Police are investigating an alleged targeted attack on the home of a prominent Sydney political activist and Black Lives Matter rally organiser at the weekend.
Paddy Gibson said three men appeared to try and force entry to his home at 7:30pm on Saturday after banging on his door and demanding that “Paddy” come outside.
The men kicked his door and smashed a window before fleeing on foot.
Gibson, who is also a University of Technology Sydney researcher, has blamed neo-Nazis for the “terrifying” attack. On Twitter he described the men as “skin heads with Eureka flag shirts”.
Gibson was home with his wife but said thankfully his children were staying at his parents’ house that night. He also said police took 30 minutes to arrive.
My family home was attacked by Nazis last night. Three skin heads with Eureka flag shirts came to the door, shouting my name, demanding I come out. When I didn’t they attempted to force entry, kicked hard on the door, ripped the security grill off this window and smashed it in. pic.twitter.com/3Arfsuiuvd
— Padraic Gibson (@paddygibson) December 5, 2021
He told NSW Police he believed he had been targeted as a result of his anti-racism activism, and had previously received death threats via email, phone and social media.
Those threats escalated when he was instrumental in organising the BLM marches in Sydney last year, which he had reported to police.
Gibson is a member of the socialist group Solidarity that has branches Australia-wide. It typically campaigns against racism, gender inequity and climate inaction and promotes worker and refugee rights. It has also been anti-lockdown due to government and police profiling of suburbs and minority groups, but has condemned the right-wing anti-lockdown movement for its motives.
Gibson told police he was not aware of any recent activism that could have prompted the alleged attack.
Police are now investigating the incident as “malicious damage” at the Sydney home.