The Day VicPol Finally Did its Job Peter Lavac
https://quadrant.org.au/news-opinions/anti-semitism/the-day-vicpol-finally-did-its-job/
On Sunday the 18th May, 2025, I had the great honour to stand shoulder to shoulder with the courageous Lions of Zion and supporters to face down an enraged mob of 20,000 pro-Hamas marchers in Melbourne. The Lions are fiercely proud Jewish Australians and allies formed in response to the national antisemitism crisis which has seen incidents surge by over 700% in Australia. To Australia’s great disgrace, this surge was in response to the largest loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust, the biggest terror attack in Israel’s history, and Hamas’ declaration of war on October 7, 2023.
We stared down the thousands of pro-Hamas thugs spewing hatred and vitriol as they proceeded on their march from the Yarra to St Kilda — their sick little joke about “River to the Sea”. St Kilda and neighbouring Caulfield are meccas for Jewish life in Melbourne. Of all available destinations, there can be no doubt this route was chosen for maximum intimidation.
Early on that Sunday morning I was picked up at my hotel by a film crew from Rebel News. I was hooked up with an audio wire. It was important that my conversations with the police be recorded.
We then drove to end of Princes Bridge, where I met with the brave Lions, proudly displaying Aussie and Israeli flags. They were very happy to see me and gave me a very warm welcome. One member of the group furiously shook my hand and said, “We heard there was a criminal barrister coming down from Sydney to stand with us. We are so glad you are here.”
I gave them a briefing, first of all asking if anyone had any weapons. Of course none did. They were armed only with Israeli flags, Aussie flags, fierce pride and great courage. Some were huge, powerfully built bodybuilders and martial arts experts. I myself am a former wrestling champion and have been a lifelong body builder. But we were only 40 against 20,000 screaming Hamas supporters and all their left-wing woke neo-Marxist hangers-on. I explained to the Lions the law of self-defense: if attacked by the Hamasnik thugs, the law does not expect them to turn the other cheek. The law allows them to use reasonable force to protect themselves and to protect each other. But this force must not be excessive. You are not allowed to pound your assailant into a coma.
I then approached the top cop in charge of the several hundred present at the scene. I introduced myself with my barrister’s ID card. He inspected it twice. I explained who I was and why I was there: to protect my people from assault, not only by the thugs, but also from assault by Victorian Police. I was there to protect their legal rights.
And what an indictment this is. At a so-called “pro-Palestine” protest outside the Victorian Parliament, police stood by and let this happen. Viral footage has repeatedly exposed a VicPol policy of protecting threatening mobs while arresting those few who are brave enough to stand against the terrorism of October 7 and the hate washing weekly over our own streets. In Sydney, at a pro-Hezbollah march in October, 2024, police allegedly said “We’re here to protect the protest.”
In Melbourne, officers were non-responsive when a protester screamed across police lines at a man draped in an Australian flag: “I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you!” The intended target implored the police, “Are you going to do anything? He just threatened to kill me! Are you going to act?” The answer from the cop was a deafening silence.
This non-policing policing is not keeping the peace. This is total surrender to the mob. These are not peaceful protests — they are fueled by hate, intimidation, threats and open support for terrorists. There is no red line that these protests haven’t already crossed. And the police have enabled it, allowed it, even encouraged it.
The only reason police acted differently last weekend was because I was there to read them the Riot Act and tell them what I expected of the police that day. After consulting with his command, the officer finally advised me, “We’ll give you a chance to protest peacefully.”
Had I not been there, I am pretty sure VicPol would have told all 40 Lions and their supporters to go away, arresting them should they fail to comply.
I was there not only to defend the legal right of the Lions to protest peacefully, but also to ensure they were protected from assault by thugs, and also from assault by the police, which has often occurred in the past. I told police directly: I was also there to prevent any unlawful arrests. I made it very clear to the top cop that I expected him and all his officers to do their job properly, concluding by saying: “You now know my position, and this is what I expect.” We then shook hands and he said we will work together.
And then it began. The spearhead of the march began to cross Princes Bridge like locusts beneath a thicket of Palestinian flags. We counter-protesters proudly raised our own flags in response. I instructed our side to say nothing, to stand tall and proud, and to stare them down.
Their screams of abuse through megaphones were accompanied by the beating drums and the banging of metal pots. We stood completely still and silent, flags held high. We then slowly waved our flags which only enraged them even more.
The cops formed a protective phalanx around our people. They stood their ground, forming two solid lines between us on the footpath and the rabble on the bridge roadway. Melbourne traffic was brought to a complete standstill, as it has been pretty much every weekend since the October 7 slaughter. The police continued to hold their ground, stone-faced, focused straight ahead, and unflinching. Without that phalanx of police holding them back, it would have been a bloodbath.
The entire procession took many minutes to pass. Once they passed our position, we commenced following them at a distance. The phalanx of protective cops silently walked with us. One of our group played loud Israeli music from a boombox. We kept marching. Flags raised. Loud music. Proud, defiant, fearless.
After several kilometres a section of the mob turned around and blocked our path. They started moving toward us, screaming abuse and chanting “Free Palestine” and “From the River to the Sea”. It was a Mexican standoff that lasted about thirty minutes — half an hour of screamed abuse, tension, threats and naked hatred. Then something extraordinary happened: VicPol actually did their job!
In a complete departure from previous rallies, where police have often turned on the soft target – the Jews – this time, they stood with the peaceful minority, and faced down the mob. They pushed the thugs back forcefully and violently to clear our path. What a switch from previous occasions!
Earlier, as the march passed us on the bridge, one thug held up a desecrated Aussie flag, the Union Jack completely cut out. These people do not just hate the Jewish people, who they singularly deny their peoplehood and the right to self-determination in the ancestral homeland. They also hate our flag. They hate Australians. And they hate Australia.
They are hell-bent on taking over our country and establishing Sharia law. At a recent rally in February 2024, leading “Palestine” advocate Nasser Mashni was recorded shouting outside the State Library of Victoria and at Parliament House, “Melbourne is ours, Australia is ours, the World is ours.” This is their very clearly stated agenda and goal, openly declared, with no attempt to hide it.
My response: “Not a chance, mate. Not on my watch. I will never allow this to happen. And I know millions of Aussies feel the same way.”
Nasser Mashni: ‘Melbourne is ours, Australia is ours, the World is ours’
England, Canada, Ireland, Germany, France and other Western societies are in deep trouble as a result of mass immigration, which has been tantamount to mass invasion and occupation. Australia is rapidly heading in the same direction, thanks to our weak and reckless government.
In Sydney alone, after 12 months of regular protests, NSW Premier Chris Minns disclosed police wages for protest management had already hit $5 million, not including overtime and sunk costs. A “huge drain on the public purse” is what he called it. What a disgraceful waste of scarce and valuable police resources and taxpayer dollars.
Across Australia, such rallies, protests, and marches have cost anywhere from $220,000 up to $2 million each, with up to 1000 officers deployed. This is an incalculable drain on police resources and a hobble on contending with knife crimes, theft, road safety, robberies and domestic violence.
And that’s only the start. Add the costs of extra security at monuments, government buildings, places of worship, and even private homes — all targets of hate-filled protests, vandalism and threats. Next, add the cost to national security, with the terrorism threat officially standing at “probable” since August 5, 2024. Finally, figure in the toll on police morale – officers regularly punched, spat on, called “bastards”, “white supremacists”, and taunted with “Too many coppers – not enough justice”. Around a third of these officers are reported to be on stress leave or proceeding with compensation claims. The same mob screaming “Defund the Police” are the ones draining them dry.
Instead of controlling violent pro-Hamas protests, and dealing with them appropriately by arresting thugs, police have targeted peaceful Jewish groups, the soft targets who pose no physical threat to the police. They have allowed the Rule of Law to be overtaken by the rule of the mob. This is not a Jewish problem. This is a huge problem for all Australians. And a huge problem for the entire Western world.
Too many ordinary Australians do not know what is going on. I recently had lunch with a couple of everyday Aussies. They had no clear idea what happened on October 7. They did not know there were five terror groups that invaded Israel alongside Hamas. They did not know that so-called “innocent” Gazans joined in the slaughter and abduction of hostages. They did not know Hamas leaders live in Qatar, in absolute luxury. They did not know Iran bankrolled the attack with $500 million. They did not know that these attacks were coordinated with Hezbollah and the Houthis, both proxies of Iran. They did not know the terrorists entered via the very checkpoints used for daily work in Israel – work that gave them a living, as well as access to details of village layouts, homes, families, pets. They did not know that the occupants of 22 Israeli villages were savagely butchered: parents and children were tortured to death in front of each other. They did not know that young women and girls were gang-raped with foreign objects before they were murdered. They did not know that many men were raped. They did not know that the naked, blood-spattered bodies of these females were paraded through the streets of Gaza, to be spat upon and jeered at by jubilant, celebrating Gazans. They did not know that victims were burned alive. They did not know that babies were decapitated and burned. They did not know the terrorists filmed the heinous savagery with bodycams, to commemorate what they did, to later gloat over it with friends and family. They did not know about body parts kept as trophies. They did not know that corpses were taken as bargaining chips. They did not know that 251 hostages were dragged into a 700km terror tunnel network dungeon, that was built with billions in donated aid, often using child labour. They did not know that two red-headed Bibas babies were kidnapped along with their mother and held as hostages in tunnels, until all three were brutally murdered in cold blood. The two babies were strangled with bare hands, and their tiny, lifeless bodies were battered with rocks to support the monstrous lie that they were killed by an Israeli airstrike. They did not know that hospitals, schools, and residential homes were used as headquarters and weapons stores. They did not know an estimated 15-25% of Gazan-fired rockets fall short, injuring and killing Gazans. They didn’t know that Hamas vows to repeat October 7, until their goal of complete annihilation.
I am a criminal barrister. I have prosecuted and defended in over 100 murder trials, not only in Australia but also in Hong Kong, where I worked for eighteen years. For eight years, as a Crown Prosecutor, I was locking up Triad gangsters and killers. I then switched to private practice, where for the next 10 years I defended Triad gangsters and killers. I’ve seen the absolute worst of humanity, but nothing – absolutely nothing – prepared me for the obscene horrors perpetrated by these Hamas monsters.
In Greenacre, Sydney, suburban crowds celebrated with fireworks and sweets. In Lakemba, a sheikh declared “I am elated. It’s a day of courage. It’s a day of happiness. It’s a day of pride. It’s a day of victory. This is the day”. Crowds answered: “Allahu Akbar”. On the hallowed forecourt of our iconic Opera House, symbol of our Australia, antisemitic thugs chanted “Fuck the Jews”, “Gas the Jews”, burnt flags, and fired flares, while police stood like stuffed dummies (below) and did absolutely nothing.
Our gutless government not only betrayed Australia’s most loyal democratic ally and indispensable intelligence partner in the Middle East, but also betrayed both Australian Jews and fellow Australians, by failing to stand up for the rule of law and against terrorism.
What broke my heart most in Melbourne that day? Only 40 turned out to stand against the hate that is poisoning this country. There should have been thousands standing shoulder to shoulder with us — not only proud Jews but Australians of other faiths and no faith, waving their flags and proclaiming: Not here. Not ever. Not on our watch.
Many mainstream journalists are too gutless to report these hard stories for two reasons. First, they are in fear of physical harm – I know of one journalist advised by police to leave town and go interstate after receiving death threats. The other reason mainstream journalists won’t go near the truth of the hatred polluting our streets and society: they are terrified of being labelled racist and Islamophobic, which has the effect of undermining freedom of press.
Australians must stand up and speak out. This is our country. These are our streets. If we do not fight for our rights, we lose them. You do not run. You do not give in to fear. If you run away and give into fear, you are letting the haters win.
Comments are closed.
