Employing social media hash-tags such as #FreedomMarch, #NoMandatoryJabs #NoLockdowns #NoVaxPassports and, simply, #Freedom, millions worldwide Saturday disobeyed politicians, and took to the streets to rally for liberty against a growing threat of forced business closures, crowd restrictions, church closures, mask mandates, and so-called “vaccine passports.”
Worldwide, government reactions to the peaceful marchers and speakers were varied, and might reflect larger political and institutional resistance to the voices of common sense and human rights.
In London, small conflicts between marchers and cops near Number 10 Downing Street were captured by the Ruptly live-stream.
In Italy, marchers met in Rome and Naples, calling for politicians to recognize basic human rights -- and numerous uniformed police actually removed their helmets to join one crowd.
Dublin, Ireland, and Belfast, Northern Ireland, saw tens of thousands rally, mostly without police interference.
In Paris, hundreds of thousands rallied, and many met harsh police treatment.
In Sydney, Australia, a location locked-down for the past four weeks, the story was similar, while in both Brisbane -- where protesters chanted “Wake Up, Australia! Mass Hysteria!” -- and, further south and west, in Melbourne, constables were not as harsh.
Brisbane 🇭🇲 Anti Lockdown Extravaganza 💥 Beautiful people, finally UNITING as one. Long Live Freedom 👊 pic.twitter.com/lzYMzZLJcN
— 𝙇𝙏𝙍𝙉8 𝙀𝙉𝘿𝙉 (@ATLEASTDIETRYN) July 24, 2021
Sydney is so oppressive, it now sees police attempting to “track” and arrest protesters, using their digital footprints, social media footage, and images from CCTV.
The fight is Quixotic. It's politically-driven.
These politicians have no right to force injections on anyone, or silence speech, or shut down business, and the people who took to the streets around the world Saturday were trying to tell them precisely that.
Related: Washington St. Football Coach Rebuffs Pac-12's Vaccine Mandate