The Australian media and political class are in full-blown outrage after 9News journalist Lauren Tomasi was struck by a rubber bullet while covering immigration protests in downtown Los Angeles.
On Sunday, June 8, Tomasi was reporting live amid the escalating unrest when an officer, captured on camera, raised a firearm and fired a nonlethal round at close range, striking her in the leg. Tomasi, not wearing protective gear, cried out and clutched her leg as the live shot abruptly cut away.
You can view the incident below:
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wasted no time condemning the incident in his first National Press Club appearance since winning re-election last month.
“We have already raised these issues with the US administration. We don’t find it acceptable that it occurred, and we think that the role of the media is particularly important,” Albanese said.
Labelling the attack “horrific,” the prime minister insisted Tomasi had been deliberately targeted: “She was clearly identified. There was no ambiguity. She wasn’t wearing a trackie. She was wearing … something that identified her as media,” he said.
“It is not acceptable,” he said. “I respect the role that the media play, and people should respect the role that the media play in our modern society.”
The media is also outraged. Karl Stefanovic from Channel 9 demanded an immediate investigation, asking, “How is it OK for your police force to be firing at unarmed Australian journalists?”
But while the media and political class in Australia erupt over the treatment of one of their own on foreign soil, Australians have been quick to point out a curious irony: this is the exact same kind of force Victorian police used against Australian citizens in 2021, during the height of Melbourne’s brutal COVID-19 lockdowns — with barely a whisper of protest from those now up in arms.
Here’s Karl Stefanovic’s report of the 2021 incident:
At the time, Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton admitted to using “pepper balls, foam baton rounds, smoke bombs and stinger grenades which deploy rubber pellets” against lockdown protesters.
Here’s a reminder of what took place (language warning):
Melbourne, often dubbed the world’s most locked-down city, endured six separate lockdowns totalling 262 days between March 2020 and October 2021. And when citizens took to the streets to protest what many considered authoritarian government overreach, they were met with the same crowd-control tactics that the Australian elite are now decrying in Los Angeles.
So, if you’re shot while exercising ‘freedom of the press,’ you’re hailed as a hero. But if you’re shot while exercising the basic freedom to leave your home, you’re treated like you had it coming.
The hypocrisy and selective outrage are remarkable, really. It seems rubber bullets are only condemned when fired at journalists abroad defending freedom of the press, not when they’re used against everyday Australians standing up for their freedoms at home.
