? When I, like others, cast my vote I’m answerable for that vote only, but it doesn’t mean I’m answerable for the outcome, when I’m one among millions.
There was a separate issue raised by IM’s post, the severity of the Wuflu. As I previously indicated I live in Manila, and recently I had a head cold, but with a persistent dry cough. I thought for the benefit of the family I should get a test. Sure enough I had contracted the dreaded WuFlu. That was a fortnight ago, other than the cough which has almost gone, it was more benign than most head colds, and nothing like influenza. I am 55 but otherwise in good health, never smoked and drink alcohol sparingly, never had the influenza vaccine, if that’s relevant. Of more interest yesterday on The Australian website I attempted not once but twice to post this information but neither got past the censor, draw your own conclusions from that.
There are many current disturbing reports of fires in Western USA being lit by arsonjists and some claims that Antifa is organising this arson.
I do not doubt that this arson is bad and that police are the appropriate people to combat it.
There are many current disturbing reports that some people in Victoria are attempting to spread the Covid-19 virus by illegal congregations. There are some reports that Antifa type bodies are organsng these illegal events. I have no doubt that police are the appropriate people to combat it.
People have different concerns about threats to their mental, physical and financial comfort. Such diversity is healthy. Can I suggest that your strongest concerns should be those that are demonstrated more than hypothetical? If nothing else, the climate change bogey man has shown how gullible people are to hobgoblins. I treat those who demand action on illusory climate change with the same pity that I have for those who far an illusory Pot Pol type future for Vctoria.
Leave the police alone. Their jobs are hard enough and as with people in general, they do better in a climate of appreciation. Sure, there has been some over the top conduct but you cannot argue that it is a prelude to WWIII.
Please save your words that seek a better future for the insidious losses of real freedoms that are around us, like some of the consequences of flmate change politics that have already deprived Australia of some good aspects of standard of living, like industries and jobs. Geoff S
The trollster, as usual, is not nearly as smart as he thinks he is. Amongst the verbiage, two assertions stand out: 1) C-19 damages internal organs as a scare aspect (the incidence of this is not elucidated so we must remain duly fearful); 2) suppression of normal life, including economic activity, while sad is consequently necessary.
In short, the trollster wants the populace to remain scared and shut down so deindustrialisation can proceed with less impedance. The left thinks this agenda is hidden from us.
As an aside, the actions of VicPol against normal people are becoming more aggressive, especially the sudden and illegal snatching of phones. I suggest this is because these enforcers are becoming really irritated by the videos of their actions turning up on the internet all the time. So, I hope this exposure just grows and grows.
Readers will be delighted to learn that Victoria’s Chief Medical officer also doubles as a medical ‘expert’ on something he calls the ‘climate crisis’. There is an interesting totalitarian mindset that sees laws and the police as the solution to every problem – in the case of Brett Sutton, they are the solution to weather that does not suit him, and to the global virus population. Fantasyland is here to stay, but sadly it results in vast adverse impacts on the poor persecuted population currently afflicted by the ludicrous dreaming of Dr. Sutton and the disturbingly strange Daniel Andrews.
Virus epidemics are controlled by the iron law of herd immunity. Herd immunity to SARSCoV-2 is reached in most populations when up to 20% of people have been infected. The graph of the concurrent epidemics in different geographical regions show the infection following the same curve to herd immunity in every case (a Gompertz function).
If you extract the aged care deaths from any population, since they need to be managed separately, you discover that COVID-19 has a low IFR and causes very little morbidity. It is (as Johan Giesecke says) a mild disease. In a population it is nothing like a bushfire. Rather it flares up quickly and then dies down, more like a firecracker.
The best way to deal with it is the Swedish way, which is based on rock-solid longstanding epidemiological principles. The totally wrong way to deal with it is the way being pursued by the GP cum climatologist Brett Sutton. To quote John Ioannidis of Stanford, one of the most-cited scientists in history: “Lockdown destroys everything”. Who then are the real vandals?
Ian MacD. I don’t think anyone is saying this is not a serious disease. However I do think there is a lot of unjustified fear in the general population. For people under 65 the risk of serious illness is very low. Experienced epidemiologists have been describing this as an influenza-like illness from the beginning. Some unfortunate circumstances have amplified the mortality, the most obvious being a failure or an inability in many places to quarantine the sick and to adequately protect the elderly. On the other hand, treatments for patients with COVID-19 have been steadily improving, and the situation is looking brighter.
Public health responses to pandemics have always in the past been designed to be proportionate to the risks and to minimise the harms caused by government interventions. It has never been considered good public health policy to impose lock-downs for more than a few weeks (a) because they have severe adverse effects on the economy, business, employment, and health and (b) because they are intolerable in free societies.
This last point is important. Daniel Andrews recently said that the Victorian lockdown is “not about human rights”. This is simply incorrect. It is about human rights, and every responsible person in Australia should know that democratic liberties are not just an abstract idea. Rather they are intimately tied to the well-being of society and particularly to what we regard as an effective participatory decision-making process. Shutting down parliaments, and crippling debate by instilling fear of persecution in your opponents, has the result that we have seen in Victoria – insecure decision-making that does not inspire confidence.
In my longer post above I referred to the opinions of specific scientists whom I named. Anyone reading my comment could search for their work, which appears in scientific papers listed on the pre-print server MedRxiv and on Pubmed, as well as in videos of their interviews and talks on YouTube. I could name many more.
There is no question, on the basis of the best current scientific evidence, that the Victorian government has acted wrongly by deliberately and systematically instilling fear in the population and locking six million people in their homes for months. Aside from the unnecessary harms caused by this policy, which are very extensive, it is also a public health cul-de-sac. Regarding this the distinguished Swedish epidemiologist Johan Giesecke recently said of the situation in Victoria “I don’t know how you will get out of it”. That truth is beginning to dawn on Victorians, and no doubt on the Premier and the CHO in particular.
Ian MacD. Even if there is an argument of sorts that vaccination is the only solution, Sweden is refuting it. An argument is one thing, but Sweden is a fact. But not only Sweden. Proven pre-existing immunity – making herd immunity against SARSCov2 is possible without significant mortality – is a fact.
Nobody is suggesting that people in aged care homes should not be protected. The reverse is true. Everyone who advocates liberty for the vast majority who are not at serious risk from this disease, also advocates protecting the elderly. It can be done. Nobody is devaluing those lives. But the fact remains that this disease can be managed without lock-downs and managed even if there never is a vaccine.
Have a look this video. This is one expert among many who say the same thing, but he presents a clear argument in layman’s terms. People should have confidence in the science. But the government must tell the people the facts and set the people free. The government must inform the people and hand them back responsibility for their own lives and their own health. We cannot go on as we are in Victoria.
Look at the graphs in the video, listen to the commentary! The lock-down in Victoria is unjustified in fact, unnecessary in practice and unjust in ethics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UvFhIFzaac
Stephen, I heartily agree with you about the science, having watched the video a few days ago (via Catallaxy).
I also agree that “We cannot go on as we are in Victoria.” but sadly I think you retain a naive view of the Premier and the government as working for the benefit of the people of Victoria. I can’t share that naivete.
I have come to the conclusion that the Premier and his State Cabinet colleagues (the so-called ‘gang of eight’ especially) are no longer (if ever) serving the people but serving themselves and exercising dominance over all Victorians. I infer from the Premier’s background, actions and attitudes that this is a planned strategy to impose his socialist view of life upon the whole of the State.
Since the Premier has done nothing to make cheap treatments available (HCQ, Ivermectin et al) I cannot agree with the often-expressed sentiment that “he is working hard and doing ALL he can to save Victorian lives.” The only Parliamentarian who I know has spoken about these treatments is Craig Kelly (for which see here: https://www.bitchute.com/video/qpIkGykVrY3T/ approx 10mins).
And I certainly do not believe that he is a saviour of anybody.
It’s very simple – the ALP and the mad left cannot be trusted. We’re seeing this reality played out not just in Victoria but by the Dems and their fawning acolytes in the US (viz. BLM/Antifa/Deep State) all seemingly following the CCP’s appalling example. It has always been vaguely amusing the degree to which people will stoop to fulfil a stereotype, but the left in Australia & elsewhere have taken it to a whole new level. What is perhaps more amusing is that left wing governments and movements, who all embrace postmodernism and its healthy disregard for objective truth, are all being exposed for precisely what happens when you ignore reality; the CCP has no street cred after its heavy handed thuggery in Hong Kong, Andrews is a joke in Victoria & throughout Australia, and Biden & Harris in the US, both pulling their forelocks at the left wing loonie fringe that is Black Lives Matter, are no longer a valid alternative to Trump as they have fomented & condoned violence by their BLM mobs as if unjust violence they all allegedly detest justifies further unjust violence. Thank God for the silent majority in the West, who, amid all the background noise of postmodernity, invariably end up voting in the only rational response to this madness. The left, far from threatening to stage a comeback, has only succeeded in reminding us all that their ideas & the governments they spawned constitute history’s greatest failed experiment.
The term cognitive dissonance comes to mind whenever I heard Dan Andrews spruike his mantra, which is control and more from the centre, irrespective that the process is not well thought through. Mouse droppings policies such as preventing people sitting in a park while at the same time having no strict enforcement of matters that really count, like isolating and monitoring the infected is typical of his knee jerk style. After all, you can’t offend those that keep you in power. He just can’t say ‘I’ve made a monumental mistake and I’m not fit to lead’. But why should he when the Cult of Dan still worship at his altar. Does Victoria deserve what it gets? Who knows, but the rest of the country certainly does not deserve Dan Andrews.
By some unfortunate accident or oversight, the QO office has deleted my contribution to this thread, leaving regulars such as ianl (whatever his real name is), Stephen Due and others and apparently conversing with a phantom and on the face of it, in need of psychiatric help.
Fortunately, I kept a copy of my original post, and include it here, along with a fragment of its neighboring post, so that readers can locate it in the general scheme of things. I am most concerned, lest a wider impression be conveyed that a clumsy editorial Stalinism prevails here at Quadrant Online.
The above text too, I am copying and filing lest it by the same clear accident or oversight it happens again. After all, I have paid $59.00 for commenting rights here, with my first renewal due 14th September 2021, and I would hate for the impression to be drawn that QO is guilty (by negligence or oversight of course) of some kind of fraud.
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“…Covid-19 is not a disease to be lightly dismissed. It apparently does serious damage to internal organs in a large enough number of cases to cause concern. In the absence of a vaccine, mass-prevention appears to be the safest way to go; which means such legal measures as are necessary to reduce and isolate it. (See link below.)
“Daniel Andrews does not appear to have much of a parliamentary opposition to contend with, and has played a game marred by unforced errors. But he has followed scientific advice, and has ignored the ostrich chorus of the myopic Murdoch media. That has to be a point in his favour.
“The human population of our increasingly crowded planet can for these purposes be likened to the rabbit population of Australia before the introduction of myxomatosis in 1950. ‘Myxo’ put a severe dent in their numbers. We humans have been a sitting duck waiting for something like this Covid stalker to come along, and though a vaccine is yet to arrive, we have epidemiology based on historic experience to help deal with it.
“It is an economically disruptive disease, as the stats bear out. But it is like other species and organisms which operate in ever-changing environments. It will probably kill a lot of more susceptible people than it has to date, shorten the lives of a helluva lot more, but gradually change as more virulent strains are selected out and the less virulent selected in: as has been the case with myxomatosis in rabbits.
“Meanwhile, people are generally sensible, protecting others by protecting themselves. The old-fashioned crowded market place is giving way to online commerce, further reducing the rate of spread by close contact.
“New ways of carrying out normal human production, distribution and exchange are emerging. Guaranteed minimum income, vital for small business, has been floated, and in my opinion should be introduced.
“Like rising atmospheric CO2 concentration, in more ways than one Covid-19 is a threat to business-as-usual, and comparisons with the Great Depression of the 20th C abound. Reflexive denialism is understandable in both cases, but is unlikely to achieve much.
“But what is being learned through this one will be invaluable when The Really Big One arrives, as it surely will.
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“https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-53856609
” Occidental – 13th September 2020
Ian Macdougall, I sincerely hope you are a teenager, in which case the naïveté displayed in your post can be quickly forgiven. …”
Thanks Ian! I too was wondering what was happening.
There’s an impressive recent article by Anthony Fauci that chimes in with your thoughts on the ‘increasingly crowded planet’. He notes there are “many examples where disease emergences (sic) reflect our increasing inability to live in harmony with nature” and mentions some related to overcrowding.
See: Morens DM; Fauci AS. Emerging pandemic diseases. Cell 2020 Sep 3; 182(5): 1077–1092
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7428724/