The Covid-19 plandemic prompted governments worldwide to impose unprecedented lockdowns to curb the spread of the virus, often granting police expanded powers to enforce these measures:
https://dailysceptic.org/2025/03/24/how-the-police-went-woke/
In the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States, while many actions were framed as necessary for public health, evidence suggests that police responses in some instances crossed into human rights violations. These included excessive use of force, restrictions on freedom of expression and assembly, arbitrary detentions, and discriminatory enforcement—actions that clashed with fundamental rights enshrined in international law, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and regional frameworks like the European Convention on Human Rights. Below, I discuss how police in these three nations violated human rights during the lockdowns, drawing on available data, official reports where possible, and broader trends.
United Kingdom
In the UK, lockdown measures began in March 2020 under the Coronavirus Act and Public Health Regulations, restricting movement, assembly, and association. Police were tasked with enforcing these rules, but their actions often raised concerns about proportionality and respect for rights.
- Excessive Use of Force and Arbitrary Arrests: Reports indicate that UK police sometimes employed disproportionate force to enforce compliance. For example, Human Rights Watch's 2021 World Report noted concerns over police misuse of powers during lockdowns, particularly in response to protests. In June 2020, Black Lives Matter protest leaders in Melbourne (though technically Australia, this reflects a broader Anglo-sphere trend) were fined for breaching distancing rules, while in the UK, similar protests saw arrests despite attempts to comply with health guidelines. In September 2020, police arrested and fined protesters at Sydney University (again, an Australian case, but indicative of shared policing trends), and UK parallels emerged with arrests at anti-lockdown rallies in London. Posts on X and media coverage highlighted instances like the arrest of a woman in London for an anti-lockdown Facebook post, suggesting overreach into freedom of expression.
- Discriminatory Enforcement: The UK's Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) launched an inquiry in June 2020 into racial inequalities exacerbated by Covid-19, finding that Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities faced disproportionate policing. Data showed BAME individuals were more likely to be fined or arrested for lockdown breaches, reflecting systemic bias rather than equal application of the law. The 2021 Human Rights Watch report also flagged this disparity, noting the pandemic's unequal impact on these groups, compounded by police actions.
- Official Reports: While no single, comprehensive UK government report explicitly labels police actions as human rights violations, the EHRC's June 2020 announcement and subsequent findings underscored how lockdown enforcement amplified existing inequalities. The UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) in April 2020 also issued a checklist noting global trends of excessive force, with the UK cited for uneven emergency legislation implementation, per legal critiques in Human Rights Watch's reporting.
The UK's approach often balanced public health with rights, but these incidents suggest police occasionally overstepped, undermining the right to liberty (Article 5, ECHR) and peaceful assembly (Article 11).
Australia
Australia's lockdown enforcement, particularly in Victoria, was among the most stringent globally, with police actions drawing significant criticism for human rights violations.
- Excessive Use of Force: Human Rights Watch's September 2020 report, "Australia: Harsh Police Response During Covid-19," documented abusive practices in Victoria, where Melbourne faced a strict second lockdown from August 2020. Police used pepper-ball rounds during an August 21, 2021, protest in Melbourne, arresting over 200 people in what the Victoria police commissioner called one of the most violent protests in 20 years. Posts on X claim Australians were "beaten, sprayed, shot with rubber bullets, and arrested" for minor infractions like not wearing masks—consistent with footage of police tackling individuals or fining them harshly for breaching curfews.
- Arbitrary Detention and Curfew Enforcement: The Victorian Ombudsman's December 2020 report on the Melbourne public housing tower lockdowns found that the sudden, mandatory confinement of over 3,000 residents—enforced by a heavy police presence—violated human rights under Victorian law. Residents faced restricted access to food, medical care, and fresh air, with no prior health advice justifying the severity. The Australian Human Rights Commission's (AHRC) "Collateral Damage" report (March 2025) further detailed traumatic experiences, like a woman forced to birth a stillborn child alone due to visitation bans, highlighting how police-enforced restrictions curtailed freedom of movement and association.
- Freedom of Expression and Assembly: Victoria police arrested a pregnant woman in September 2020 for organising an anti-lockdown protest online, an incident widely criticised as an assault on free speech. The AHRC report noted that while 74 percent of surveyed Australians prioritised community good over individual rights, the disproportionate fining (e.g., 1,762 curfew fines totalling A$2.9 million by September 2020, per ABC data) and arrests in disadvantaged communities suggested discriminatory overreach.
- Official Reports: The AHRC's "Collateral Damage" (March 2025) is a landmark, explicitly stating that Australian governments overlooked human rights, with police actions like the tower lockdowns and protest crackdowns cited as severe violations. Victoria's Ombudsman report (December 2020) similarly condemned the towers incident as unlawful and disproportionate.
Australia's case stands out for its intensity, with police actions often breaching rights to liberty, expression, and non-discrimination, justified under emergency powers but later deemed excessive by official bodies.
United States
The U.S., with its decentralised policing and varied state responses, saw a patchwork of enforcement, but human rights violations emerged nonetheless.
- Excessive Use of Force: Amnesty International's December 2020 briefing, "Governments and Police Must Stop Using Pandemic as Pretext for Abuse," cited U.S. examples of police brutality during lockdown enforcement. In cities like New Orleans, arrests for minor offenses continued unabated, while in Philadelphia and Miami, police clashed with protesters over curfews. Human Rights Watch's April 2020 checklist flagged abuses in states like South Africa and the Philippines, but U.S. parallels emerged in reports of police using force against curfew violators—e.g., in New York, where officers were filmed beating individuals for non-compliance in May 2020.
- Restrictions on Assembly: The U.S. Department of State's 2020 Human Rights Practices Report noted that while freedoms of assembly were generally respected, Covid-19 restrictions led to arrests at protests. In July 2020, Portland police used tear gas and federal agents detained protesters without clear justification, prompting lawsuits from the ACLU over First Amendment violations. These actions curtailed the right to peaceful assembly (protected under the U.S. Constitution and international law).
- Discriminatory Policing: The CDC reported in June 2020 that non-white groups faced higher hospitalisation and death rates from Covid-19, a disparity worsened by policing. Black and Hispanic communities were disproportionately targeted for lockdown violations, with data from New York showing Black individuals receiving 35 percent of social distancing citations despite being 24 percent of the population (NYCLU, 2020). This echoes Freedom House's "Democracy Under Lockdown" report, which found police violence and arrests linked to pandemic measures in at least 66 countries, including the U.S.
- Official Reports: No single U.S. federal report comprehensively labels police actions as human rights violations, but the State Department's 2020 report acknowledges adverse actions during Covid-19. The UN OHCHR's April 2020 guidance criticised global trends of arbitrary detention and force, implicitly including U.S. cases, while local investigations (e.g., NYPD's internal reviews) admitted to enforcement inconsistencies.
The U.S. lacked Australia's centralised severity but saw rights violations through inconsistent, often brutal enforcement, particularly against marginalised groups.
Across the UK, Australia, and the U.S., police violated human rights through excessive force (e.g., rubber bullets in Melbourne, beatings in New York), restrictions on expression and assembly (e.g., UK protest fines, Australian online arrests), and discriminatory practices (e.g., BAME targeting in the UK, tower lockdowns in Victoria). Official reports—AHRC's "Collateral Damage," Victoria's Ombudsman, and EHRC inquiries—confirm these breaches, though U.S. documentation is less centralised, relying on NGOs like Amnesty and Human Rights Watch.
The significance lies in the erosion of trust and precedent-setting overreach. Emergency powers, meant to protect health, became tools for control, often without proportionality or oversight, as the UN OHCHR warned in 2020. We Christians, might see themselves as a remnant resisting such darkness, but the broader lesson is universal: unchecked authority risks dismantling the rule of law. If Big Agri can falter (e.g., the Roundup law suit discussed at the blog yesterday), so can policing institutions: scepticism toward their actions is warranted.
https://dailysceptic.org/2025/03/24/how-the-police-went-woke/