CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
For the first time since Minnesota law enforcement officers killed the unarmed black man George Floyd live on camera 7 days ago, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has today suggested that maybe American police are a little heavy-handed.
This comes after a Channel 7 cameraman was punched by riot cops outside the White House last night, while clearing the vicinity with tear gas so that President Trump to speak to media in front of a church across the road.
The incident comes amid a string of police attacks on media during the nationwide protests triggered by the most recent murder of a black man by police, who then released a tampered autopsy absolving themselves of blame – despite being caught on video pressing a knee into his neck for 9 minutes.
However, unlike the incident that actually caused these protests, the attack on a white cameraman for a conservative Australian news channel has finally forced the Prime Minister to confront this issue head on.
It’s for this reason that Morrison has instructed Australia’s embassy in the US to investigate the incident.
“Look, I usually stay out of America’s volatile culture of systemic racism in their police forces and industrial prison system” said Morrison.
“Do they have a horrible culture of killing unarmed minorities and not prosecuting the cops involved… That’s not my place to say”
“But what I saw today on Sunrise, between the Cash Cow segment and the Weather report… What we all saw… Sent chills through my body”
Morrison says that he can only imagine the fear felt by cameraman in that moment, knowing that he was completely powerless to stop the assault, even as a correspondent for the Liberal Party’s propaganda arm.
“I will say this to the American police force, and the American government as a whole…”
“Killing unarmed thousands of unarmed black men is one thing, but don’t dare touch the Sunrise cameraman”
“I saw a good meme on the weekend – Ronald Reagan didn’t change anything by brutalising white men” he told 2GB this morning.
“Hopefully the President can schedule in another phone call with me over the next few months so we can talk about this”
