Police rush Bondi Beach, apprehend ‘F … Israel’ tee-shirt man … again
· Michael West
As many as 18 police have descended on Bondi Beach to arrest anti-genocide protestor Andrew Brown for wearing a ‘F… Israel F… Zionists’ t-shirt.
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The Sydney businessman had been arrested over two years ago and forced to defend his rights to free speech as police pressed charges for offensive behaviour. He was charged, put under onerous bail conditions. And after a long and costly brush with police prosecutors, all three charges against him were dropped.
This afternoon at Bondi, the Sydney businessman and columnist here at Michael West Media was detained and threatened by NSW Police with arrest for offensive behaviour again for wearing what he described as his “favourite” t-shirt.
When confronted by officers as to what they described as “offensive behaviour” Brown responded that he was afforded freedom of political communication under the Constitution.
“I’m offended by people wearing crocs .. I’m offended by little kids being blown to pieces”.
He also said that he was offended by 13 year old girls wearing g-strings and invited police to make arrests for this offensive behaviour.
“I may be offended by something they do, it doesn’t mean I have them arrested. offence [under the law] is objective, not subjective.”
Brown said the actions of NSW Police were big, given the nature of the alleged offence – “a bloke wearing a t-shirt”. Brown was walking along the promenade at North Bondi when confronted by two police officers. Two more arrived. Then more, including commanders and members of special operations group Taskforce Odin.
There may have been 18 police all up, Brown told MWM on a rough count, as well as two paddy wagons and two ambulances.
After the initial confrontation, members of Premier Chris Minns’ specially designated riot and protest squad, Odin arrived minutes later. That’s the NSW Police Force’s “Operational Support Group” (OSG) for the Central Metropolitan Region – known as Odin (or ODN), serving as a specialised unit for high-visibility policing, protests, riot control, and raids.
In Norse mythology, Odin is the god of war and head of the pantheon in Valhalla – destined to lead the gods in the final battle of Ragnarök where he will be killed by the wolf Fenrir.
In making the point that the police response to his t-shirt was heavy-handed, Brown told police officers that NSW had broken his mother’s arm in their attacks on protestors at Sydney’s Town Hall two months ago. Dozens of protestors were arrested, attacked and injured protesting Israel’s genocide and the visit of President Isaac Herzog.
At Bondi today, Andrew Brown refused for some time to remove his t-shirt, or turn it inside out. However, after 20 minutes of arguing his right of freedom of political communication – that Israel was a state and Zionism a political ideology open to public criticism – he took it off as he had to go to the footy to see Parra versus Wests.
Brown was sitting on a wall on Bondi Beach last November wearing his Fuck Israel Fuck Zionism t-shirt when two police officers approached. Although he made no effort to flee, he was arrested, handcuffed and led around Bondi before being plonked in a paddy wagon and taken to Waverley Police Station. Thence the legal proceedings for a year.
Prosecution or persecution? Charges dropped against Bondi ‘F*** Israel tee-shirt man