OF THE
TIMES
"I am shaking and my blood is boiling," she wrote, promising to release a further video "when my head is in the right headspace."Officers routinely use discretion but, for some reason, this officer, like those in a number of other recent disturbing incidents, chose not to. This totalitarian behavior is becoming worryingly commonplace for the Australia police force, and perhaps it's not surprising when their chief commisioner encourages the disdain towards citizens protesting the lockdown by referring to the situation as a 'dog returning to eat his own vomit':
For some reason, the footage has been scrubbed from her Facebook page, but was widely shared elsewhere on social media.
Victoria Police have been prompt to give their take on the video. Bonett had refused to remove the phone from the windscreen and would not provide her name and address, which is punishable under road safety laws, the authorities insisted.
Bonett was later released and "is expected to be charged on summons with driving with obscured vision, fail to produce license, fail to state her name and address, resist arrest, assault police and offensive language," the statement revealed. It did not say anything about the officers' conduct, however.
Local police have already taken heat online for heavy-handed tactics used to enforce the lockdown rules. Weeks ago, officers arrested a pregnant mother for alleged "incitement" of an anti-lockdown event, despite her pleas to let her undergo a scheduled ultrasound scan. Footage of her being handcuffed sparked outcry on social media.
On a separate occasion, officers used brute force to serve an arrest warrant on a Melbourne-based leader of the anti-lockdown protest, hammering on his door and putting him in handcuffs.
Police chiefs have repeatedly warned that they will be out in full force to enforce the quarantine in Melbourne and Victoria state, the two coronavirus hotspots in Australia. The region recently extended the lockdown until late September, just as the country reported more than 26,600 Covid-19 cases and over 800 deaths.
Comment: See also: