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Oct. 15, 2022 - Epoch Times
18:18
Judge Throws Journalist in JAIL For 22 Days for 'Anti-Mandate' Protest Reporting ｜ Facts Matter
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You might remember how during the global wave of COVID lockdowns, Australia became something like an actual prison colony.
They had one of the strictest and one of the longest COVID lockdowns in the entire world.
They even went so far as to actually set up real-life COVID quarantine camps.
However, here in America, as we were seeing this, a lot of people were wondering why weren't the Australians fighting back?
Well, the answer was that they were, except the media just chose to ignore it.
Amidst this wave of COVID lockdowns became a corollary wave of anti-lockdown protests that saw sometimes thousands or even tens of thousands of people And the government's answer was as you'd expect it to be.
It was either apathy, they chose to ignore these protesters, or they cracked down with some heavy-handed police tactics.
And caught up in all this was a woman named Monica Smith, who was both a citizen journalist as well as the founder of an organization called Reignite Democracy Australia.
And despite Monica having the necessary paperwork to do reporting on the ground of these protests, which is apparently something you need in Australia, Regardless though, despite the fact that she had this paperwork, Monica was arrested multiple times, Now, fortunately, while we were both in Amsterdam, I got a chance to sit down with Monica and she told us her entire amazing story.
So smash that like button, smash that subscribe button, and take a listen.
Let's maybe set the clock back two or three years.
Let's sort of set the stage for the audience who might have never heard your story.
Can you tell them sort of what happened, let's say, prior to the lockdowns and then when the lockdowns began?
Okay, so prior to the lockdowns, I was traveling the world on my own, doing interviews and things like that.
So that's probably where I got some of my confidence from, you know, back when we could actually travel.
It was lovely.
I came home, Corona hit.
To Australia.
Sorry, I'm Australian.
I came home to Australia.
Corona hit and I was like, what the heck is going on?
And it was like everyone, you know, we kind of wanted to see what was happening, you know, if it was deadly or not and things like that.
But about three months in Melbourne, which is where I'm from, the premier is Daniel Andrews.
We had a four month lockdown during winter.
There was a curfew.
You couldn't leave the house more than five kilometers.
You couldn't exercise for more than an hour.
Not that anyone can police that anyway.
It was winter.
It was dark.
And I could just feel that people were desperate and depressed and angry.
And you don't need to be a doctor to know that that's not healthy.
So I came up with an idea for a live stream protest.
That's where Reignite Democracy Australia came.
But really what your audience will be more interested in is not how I started, but probably what happened since then is, well, I've been arrested multiple times in Victoria.
We just had...
absolute brutality towards us.
We got shot with big rubber bullets during protests.
Kids got pepper sprayed.
Old women got pushed down and then pepper sprayed.
They shot us with these rubber bullets in the back.
So we're clearly walking away.
They're meant to use it to stop confrontation, not the other way around.
And these rubber bullets, just for your information, they have a higher fatality rate than COVID.
You know, and so that was really shocking to see them, see the police use that.
But anyway, so I've been in amongst all those protests, all that really terrible, it was like being in a war zone or a game show or something like that.
But really, it all came to a head when I got arrested for incitement, which is inciting people to break COVID restrictions, Which is kind of like if you were to tell your friend to park in a no parking zone and they got a ticket and then you got a criminal charge for it because the COVID fines are only fines.
They're not criminal offenses.
Anyway, the bail conditions were so horrendous.
It was going to close down my website.
I was not able to speak against the COVID restrictions.
Like I couldn't even say, oh, I don't like this mask rules.
I couldn't even use my words in the bail conditions.
You couldn't say it?
it or you can record yourself saying it?
I couldn't say it in a private function, at home, on the internet.
I had to delete everything on all my social medias that was against the COVID restrictions.
They didn't say that incited people to break the COVID restrictions, but just was in opposition to the COVID restrictions.
I was like, I'm not signing that.
They also had a curfew for me from 7pm to 6am on the bail conditions.
For your information, I'm still on bail.
So that would mean that I would have to be home every night.
Till now.
So I didn't sign.
That's why I went to prison for 22 days, not because of the incitement charges themselves.
We appealed those bail conditions and all the, I would say, communistic ones were taken away.
The judge agreed that it was over the top.
And I've been free to speak ever since.
But just really quickly, since then I pled not guilty to the incitement charges.
So they dug a little deeper and they got a warrant called a 465AA warrant in Australia to force me to give them password access to all of my applications in my phone that they still have in their custody right now to this day.
Google Maps, Google Drive, Google Docs.
All my admin accounts, all my emails, Twitter, you know, all that.
I mean, Telegram, Signal, everything.
And I was like, I'm not giving them that.
You know, no one will ever want to email me again, you know, and private and confidential.
So if I didn't give them the passwords, it was up to five years in prison, which is worse than the original crime.
And then it's a whole new set of charges and a whole new thing.
And it was a breach of bail to not comply as well, which I could go to prison for three months.
So I just thought I'd try my luck.
And I just said no.
And I said, if you want to arrest me, let me know so I can be in comfortable clothes this time.
And they dropped the charges the week after.
So they pushed and pushed and I just said no.
Sometimes it's worth gambling, you know, like a poker game, bluffing.
And it worked.
And so here I am.
And they treated you like a real terrorist.
Because I can imagine in a Western country, who else would you request to have all their passwords for?
It would be either like a kingpin drug dealer or a terrorist?
Oh, it's crazy.
My lawyers said that they had seen less bail conditions and less restrictions on someone who's ran through a house with a machete, you know, with children in the house, you know.
So the original bail conditions, they even wanted access to my bank accounts, which got scrapped, which is good.
But yeah, it's really weird to be treated like that because I'm a law-abiding, tax-paying citizen.
I'm literally just standing up for human rights.
That's it, you know.
I wanted to actually rewind a little bit.
So when the lockdowns started in Melbourne, from what I've gathered from the news I follow in Australia, they were some of the most heavy-handed in the country, right?
So when that happened, how did the people react when they were only allowed to exercise for, let's say, an hour a day, and they had these curfews, and they had all these different restrictions for four months?
How did they react?
Did people generally accept it, or was there grumblings underneath the surface?
Oh, I mean, we have, I've traveled now a little bit and I think that we have one of the strongest freedom movements in the world because of that.
You know, when we started to create community groups during lockdowns, there's some sort of element of excitement to it because you feel like you're, you know, doing something wrong, you know?
And so those bonds that we've created have been really, really powerful.
And it's kept us going through to this time.
So we're really strong if something else happens.
But of course, a lot of people complied and were angry at us for doing it.
And I'm not an expert on statistics, but if I was to guess, I think at least 50% of people...
Didn't like the lockdowns, don't agree with the mandates and all that.
But only 10% of people are willing to walk in the streets for it.
So until those other 40% feel like the 10% is part of the in-crowd, they're not going to say that they're a part of our community, you know?
But I think deep down, I think a lot of people are and all they need is just a little push and they'll be openly on our side.
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You're saying that sort of 50% complied and they're sort of down with the program.
40% are disgruntled but they're kind of quietly just, you know, watching and, you know, talking maybe under their breath.
And 10% were actually out on the street saying, "Hey, this is not what we're going to be doing." Not wearing a mask and holding their head up high and protesting every weekend.
I mean, we had one protest just so that you know, how did we respond?
We had one protest in Melbourne that was about 650,000 to 700,000.
Now, we only have 6 million people in the whole state.
And that state is the same size as some states in America where you have to drive a long way to get to the city.
So the fact that there was, let's say there was 600,000 there, there was at least three people at home that agreed with that 600,000.
That's more than half of the entire population probably wanted to be at that protest.
So I would say that we're pretty against it.
How did the media react to the protest?
Oh, there was 10,000 people there.
And we're the reason everyone is being locked down and things like that.
And I will say with the police, I did see police crying under their masks when they were...
They did this thing called kettling.
Have you heard of that?
No.
It's where they surround a group of protesters and then they pick them off one by one to process them or fine them or something like that.
There was a day, it was about two years ago now, and there was 400 people.
There was old women in there.
There was old men, children.
They surrounded them in the sunshine for four hours.
They couldn't go to the toilet.
They had no water.
Right.
And it was just so strange.
And the next day, there was a big public event at the horse race with thousands of people.
But 400 people couldn't protest.
It was very strange.
But, you know, the police were struggling with it, I think.
But, you know, they did it anyway.
Yeah, that's what I was going to ask you because I know in America there was a similar situation where you had the lockdowns, you had some counter-protests which were demonizing the media, but then you had, for instance, BLM rallies which were praised in the media.
So you had a similar situation in Australia.
So about two months before the protest that I was in trouble for promoting, there was a Black Lives Matter protest and it was exactly the same restrictions, right?
But no one got in trouble.
And yes, this has been news a lot.
And maybe it's one of the reasons they dropped the charges because you just can't really explain it.
They did say, well, they were wearing masks or they tried to socially distance.
I mean, you can't socially distance with thousands of people.
It just doesn't work.
But, yeah, that contradiction.
And like I said, one day we had the kettling and then the next day we had a thousand people, thousands of people at this horse racing event.
And then at the same time, we had Anzac Day, which is Memorial Day for the soldiers.
That was cancelled, right?
And then the next day, they had a huge football game.
The next day!
And so, people aren't that stupid all the time.
I think they realized that there was some contradictions there.
You know, I've seen some clips of Avi Yemeni from Rebel News.
And sometimes when the police accosted him, he would show them his credentials and he'd say, hey, I'm a journalist, you know, you can't do this.
And he would actually fight back pretty successfully.
Yes.
When you told the police that you're a journalist, you know, you can't arrest me, I'm out here doing my job, how did they react to you?
They arrested me.
Yeah, so there was one day, it was a year before I got arrested and actually put in prison.
It was October 31st, 2020.
I got arrested three times in one day.
I had my papers with me, which I hate to admit that I even went along with that, but I did.
I had my permit with me.
And they told me to leave the area.
And I said, but why?
I've got my cameraman here doing my job.
And they're like, well, no.
And I'm like, I'm not leaving.
And so they arrested me.
And then they let me go and they're like, okay, you need to leave.
And I'm like, no.
So they arrested me again and they put me in the back of a DB van for 45 minutes and then they let me go.
And then they arrested me again and fined me.
And I'm like, I've got my permit right here.
I had a mask exemption.
So you had a permit from the government to do journalistic work?
But they didn't care.
Wow.
They just said, well, we don't...
Like, they just didn't care.
The thing is, is the rules were so confusing and there were so many alterations every day that actually no one knew what they were doing.
So if you encountered a policeman that woke up on the wrong side of the bed, he's just going to make things up and hope...
And they get away with it, right?
So that's pretty much...
I was literally at the table while they were finding me with my...
I'm like...
And they didn't even, they ignored, they literally ignored me.
They didn't even recognize that I was speaking to them.
They just kept writing their fine.
Yeah.
And I'm still fighting those fines and it's such a waste of time.
And it's so embarrassing to be in an Australian magistrate's court talking.
Imagine a magistrate saying to you, oh, look, you know, I'm sorry, but I do have to fine you because you were 200 meters away.
Out of your five kilometres and your mask was not pulled up properly.
I'm going to have to find you.
Can you imagine those words coming out of it?
It sounds like you're in some sort of weird movie and I'm like, what is happening?
And the courts are full of these right now in Australia.
This conversation is happening over and over again.
Like, oh, sorry, I had an extra friend with me at the park.
That's shocking.
It's funny, but it's really sad too.
But yeah, it was...
I can't even really explain in words how terrible it was to be shot at by your own people who you pay their wages.
We pay the police to protect us and now they're shooting at us.
I mean, they even goated us.
Like, come on guys, let's go!
In a protest.
Police in uniform.
Come on guys, let's go.
And they've got all the weapons and we've got nothing.
And they're like, come on, it's like...
What do you think owes to that?
Like, were they just following the media narrative?
Or like, were they confused?
Or maybe they're just like, also kind of like, they have their own kind of too much energy from the lockdowns and they have nothing better to do?
Like, what do you think owes to that?
There's a few scenarios.
A lot of police did refuse to go to these events.
I will say that.
Actually, the Victoria Police are having a hard time keeping employees at the moment.
Right now.
Yes.
And they're doing a drive for new ones.
So what they would have to do, they had to bring police from the suburbs, okay?
And they would also use rookies that, you know, have something to prove.
But also, like, you know, the changing rooms at a football game, how they're like, come on guys, we can do this, let's go get them.
They would do that to the police before they went out to the protest.
It's these people that are keeping us locked down.
They want to kill your grandma.
They're stopping your kids from going to school because they keep protesting and they keep extending the lockdown.
So they kind of came out with this, you know, and you had different types of police.
You had the police who were just doing it because they wanted to keep their job.
Then you had the police that really enjoyed it.
And you know what?
We've got a lot of court cases happening against them, especially with the rubber bullets.
This one guy was like, was like literally like this and they just shot him three times, you know, and if it was any, if it was a few centimeters to one side, he would have had internal bleeding.
He had internal bleeding and things like that.
So they're going to be accountable eventually.
Yeah.
But thus far, nobody's been really held accountable.
There has been one or two situations where the police have been fired for literally king...
I don't know what it's called when you take someone and you just slam them on the ground.
Just slamming them, I guess, right?
There was no provocation.
The guy was just standing there and the police just went up to him and just...
Dropped him on the concrete floor.
So yeah, there's a lot of those cases.
Even my charges being dropped, you can't take a law-abiding citizen, put them in prison for 22 days because you feel like it, and then drop the charges and say it's no longer in the public's interest.
That was their excuse.
It's no longer in the public's interest.
Was it ever in the public's interest to charge me?
You can't just do that and get away with it.
So there's a lot of people pushing back to make them accountable and I'm sure they will be.
Now, that was not the full interview.
If you'd like to check out that interview in its glorious entirety, you can do so over on Epic TV, our awesome no-censorship video platform.
The link will be right there at the top of the description box.
And also, I should mention that the reason that Monica and I were in Amsterdam was because of an event called Stop This Loop.
With the word sloop translating from Dutch into English as something like demolition, so stop the demolition.
It was essentially a rally of people opposed to the Great Reset Agenda.
And besides Monica, there were a lot of other great speakers as well.
So if you want to check out footage from the rally, that's also over on Epic TV. As you know, YouTube is not really a hospitable environment for differing viewpoints, so we can't put it here, but we can put it over on Epic TV, our awesome no-sensitive video platform.
The link, again, will be right there at the top of the description box.
I hope you check it out.
And then, until next time, I'm your host, Roman from the Epoch Times.
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