As I recently wrote, police forces across the Western world are arbitrarily abusing their new-found powers as governments impose increasingly onerous lock-downs in response to the Chinese virus.
Now, police are shocked – shocked! – to discover that citizens aren’t exactly pleased with that.
One of the state’s most senior policemen has told officers that inconsistency and a lack of discretion in the enforcement of lockdown laws is eroding public confidence in Victoria Police.
As I wrote, one of the key characteristics of a police state is the arbitrary and repressive exercise of power. When police are fining people for legally washing their cars, taking driving lessons or walking in the park, citizens are excused for wondering if they’re in a police state. And for getting a bit narky with the coppers.
Police have reversed a series of fines in recent days as officers and the public come to terms with extraordinary and unprecedented “stage three” restrictions on movement that prevent people from leaving their homes except for medical reasons, care-giving, grocery shopping, work and exercise.
“This lack of discretion erodes public confidence in Victoria Police and undermines the great work being done by our people across this state,” [said Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton].
“The lack of consideration for public interest is significantly impacting on how the community view Victoria Police.”
It does nothing to dispel the nagging worry that we are suddenly living in a police state, when coppers are trawling social media, looking for any excuse to crack down on law-abiding citizens.
Late on Monday night, police confirmed they had withdrawn two $1652 fines given to a couple who uploaded last year’s holiday snaps to Facebook[…]One mourner told The Age a worker at a cemetery in Melbourne’s north turned her away. The spokeswoman said if anyone had been fined for visiting a cemetery, that fine would be reversed.
In the internal email, Mr Patton also cited an example where police fined people for painting the inside of a closed cafe.
It doesn’t seem as if even Deputy Commissioner Patton has much faith in the discretion of his officers.
Mr Patton is reviewing the fines daily, a police source told The Age.
While some fines are clearly warranted – for instance, backpackers partying at holiday spots – others are so clearly an overreach that police cannot have been unaware how ridiculous and authoritarian they were being.
The Flemington and Kensington Community Legal Centre launched a website – Policing COVID – to track police powers during the pandemic.
The centre said it had received reports that ranged from the inconvenience of being questioned by police outside homes or accosted while exercising, to more serious incursions such as searches or arrests. Some people reported interactions that were unpleasant, clumsy or that felt like they were “being interrogated”.
One person reported being stopped after going for a walk on the beach with their 81-year-old father.
They said police asked them what they were doing, and why they shouldn’t get fined, before they were told to go home. They claimed police followed them home[…]
“The way these powers are being exercised is causing distress, it’s changing people’s behaviour, and not in a positive way, to just increase social distancing because people are already doing that.”
The Big Lie here, is that a police state is the only alternative to some kind of Black Plague scenario.
More importantly, repression only increases resistance. As Princess Leia warned the repressive Governor Tarkin: “The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers”.
Taiwan, the world’s beacon of good public policy in all this nonsense, is showing that it is entirely possible to strategically target vulnerable groups and hotspots while allowing everyone else to go about their lives in almost-complete normalcy. Anarchy is not the only only alternative to repression. Freedom does not mean irresponsible libertinism.
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