Sky News host Peta Credlin reckons police “sang a different tune” to Black Lives Matter protests after a Ballarat woman was arrested for allegedly organising an anti-lockdown protest and ahh, they’re not the same thing, darl.
Before we unpack this absolutely ridiculous take, I’m just going to remind you all that the Black Lives Matter protests were fighting for the right for Indigenous Australians not to be disproportionately more likely to die in police custody, while the anti-lockdown protests either don’t believe the virus actually exists, or are just sick of staying at home. I simply cannot stress enough that one of these things is not like the other.
But in her absolutely ridiculous monologue on Sky News, Credlin mentioned that we’re not all equal under the law (which is true, for POC who have disproportionately higher rates of custodial deaths). However, the host was genuinely trying to claim that no, it’s actually the anti-lockdown protesters who aren’t being treated as equals.
“Here I am, all these years living under the misapprehension that we’re all supposed to be equal under the law,” she said, proving that she clearly didn’t pay any attention to what the Black Lives Matter protests were *actually* about.
“Remember that phrase on everyone’s lips at the start of the pandemic that we’re all in this together?” She asked. “We don’t hear it because we’re not. Not in it together, I mean.”
“We’re now a nation divided by borders, the sort of borders we haven’t seen since federation, living under curfews and other draconian rules such as those in Victoria that we didn’t even have in place when our country was at war,” she continued.
And she’s right, but the war (albeit a tragedy) is a completely different situation. The measures in place right now are here to protect us from a deadly virus, not the threat of invasion.
Credlin then went on to explain how it was unfair that this woman from Ballarat was arrested for allegedly inciting a protest (which is a crime on account of the fact that it goes against a Public Health Order), while only a handful of fines were handed out at the BLM protests.
However, what she has seemingly forgotten is that the organisers of that protest were also fined.
At the time, Victoria Police issued a statement explaining that all of the organisers would be slapped with a $1652 fine for breaching the directions of the Chief Health Officer, according to the ABC.
So realistically, the tune sung by the police commissioner really wasn’t *that* different, considering one group were fighting for their right not to die in custody, while the other simply didn’t agree with the lockdown.
Sure, being handcuffed in your own home in front of your family may be taking the situation a little too far. But yes, Peta Credlin, this woman should be “held accountable” for her actions, just like the organisers of the BLM protests were.
