Down for the count

According to the police, the man was bashed by three individuals, one punched him, the other took him into a head-lock and the third kicked him. As he fell, already unconscious, he hit his head on the curb. It all happened very fast, probably around 5 seconds.

Keith Warburton, the victim, is a man without political affiliation. he came to the meeting to get a few facts on One Nation. He confirmed that the impression he got was the opposite of what he had heard in the media. To his surprise, he found One Nation to be anti-racist.

When incidents such as this one happen, the stirrers run in all directions pretending they have no responsibility. One of them, Cr Greg Harris, the Mayor of Dandenong has polarised his community when the proper course of action for an official in his position was to let One Nation meet and not use his office for political purpose. This stupid habit of organising counter-meetings is only giving One Nation more publicity and is ultimately defeating the aim of the organisers.

Stephen Jolly is an individual who engaged in deception to cover his tracks the following day. His feeble attempts to throw back the responsibility onto One Nation backfired badly. He said that violence started when Jim Cairns was ejected from the meeting but Jim Cairns had already been pelted with missiles on his way into the building. Is he also suggesting that some waited for Jim Cairns to be ejected to go to the shop and buy 30 dozen eggs? Or is it more accurate to say that some in the crowd had made up their mind well in advance? Neil Mitchell on 3AW answered his question "why did this happen in sleepy Dandenong" in no uncertain terms. Mr Jolly was also claiming that security and police were provoking the crowd. His version of events were such that at times, I had doubts I actually had been at the meeting.

In many ways, this senseless but isolated incident took the focus away from the real violence. For weeks, the people who have attended One Nation meetings have been assaulted, physically and verbally. But the most serious assault has been perpetrated by Jolly's thugs on the basic democratic right to free speech every Australian should enjoy. And to complete the farce, one of their policies, should they ever acceed to government, is the removal of police from demonstrations! Good on you, clowns.