Today is the 65th anniversary of the release of the Hitchcock classic “Vertigo”. (Pictured above are Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak in a still from the movie with words added by me.)
Today my head is spinning. Living in a nascent police state which used to be a liberal democracy will do that to you. Vertigo.
Today, I was due to go on trial in this state of Victoria as a result of proudly and quietly seeking prayer and spiritual communion with a Warthaurong man at an Anglican cathedral on 9/11 last year during the Queen Elisabeth memorial service. (Connecting with indigenous people is a big part of my life. I believe my grandmother was the granddaughter of someone from the Aboriginal cricket team in England in 1868. Maybe part of my heritage is Aboriginal. I wish I knew for sure. Vertigo.) Police removed me from that prayer.
I am pretty sure that the young police officer informant who instigated this trial was one of three officers who them physically assaulted me (in the words of one eye witness they “slammed me to the ground”) when I protested loudly to them at being removed from my prayer at the entrance to a crowded cathedral. A little later the same informant stood by and did nothing while another officer sexually assaulted me. At the time, I said quite clearly, “For God’s sake you are groping me now. A hand in my underpants.”, but the informant, a police officer standing one meter away, did not do a thing to investigate this report of a crime. Instead he has gone on to put me on trial on trivial charges.
Just after I entered the courtoom today at about ten o’clock in the morning before the magistrate had arrived, I said a prayer in which I invoked God in both Aboriginal (“Under Bunjil, Under Baiame”) terms and and in monotheistic more Abrahamic terms and then said “This is my court today.” or words similar to that. I made that claim because I was confident that I could get the magistrate to look at the evidence and recommend an IBAC (Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission) investigation of Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Andrew Patton for one or more of his own crimes or the crimes committed by his police officers against me. I was wrong. Today. Maybe I will have better luck next time. No way of knowing for sure. Vertigo.
As I sat down again at the front of the court where I believed, based on previous information given to me by court office staff, that there would be a three hour hearing relating to my case, the police lawyer leading the attack on my rights today approached me and told me, as I recall, that I could be removed from the court. I forget her full statement. (I am stressed. Vertigo.) I angrily told her it was not her job to decide who gets removed than the magistrates’ court. w
When the female magistrate came in, everybody, including myself, stood. When the others sat down, I remained standing and angrily told the magistrate that the police lawyer was trying to preempt the magistrate’s role and that one of the police officers had sexually assaulted me last year.
I was told by the magistrate to leave and that I would be called back when she was ready to hear the case. I was then escorted from the court by three impatient police force personnel wearing guns. I was taken out to the pavement on a cold day and told by one of them that I was not welcome in the court. I asked him if he knew what legislation governed his human rights responsibilities in Victoria (he gave no answer) and I also told him that I thought this action of his might deny me a fair trial since the magistrate had said she would call me back for the case. On the day when I was representing myself against police state crap, I stood alone on the pavement not knowing what would happen next. Modern Australian justice. Vertigo.
Fortunately one of my magnificent support people then arrived. He was late, because he had travelled by car from approximately 100 kilometers away and had misjudged the time needed. He went in and got me a piece of paper saying that that case was adjourned about six weeks till June. If he hadn’t been there I could have been waiting hours and ignored.
Praise The Lord Our Saviour, Sustainer and Protector, for those with the courage to give fellowship in times of injustice against police state crap.
Modern life can be so hard. Especially if you are a 65 year old man in Australia trying to do good but thwarted constantly by authoritarian PC crap:
Vertigo.
Geoff Fox, 9th May, 2023, Australia
FREEDOM, DEMOKRASI AND CIVILISED HUMANITY 