Victoria: Some protesters are more equal than others
Not that anyone is attacking THEM or disrupting THEM. THEY are disrupting the public – just like their Comrades disrupted Milo Yiannopolos and Lara Southern.
Climate change protests will cost taxpayers ‘hundreds of thousands’ in overtime for police officers
Victoria Police Commander Tim Hansen said the force was still totalling the cost of the Extinction Rebellion protests in the city, but overtime was already high.
‘The overtime budget is in the hundreds of thousands already… 16,000 patrol hours have been deployed’, adding that 111 people had been arrested. ‘It has had a huge impact on our resourcing out in the regions and out in the suburbs’.
Commander Hansen slammed the organisers for keeping police in the dark about their movements during the ‘spring rebellion’, which meant officers had to be taken off other duties. The commander ruled out making the protesters pay for the costs incurred during their activities, as that would only be applicable if there is a ‘level of commerciality’.
‘This is clearly a public community protest in public space. We are resourced and financed to deploy in those circumstances’, he said.
Source: 7NEWS.com.au
Get that? So they were already resourced for 16,000 additional patrol hours of overtime.
In December 2017, Milo Yiannopolos received a bill of $50,000 from the Victorian police:
Victoria is sending right-wing speaker Milo Yiannopoulos a $50,000 bill for the police dealing with protests at his talk
Right-wing commentator Milo Yiannopoulos is facing a bill of more than $50,000 for 300 police turning up to deal with protests during a speaking engagement in Melbourne this week.
His talk at the Melbourne Pavilion on Monday night saw around 500 protestors and 50 right-wing supporters clash. Riot police intervened, charging the crowd when violence broke out and using capsicum spray. Five police officers were injured when rocks and bottles were thrown at them. Two people were arrested.
500 (ten times as many) left-wing protesters try to disrupt a peaceful gathering of 50 people and the organisers of the peaceful gathering get the bill?
Victorian police minister Lisa Neville told Melbourne’s 3AW last night that ‘they will certainly be getting a bill for it’.
‘There is a definable cost to this, Victoria Police have some costings per officer, depending on the seniority officers’, she said.
Source: Business Insider
July 2018: ‘He hasn’t paid it’, Ms Neville told radio station 3AW. ‘He was presented with a bill and he hasn’t yet paid it. I know there is discussions going on at the moment with… our government solicitors’. Ms Neville added it was common practice for organisers of large-scale or controversial events to be billed if large numbers of police resources were required. ‘I remember at the time people said ‘why are we charging for protests because he’s got a different view?” Ms Neville said.
Source: The Age
So why didn’t she send a bill to Extinction rebellion?
Organisers of the Lara Southern tour explained who should get the bill:
Lauren Southern: Tour organiser refuses to pay $68K police bill
Axiomatic Events was sent an invoice for $68,000 for ‘police services’ after violent left-wing protesters targeted the Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux Live event in Melbourne on July 20, closing roads and assaulting officers.
In a statement, Axiomatic Events director Dave Pellowe said he was concerned paying the ‘crippling’ bill would create a dangerous precedent. ‘The Andrews Government has the gall to call this ‘user pays’ policing, but the reality is that it’s victim-blaming’, Mr Pellowe said.
‘Our event was a normal-sized crowd in a venue that routinely hosts such crowds. We broke no laws and went above and beyond to co-operate with police, and greatly appreciate the work they do’.
‘But if Police Minister Lisa Neville is looking for creative ways to fundraise for Victoria Police she can keep looking’.
‘The fair and just way to go about it would be to issue a $1000 fine to every thug who blocked the highway, who abused and intimidated the mums, dads and kids who came along, who damaged private property and turned Melbourne into a Berkeley war zone’.
‘Sending us the bill for their lawlessness appears to be simply enabling the thugs’ veto’.
Axiomatic Events said members of Antifa-associated groups ‘spat, screamed and uttered abuse at the men and women boarding and alighting from the buses’ and that ‘a number of male members of the … groups displayed their genitals to people boarding and alighting the buses’.
Source: News.com.au
Estimate:
If the Yiannopolos and Southern events were charged at $100 per hour for (say) 10 hours and 50 or 68 police respectively – these were just a single event – then 16,000 overtime hours in the case of Exctinction Rebellion should be charged around $1.6 million dollars. At least.
But they are Marxists, so despite the fact that THEY are the ones doing the disrupting, there is no ‘level of commerciality’.