- Was a battalion of police officers, on foot and on horseback, really necessary to stop two pedestrians refusing to wear their masks against Covid-19, in Melbourne (Australia)?
- A viral Facebook post denounces, video in support, this excessive mobilization of the police.
- But he omits to specify that this scene took place within the framework of a prohibited demonstration, of which the violators exposed themselves to significant legal sanctions, which explains this important police presence.
In the midst of the Covid-19 epidemic, have the Australian police shown excessive severity towards citizens who do not wear masks in public space?
This is what suggests a video viewed more than 125,000 times on Facebook, showing a man in handcuffs, surrounded by many police officers, who make him put on a mask in front of another woman put aside by the forces of the 'order.
"In Australia two people get arrested with an impressive police deployment, you know what is the reason? They did not put on a mask outside! », Says the caption of this sequence. Without detailing the very precise context of this arrest, within the framework of an anti-mask demonstration banned by the local authorities.
FAKE OFF
As its credit, the scene has been filmed by Brianna Travers, a journalist with the Herald Sun . It can be found in her original tweet, dated July 31, 2020.
#Breaking - Police have arrested two people outside the Shrine this morning for not wearing masks. They have been taken off in divisional vans. Police have forced a mask on this man. @theheraldsun pic.twitter.com/PS5U6eHHt8
- Brianna Travers (@briannatravers) July 31, 2020That day, several anti-mask protesters gathered in front of the Melbourne Shrine of Remembrance, a building dedicated to Australians who died during the war, in the midst of a period of confinement to fight against Covid-19.
As reported by The Australian , on July 30, the Prime Minister of the State of Victoria, Daniel Andrews, had tried to dissuade the people of Melbourne from going to this event: “My message for those who wish to attend this event. demonstration or any such gathering is very clear: do not go. The only thing we should protest against is this virus. Staying at home really means staying at home. [This gathering] is not one of the legal reasons for leaving your home. "
He also made it clear that the offenders exposed themselves to legal sanctions, some of them having actually received a fine of 1,652 dollars. The large police force established in this area aimed to prevent the holding of this event, which brought together around thirty demonstrators, as can be seen on the images filmed live by 9 News Melbourne.
The violent arrest of a woman without a mask in Melbourne, at the heart of a controversy
A report by the same television station also shows the handcuffed man in the viral video being taken in a police van, shortly after the woman present at his side claimed that they were simply there to "play sports. ".
If the viral images broadcast on Facebook mistakenly suggest an arbitrary arrest, the Melbourne police have been under fire from criticism since the broadcast, a few days ago, of a video showing a police officer strangling a woman in the rue, during an identity check for not wearing a mask.
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