As history repeatedly tries to teach us, the patient work of centuries can be swept away in an instant of revolutionary fervour. Rebuilding the ruins takes centuries more. Similarly, bad or even illegal official actions can be done in an instant, but pursuing legal redress takes years of thankless and expensive litigation.
Even then, don’t expect those responsible to publicly own their guilt, or their bootlickers in the media to do anything other than spout lies for the powerful.
Case in point: the mainstream media have pages and pages of news reports about a ‘conspiracy theorist’ (headlined as “smug” in at least one report that threw the fundamental rule about reporting and opinion to the wind) involved in anti-lockdown protester that notoriously resulted in police violence and him being arrested.
What you won’t find is news that he’s just been acquitted of all major charges.
The charges stemmed from a large-scale protest in Melbourne, where James and many others clashed with police.
During the protest, James found himself trapped by police in a narrow gorge, enduring pepper spray to the face while attempting to escape. He was arrested at his home after being publicly targeted by the police.
Victoria police and their media lickspittles traduced James’ name for years on end.
“They plastered my face all over Crime Stoppers and the news, accusing me of assaulting an emergency services worker,” James recounted.
Just as they falsely accused protesters of “urinating” on the Shrine of Remembrance, with a complete lack of evidence.
Despite the lack of evidence, the case dragged on for two years, with multiple prosecutors refusing to take it to trial. When the trial finally occurred, the prosecution’s case crumbled.
In the end, James was found not guilty of all serious charges. He was fined for minor breaches of Covid-19 restrictions but was awarded costs by the court, marking a resounding victory against what he described as a "pathetic" prosecution.
It’s hardly surprising that the media, politicians and Victoria Police, are keeping the court outcome as secret as they can.
Many of the most egregious cases during the Covid police state in Victoria, such as Zoe Buhler’s, which police and media amplified as hard as they could, to instil fear in the population, were later quietly dropped. It was plainly intended to intimidate the public into obeying the manifestly stupid and brutal Covid rules.
In James’ case, though, police made the mistake of persisting with the charges.
“All you need to do is take a look at the footage and realize that the charges are pretty silly really, never should have been brought to a court… there wasn’t a prosecutor who wanted to take on the case. Multiple prosecutors looked at it and they took one look at it and said ‘I'm not I'm not bringing this to trial’.”
What followed was farcical at best. A prosecutor only took on the case five days before trial.
“So we turn up on the day of trial and of course he wants a deferral, he doesn't know he how he's going to make out the charges. He gave some excuses like the alleged victim still hasn't provided a statement, the alleged victim is not available to attend as a witness today, and we need to go back and add some more charges.”
The judge granted a month’s deferral, but Victoria Police’s case didn’t improve in the least.
“We come back a month later for the trial, the alleged victim, the cop I apparently assaulted, still wasn't there to testify. He was not called as a witness and he still hadn't provided a statement, so the case was really over from from day one.”
There never was a case – but that was never the point.
The whole, indeed, sole point was to intimidate a population already terrified into submission by unhinged official fear-mongering. The process was the punishment.
