Melbourne is back in lockdown, which means the anti-lockdown protesters are back at it again with their extremely un-COVIDSafe antics.
Police arrested three men for unlawfully gathering at Hanover Street in Oakleigh, after which the rest of the mob “dispersed without incident”, The Age reports.
The protest was promoted by Reignite Democracy Australia, an anti-mask organisation founded by a former Survivor contestant and affiliated with Jim Penman of Jim’s Mowing fame.
They appear to have attracted exactly the kind of people you’d expect to be impressed by such credentials.
A week ahead of coronavirus vaccines being out in Australia, some of the protesters even regurgitated the bullshit claim that “people are dying from the vaccine.” If anything, vaccinations are the one thing that’ll get out out of these lockdowns in future.
Violence has spilled over in a Melbourne shopping strip as angry lockdown protesters clashed with police.
The mask-free mob claim lockdown is killing more people than it’s protecting. @LauraTurner_9 #9News pic.twitter.com/X3cqTJi8hF
— 9News Australia (@9NewsAUS) February 15, 2021
Protesters heckled the Nine News camera crew and told them to “report the truth”. If anyone from the protest is reading this, here’s the truth.
The protesters could also be heard chanting “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie” while waving *checks notes* American, British and Gadsden flags. Very normal behaviour.
This is by no means the first anti-lockdown protest in Melbourne. Those kicked off during the first wave, and also popped up during Victoria’s second, long lockdown.
And as with previous demonstration, they seem to have attracted a wide variety of conspiracy theorists and other shit-stirrers.
Yes, lockdowns are annoying. Yes, it’s extremely frustrating to shut everything down because of so few new cases. Yes, businesses are going to hurt because of the restrictions. Yes, Melbourne has been through a hell of a lot over the past 12 months.
But staging a mass public gathering when there are still real threats of virus transmission is absolutely not the way to go about making those claims.
