American First Amendment defenders turn eyes toward Orwellian ‘police-state’ in Australia

For most American citizens, the battle for free speech, assembly, worship, and all the protections afforded citizens in the First Amendment to the US constitution is the most important battle they will ever undertake. The right of the people to express themselves free of government restrictions—particularly when it’s the government upon which they are speaking—played a central role in the founding of this nation, and must play a similar role in its survival.

Citizens for Free Speech (CFFS) has been at the forefront of the fight to defend those rights in the United States, but the non-profit organization is also thinking globally as it continues to act locally. CFFS has watched in horror as the once-free people of Australia continue to suffer in isolation as their suddenly authoritarian government has enacted police-state tactics in response to the global Coronavirus pandemic.

“The videos coming out of Australia, particularly in Melbourne, of people being slammed to the ground by police officers for simply walking outside their homes and trying to breathe fresh air are simply terrifying,” said CFFS founder and executive director Patrick Wood. “During the height of the pandemic in 2020, and even now in 2021, we have joined our CFFS members here in the U.S. in opposition to lockdown orders that restricted our God-given rights. But what we have endured pales in comparison to what the Aussie people are facing right now. We are witnessing scenes that are honestly reminiscent of the initial phases of Nazi Germany. It’s that serious.”

The government of Australia has turned to its military forces, coordinating with police, to ensure that virtually every public space is deserted, believing that even a single case of COVID-19 would lead to a massive, continent-wide outbreak. For the citizens of the country, the price of such policies has been steep.

“They’re enforcing, after a year and a half, they’re still enforcing lockdowns by the military,” said Florida governor Ron DeSantis. “And that’s not a free country at all. I mean, is Australia freer than China, communist China right now? I don’t know. The fact that that’s even a question tells you something has gone dramatically off the rails.”

As shocking as the conditions have been for the Aussie people, government officials are now warning that the worst is yet to come. New South Wales Deputy Premier John Barilaro said this week that failure to accept the nation’s mandatory vaccination will lead to an even heavier restriction of basic rights.

“The message to the unvaccinated is that you will not achieve any further freedom unless you get vaccinated,” he stated. “There will be individuals in regional and rural New South Wales who choose not to be vaccinated who will lose their freedoms on the 11th of October,”

CFFS is denouncing such threatening and intimidating tactics, and encourages human rights groups around the world to join them in condemnation of the burgeoning Australian dystopia.

“People around the world may not have their freedoms so clearly outlined in their founding documents like we do in the United States,” Wood declared, “but that doesn’t mean they don’t deserve the same basic protections. We will continue to work at the grassroots level to protect our own freedoms, including those of medical privacy and autonomy, but will also stand firmly behind those seeking such protections around the world. A single authoritarian government is one too many, and it is up to free people here in the U.S. to stand up for the rights of others with as much conviction as we defend our own.”

For more information about CFFS please visit www.CitizensForFreeSpeech.org.