Thousands of Australians protest blockade in Sydney, Melbourne

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Thousands of Australians fed up with the blockade of COVID-19 marched in Sydney and Melbourne on Saturday as part of a “global rally for freedom” protest.

After thousands of Australians gathered in Sydney’s Victoria Park, they marched to City Hall in the Central Business District and were escorted by heavy police, including mounted police and riot police.

The protesters have a sign, In the video When Zac Crellin, a journalist at Pedestrian Daily, posted on Twitter, you can hear them saying: freedom. When do you want now! “

In the Crellin video, you can hear the supporters whistling. Display your own signature, In the cheers and screams of the protesters as they marched.

Some signs are written as “reveal the truth” and “media distance is safer than social distance”.

Epoch Times Photo
Protesters march along Broadway and George Street to Sydney Town Hall at the World Wide Rally For Freedom anti-lockdown rally on July 24, 2021 in Hyde Park, Sydney. (AAPImage / Mick Tsikas)

New South Wales police said they recognized and endorsed freedom of speech and the right to peaceful assembly, but the protest was a breach of public health orders.

“The New South Wales Police Force’s priority is always the security of the wider community,” a police statement said, describing “high visibility police activity” in response to “unauthorized protests.”

Police confirmed that “many” arrests had been made. AAP reported that some protesters reportedly threw PET bottles and plants taken from the street.

Greater Sydney has been locked down for the past four weeks due to the outbreak of a delta variant of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the new coronavirus.

Government officials have said that five million residents of Greater Sydney cannot leave their homes for four reasons.

Despite other restrictions, including blockades, masking and social distance, the CCP virus continues to spread, and New South Wales reported an additional 163 locally acquired COVID-19 cases on Saturday. I am.

Prior to the event, New South Wales Minister of Health Brad Hazard accused the planned protest on Saturday morning of being “really ridiculous.”

“We live in democracy and usually I’m certainly a supporter of people’s right to protest … but at this point we have an incident going through the roof and get out there. And maybe there are people in other demos who think it’s okay to be close to each other, “he said.

Gary Warboys, Deputy Secretary of Police for New South Wales, said it was not the time to protest.

He said police wanted to work with the organizers to ensure that people were in compliance with public health orders, which did not result in a “disastrous” mass spread event.

Epoch Times Photo
Thousands of people will march in Melbourne, Australia, on June 6, 2020, in solidarity with US protests. (Quinn Rooney / Getty Images)

Sydney’s opposition to the blockade is one of Australia’s largest pandemics of protests since last year when tens of thousands of Black Lives Matter supporters and protesters marched in Melbourne. These protests, in solidarity with the BLM protests in the United States, took place in parallel with domestic activities against the deaths of indigenous peoples in custody.

Melbourne’s BLM protest took place a few weeks before the city, making Victoria as one of the longest blockades in the world, lasting 112 days and having a second outbreak.

Fear is Expressed on Twitter Through the #SydneyCBD hashtag, Saturday’s opposition to the blockade could have the same result.

In the neighboring state of Victoria, south of Sydney, at least 1,000 “marching for freedom” protesters have also gathered in Melbourne’s central business district.

Herald Sun journalist Olivia Jenkins I posted a video On Twitter showing a scene outside the Victorian Capitol The flare turned on The protesters then raised the flag and chanted “freedom!”

A flag on the parliamentary stairs states: Stop this now! “

of Another video Protesters can be seen marching through Melbourne’s central business district, according to a post by Australian correspondent Avi Yemini of Rebel News. Yemini says he broke through the police line after the crowd overwhelmed them.

A car rally is also planned in Adelaide, which is also locked down, and police have warned that they will be arrested for illegal activity.

AAP contributed to this report.



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