In Australia, all media outlets are equal, except some are more equal than others, which is to say, if you are a member of the mainstream media, the police will take a hands-off approach. But if you re a rebel reporter endeavouring to bring the other side of the story to viewers, well, you may as well be wearing a jacket with a bullseye painted on the back. Just ask Avi Amini. He joins me with yet another unbelievable encounter with Aussie law enforcement trying to shut him down.
00:07:36.700And, Avi, I've got to tell you, you've been knocking it out of the park with your videos lately.
00:07:40.820But, Avi, what we saw there, in terms of what happened to you, I think was beyond egregious.
00:07:47.200Police officers going to your residence late at night, essentially stating you are not allowed to practice journalism.
00:07:55.960Avi, who is behind this outrageous display of fear and intimidation tactics against you?
00:08:04.840Well, I just think you can't help but think that the government is using the police here as their own kind of intimidation squad to silence anybody that's questioning their behavior and what they're doing here at the moment and their response to the coronavirus.
00:08:23.760So, I think it's command, but at the same time, I think there's a lot of police officers who don't want to be engaging in that sort of behavior.
00:08:32.720You know, I hope you're right about that, Avi.
00:08:35.400But the way I see it is that when you see journalists, you specifically, you know, focused on and told not to practice journalism, I mean, for goodness sakes, you're a journalist.
00:10:29.780And, you know, what's different about Australia?
00:10:33.440I mean, it's unheard of in North America.
00:10:35.140It's this idea of getting permits to go as a journalist to cover an event.
00:10:39.420And you jumped through all those hoops.
00:10:42.420I remember months ago you got a permit to go to a protest and you were actually gang tackled by police.
00:10:49.280And there was there was no reason for that.
00:10:51.480And, you know, Avi, can you take our viewers through this of what what is the ostensible reason for this in this level of control that journalists have to reach out to the state and actually get a permit to report?
00:11:24.120You know, in all this period, what is the last year and a half where I've either been arrested or intimidated or taken to the ground, you know, we've got at least six different incidents which are in front of the Supreme Court.
00:11:38.620Well, it's important to note that not once have I been charged, not even not even ticketed as some of the journalists in in Canada.
00:11:48.620Like they have they haven't even had the evidence to be able to justify giving me a covid fine, let alone tackling me to the ground.
00:12:21.820You know, I would be freaking out if they came to my house.
00:12:24.460It's become sort of something of a second nature to me.
00:12:27.480I'm getting used to it, to controlling that adrenaline when they do show up.
00:12:30.640But people realize that there's something very wrong when somebody who's committed no crimes being given no never been charged with anything and not even ticketed for these kinds of offenses.
00:12:44.340But still, police feel like they have the right to come to his house to scare him out of telling the other side of the story, the side of the story that they don't want to they don't want anyone to hear.
00:12:57.600Because it's interesting if you watch some of the the broadcast, especially if you're in Australia, people have noticed if you watch the events that we cover and you watch it from the mainstream media.
00:13:08.540And I'll give you an example. The other day, there was a protest, a business protest in the city where a woman was, you know, a small business owner was pleading with police and it was very raw.
00:13:23.000It was heartfelt. You could you could feel what she was saying.
00:13:27.460And the mainstream media ran that. But then they suddenly cut it and they were they were sympathetic to her.
00:13:35.380And they, you know, they they recognized that what she was saying was powerful and it was a powerful image of her, you know, calling out to the police.
00:13:43.980But they cut it right at the point where police engage her.
00:13:50.800It just as 10 officers just ran into her and took her down.
00:13:57.140Why do they do that? That that's called, I think, in this business, Abby, burying the lead, isn't it?
00:14:02.500Absolutely. And, you know, it just didn't suit the narrative.
00:14:06.720And that is and that was the day that I was, you know, not allowed to be there to report.
00:14:11.460And if I hadn't been there, if I hadn't have gone that day and if I would have complied with the with their intimidation tactic, which is all it was, they were trying to intimidate me.
00:14:24.020They didn't actually have the law on their side.
00:14:25.680Remember, they came to deliver a a letter from the commissioner.
00:14:30.640You know, you know, they said they're not here to charge me.
00:14:56.880Nobody would have seen the other side of what happened that day.
00:14:59.720They would have just seen they would have just seen what the what the media portrayed as in a couple of antagonistic protesters antagonizing the police and being arrested.
00:15:15.220And, you know, they did include a couple of small business people having a couple of sentences, soundbites that made a little bit of sense that you could be sympathetic to.
00:15:26.380But now, maybe not, because look at them.
00:16:22.500I never signed up to trample law-abiding citizens just making a democratic protest versus those officers who have bought into the idea of, you know what?
00:16:35.000This is for the health and well-being of our citizens.
00:16:38.540And these people have to be charged and ticketed and arrested.
00:16:44.440I don't necessarily think they even think that deeply about it.
00:16:48.100But I don't think many of I think very, a very small amount go, oh, we're doing this for health and safety.
00:16:53.860I think there's a big proportion that are saying, well, these are my orders and this is my job.
00:17:00.600And the reason why I know that is because many of those that are enforcing it so strictly are walking around with a mask under their mouth or nose.
00:17:08.420So they're obviously not that and they're up in your face.
00:17:10.940So they're obviously not that scared of this virus, especially where some of the enforcement is so hypocritical.
00:17:18.360You know, they're bussing police officers from hundreds of kilometers away when citizens in the city weren't allowed to travel more than five kilometers alone.
00:17:32.740So I think that there's not many that feel like they're enforcing it for the for the health side of it.
00:17:40.140There's a lot that are there are too many enforcing it because it's what they've been ordered.
00:17:46.460Anecdotally, I think it's hard to say numbers.
00:17:50.700If I had to guess, well, 100 percent of command are doing it for the power trip.
00:17:55.340The orders are absolutely the police institution loving their new powers.
00:18:35.740I guess it's probably a situation of not wanting to be featured on any rebel news stories as as as one of those aggressors.
00:18:46.160But something else you said a minute ago that the the media become the watchdog instead of the watchdogs, the lapdogs.
00:18:54.040And you're absolutely right, because at that same event, instead of instead of capturing what happened, for example, that outrageous scene we saw where a father and the nicer and I think everyone needs to watch that video.
00:19:09.180Because I think it it demonstrates everything that's wrong with the enforcement at the moment.
00:19:15.060But instead of the mainstream media who were there at the time, instead of them capturing what happened, taking it, following that story that was unfolding in front of everyone's eyes.
00:19:30.100That's how I got it, because I was there to capture the same event that I was not allowed to go to, that they were at.
00:19:36.260But they were too busy reporting on the fact that I was disobeying these unlawful directions by the commissioner, that they missed the actual story unfolding in front of our eyes.