SCUM REBELLION
CITY UNDER SIEGE MELBOURNE AT A STANDSTILL
FLURO-CLAD protesters illegally marched through the streets of Melbourne after the Victorian government’s decision to mandate vaccines for construction workers and then enforce a two-week shutdown of the industry.
The CBD protests began at the CFMEU city headquarters but as numbers grew, a crowd of about 2000 blocked the West Gate Bridge.
Police have intelligence that another Melbourne protest will take place on Wednesday.
RIOTERS who unleashed “reprehensible” chaos upon Melbourne on Tuesday have vowed to again take over city streets in protest at mandatory Covid vaccinations for construction workers.
Thousands of angry protesters led police on a sevenhour game of cat and mouse, as they wound their way down city streets lighting flares, launching themselves on cars and clogging the West Gate Bridge.
Innocent citizens, including children, were trapped terrified in cars as the mob took over the bridge, lashing out at some vehicles.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews slammed the violence, saying there was “no excuse for the terrible behaviour we have seen in our city over the last two days”.
“Acts of violence and disruption won’t result in one less case of Covid – in fact it only helps the virus to spread,” he said in a statement.
Police on Tuesday night vowed to track down and charge protesters who unleashed the violence – some boozing and drunk – as they faced off with the riot squad armed with pepper ball guns and stinger grenades.
Chief Commissioner Shane Patton said: “You cannot come in and break the law. We will hold you to account.”
About 500 police, including general duties officers, the public order response team, the critical incident response team and the air wing, responded to the lawless throng.
In Melbourne’s third volatile protest in just four days, specialist officers were forced to fire pepper ball rounds, foam baton rounds, smoke rounds and stinger grenades.
Officers were even forced to take evasive action after a mob of protesters swarmed their vehicles and began attacking them. Three officers and a journalist were injured, with 62 arrests by 5.20pm.
“This is totally unacceptable. No person, whether it’s a police officer or a journalist, should come to work and sustain injuries by people who claim to be protesting for freedom,” Mr Patton said.
The demonstrators have vowed on encrypted messaging apps to again protest
Wednesday. “Tomorrow is going to be bigger, we aim to 2x our group size, we are fed up with this s..t and we ain’t backing down,” one Telegram user wrote on Tuesday night.
The group, many clad in workwear, on Tuesday morning faced off with police at the offices of the CFMEU on Elizabeth St, where a day earlier, they rounded on the union and its leader John Setka.
The second protest came amid a two-week ban on construction work, announced by the government on Monday.
Industrial Relations Minister Tim Pallas said the protests marked a “sad day” for the construction sector.
“Unfortunately, aberrant behaviour among the minority has led to a very substantial public health risk,” he said, labelling the behaviour “reprehensible”.
Mr Pallas said at least 50 per cent of construction sites failed to meet Covid-safe requirements at recent inspections.