{"id":243043,"date":"2021-09-22T07:41:48","date_gmt":"2021-09-22T07:41:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=243043"},"modified":"2021-09-23T06:38:18","modified_gmt":"2021-09-23T06:38:18","slug":"melbourne-violent-protests-escalate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=243043","title":{"rendered":"Melbourne: Violent Protests Escalate"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">Anti-vax protesters ambush cops and smash police cars in violent Melbourne protest before taking over major bridge &#8211; after worker took his life at construction site following Covid shutdown<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Violent scenes at union head office in central Melbourne during Victoria construction industry shut down<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Union boss slammed &#8216;fake tradies&#8217; and &#8216;man-baby Nazis&#8217; who sparked chaos on streets of state capital<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Protest followed the news that a construction worker had taken his own life at a building site this morning\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Anti-vaxxer protesters again faced off with police as they pelted squad cars in chaotic scenes on Tuesday<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Crowd also turned their attention to TV reporters with protesters attacking journalist and his cameraman\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Protesters also blocked Westgate Freeway &#8211; a vital artery into the city &#8211; as they brought traffic to standstill<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Charlie Coe, Wayne Flowers and Charlotte Mitchell \u2013 Daily Mail Sept 21, 2021<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>Violent anti-vax protesters ambushed riot cops and smashed up police cars as construction worker demonstrations on the streets of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/melbourne\/index.html\"><strong>Melbourne<\/strong><\/a> descended into chaos for the second day running.<\/p>\n<p>Footage showed tradesmen in hi-vis clothing kicking police cars and attempting to tear off their side mirrors in the Australian city&#8217;s central business district as thousands of demonstrators gathered outside the state Parliament House on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>Riot police were then seen advancing in formation on the rioters before firing tear gas.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier, a Channel 7 TV reporter was assaulted by a protester and had bags filled with urine thrown at him. The demonstrators then blocked the West Gate Bridge &#8211; a major freeway into the city &#8211; bringing traffic to a standstill at peak hour.<\/p>\n<p>Building industry workers and anti-vaxxers were out protesting for a second consecutive day &#8211; many of them distraught after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-10011531\/Tradie-takes-life-work-site-morning-Victorias-construction-shutdown-protest.html\"><strong>a tradesman<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0took his own life at a construction site on Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n<p>The man&#8217;s body was found at a building site in West Melbourne hours after Victoria state premier Daniel Andrews announced his decision to shut the construction industry down for two weeks amid rising coronavirus case numbers and poor adherence to pandemic health measures.<\/p>\n<p>The worker, who is believed to be from Croatia, is yet to be named publicly.<\/p>\n<p>Demonstrators sung the Australian national anthem and chanted &#8216;f*** the jab&#8217; in protest against mandatory vaccination orders and the industry shutdown.<\/p>\n<p>The protest\u00a0began outside the boarded up head office of the construction union, the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), which had been badly damaged by violent demonstrations just 24 hours earlier.<\/p>\n<p>More than 100 police officers walked up a major central thoroughfare in pursuit of the crowd, with officers warning demonstrators over loudspeaker to turn back.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Attention, this is a police public order warning. You have previously been directed to leave,&#8217; an officer inside a line of riot police and officers on horseback told the crowd.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Leave now or force may be used. No further warnings will be given.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>By 2.30pm, the protest had reached the city&#8217;s West Gate Bridge, with demonstrators bringing traffic to a standstill before breaking out into a rendition of 90s hit The Horses by Daryl Braithwaite as they marched across the bridge.<\/p>\n<p>One vocal protester was heard shouting &#8216;this is our bridge&#8217; as demonstrators threw a ladder across the road to block traffic.<\/p>\n<p>Traffic heading inbound towards Melbourne was backed up for almost four miles as hundreds of cars and trucks tried to leave the freeway at Williamstown Road where police had formed a blockade.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_243044\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Protesting-construction-workers-move-across-the-West-Gate-Freeway-in-Melbourne.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-243044\" class=\"wp-image-243044\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Protesting-construction-workers-move-across-the-West-Gate-Freeway-in-Melbourne.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"426\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Protesting-construction-workers-move-across-the-West-Gate-Freeway-in-Melbourne.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Protesting-construction-workers-move-across-the-West-Gate-Freeway-in-Melbourne-480x320.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) 640px, 100vw\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-243044\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Mail\u2019s caption reads, \u201cConstruction workers and far-right activists are pictured as they moved the protest onto the West Gate Freeway in Melbourne\u201d. This is an old propaganda ploy. How many of the protesters were \u201cfar-right activists\u201d is open to question but the association alone is meant to discredit the protests and the anti-vaccination movement. Click to enlarge. Ed.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Melbourne-protests.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-243045\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Melbourne-protests.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"508\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Melbourne-protests.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Melbourne-protests-480x381.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) 640px, 100vw\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In chaotic scenes, a person riding a motorcycle was seen tearing up and down the highway on the wrong side of the road on one wheel before making an exit down a ramp.<\/p>\n<p>The mood in the crowd was dark following news of the construction worker&#8217;s death at the Crema Construction site that morning.<\/p>\n<p>Crema Constructions declined to comment about the man&#8217;s death.<\/p>\n<p>Worksafe is investigating the death while police will prepare a report for the Coroner.<\/p>\n<p>Tensions boiled over about 11am with protesters lighting flares and a bottle being tossed towards police.<\/p>\n<p>The angry crowd also turned their attention to television reporters, with a group of protesters physically attacking veteran journalist Paul Dowsley.<\/p>\n<p>The Seven News reporter, who was also doused with urine during the chaos, was broadcasting from the scene when he was attacked by one demonstrator who grabbed him around the throat.<\/p>\n<p>Dowsley continued to report as protesters threatened him, saying: &#8216;There are people with a real message about the vaccine and their health concerns and there are some that seem hellbent on causing trouble.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I&#8217;m not a fighter, I&#8217;ve never thrown a punch in my life.. [a protester] singled me out without knowing anything about me.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;My colleague and I are now covered in what I understand to be urine.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Continues \u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-10012095\/Anti-vax-protesters-ambush-cops-smash-police-cars-bridge-violent-Melbourne-protest.html\">https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-10012095\/Anti-vax-protesters-ambush-cops-smash-police-cars-bridge-violent-Melbourne-protest.html<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fu2ZSMgWstk\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Protests in Melbourne escalated after a tradesman commited suicide at a local building site. His death comes after the government shut down the construction industry. Fired with anti-vaxx sentiment, construction workers vented their anger in the city&#8217;s CBD <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coronavirus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=243043"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":243069,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243043\/revisions\/243069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=243043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=243043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=243043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}