Dragging out the ugly truth
VICTORIAN beauty therapist Natalie Bonett posted a short clip on social media in which she is dragged from her car by a male police officer at a coronavirus checkpoint.
It’s uncomfortable viewing, but before you judge the police, watch the 15-minute YouTube clip showing what happened after her arrest.
It shows Bonett was aggressive, rude, disrespectful and petulant.
The whole incident unfolded, as she admits to police in the longer video, because she didn’t like the “attitude” of the cop who asked her to remove her windscreen car phone charger, which was blocking her view of the road.
Echoing Bunnings “Karen”, Bonett told the officer after wards she refused because: “I do have an issue with attitude and being pulled up and being spoken to that way, I do.”
“It’s not fair and it’s not okay.” Police have enough to do at the moment without aggressive antilockdown protesters out to make a petty point.
Sure, there are times when the actions of police appear over-the-top. Zoe Buhler, the Ballarat protest organiser, did not need to be handcuffed in her own home when she was being arrested. And footage of an officer appearing to stomp on a man’s head during a recent arrest in Epping that wasn’t lockdown-related appears to be an instance of unnecessary force on the face of it.
But in this case, police were simply doing their job. The problem arose when she didn’t do what he asked. The police officer first asked her to take the phone charger down. She said no. He asked her for her licence a number of times. She said no.
He asked her for her name and address a number of times. She said no.
At that point, the officer asked her to step out of the car. She did not do so. But this time the cop told her the problem was not the car charger, but her refusal to state her name. Again, he asked her to get out of the car.
“No, I don’t feel safe, you’re armed,” she told him.
This was when the police officer dragged her from the car and forced her on to the ground where she was placed in handcuffs. The force was required because her partner was holding on to her other arm.
All the people saying police had “no right” to do this are wrong. People do not get to ask the police to “leave me alone” when they do not comply with a lawful direction.
She’s since said she was “happy to comply”, but she did not do so.
Handcuffed and sitting shoeless on the side of the road, Bonett let rip.
She told the police officers, who were holding her shoulders, to “f--k off” and “shut up”. “Oh, you guys are going to have fun in court,” she said.
“Who am I going to be, Osama bin Laden? F--k me dead,” she said. And: “Are you going to bash me again?”
Bonett repeatedly said she was going to produce her licence – and always intended to do so – but she did not do so when asked a number of times. She told police after her arrest that she was injured and had an autoimmune disease, leukemia and an anxiety condition.
But she has not since released any information as to why this meant she could not comply with basic police commands.
However, she did promote her lash bar on social media.
She said the officer had put his knee in her back, which meant she couldn’t breathe.
But once the handcuffs were taken off, she was well enough to light up a cigarette. She also said she did not need an ambulance.
Her apparent disdain for authority was evident when she told a female officer in a sneering voice to “go fetch me my shoe”. She was told no, but this wasn’t enough. “No, you can get them for me,” she commanded.
The police should not have to put up with such contempt.
Bonett’s partner, who was filming the whole sorry episode, wasn’t much better.
“We come here every f--king day,” he told police.
He called the police officer an “arrogant pr--k”.
I’m left wondering why Bonett was filming herself inside her car in the first place. If she wasn’t doing it all to make a point, why was she filming herself?
One reader summed it up perfectly: “I don’t know why people put video out there of them acting like jerks.”