Sicktoria Police

Apart from the fun of a presidential election, a prime reason to spend a year in the US was that it isn’t Melbourne. That’s a painful admission for a sixth-generaton son of John Batman’s nice spot for a village, for the place once had its own quaint and self-absorbed charm, only some of which yet lingers. An overgrown country town, its passions have always been parish-pumped — a homegrown football code mystifies all but those raised here … hook turns … roundabouts erupting at every intersection … the weather of course.

But then, over recent years you couldn’t help but notice things were no longer as they should be, especially with law and order. Push-in robberies every night, teen gangs — they were the symptoms. The disease was a police force that has been rotting from the top since the days of Commissioner Christine Nixon and the palace intrigues that marked her tenure. Since then, the Lawyer X outrage has come to light, the failure to pursue Labor’s red-shirt rorters and the stitching-up of George Pell, that outrageous conviction and resulting appeal also highlighting the feeble trust that can now be placed in the state’s top courts and Labor-appointed jurists.

There is, though, still some good in Melbourne, and independent video journalist  Rukshan Fernando makes the case. When the Covid hysteria was at its height, he was one of the few to document it on the ground, live-streaming footage of protests as police pepper-gassed their fellow citizens and pelted them with rubber bullets. Well, some fellow citizens — if you were violating Covid rules on behalf of Black Lives Matter, no problem, comrades. You’re in Labor’s good books, so no truncheon treatment for you.

Below, Rukshan details a further symptom of Victorian’s malaise. In today’s Trashcanistan on the Yarra policing makes no pretense to be other than political – roger franklin

I was assaulted while working on my daily news vlog in front of the Melbourne City Council, with multiple members of the Victoria Police force present. I had attended the public area in front of the council building as the MCC was debating a motion on a ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza conflict, aiming to cover a local news story as an independent journalist and a resident of the city of Melbourne. While working, a group of pro-Palestinian individuals openly harassed and intimidated me, as they did not approve of someone I know in the Victorian Jewish community.

Victoria Police told me to move to another side of the road, as the Pro Palestine group did not approve of my relationship with this Jewish individual. At that point, I contested the ridiculous move-on order for a journalist in Australia; however, I did move across to the other side of the road as it became apparent that the police were more comfortable blaming me than controlling the unruly mob. As I crossed over to the side of the road the police directed me to, I was followed by a group of Pro Palestinian protesters, after which one of them openly assaulted me in front of the police.

I have attempted multiple times throughout today to provide a statement to the
@VictoriaPolice; however, I have yet to be contacted, even though they witnessed the assault on the night it occurred and noted it as an unlawful assault in an incident report. I’ve tried my best to compile the circumstances of my assault and the failure of the Victoria Police to act. On the night of the incident, they were refusing my requests to identify the masked attacker who was present, citing fear of the mob.

UPDATE: Rukshan accuses VicPol of playing fast and loose with the truth.