A pregnant Australian mom was handcuffed and hauled away by cops in front of her children for planning a lockdown protest online, according to video footage and a report.
Police arrested Zoe Buhler, 28, for incitement at her home near Melbourne after she created a “Freedom Day” protest event on Facebook and urged people to come, according to the the Guardian.
“I have no idea why you guys are doing this,” the distressed mother can be heard telling officers in a Facebook Live video. “My two kids are here. I have an ultrasound in an hour. I’m happy to delete the post.”
Buhler, of Ballarat, created the since-deleted “Freedom Day Ballarat” event scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday, proclaiming, “Please join us in our fight for freedom and human rights.”
As a Victoria police officer slapped cuffs on her, she insisted she hadn’t broken a law.
“I don’t really understand what I’ve done wrong. This is ridiculous,” she can be heard saying.
One of the officers snaps back, “Actually you are — that’s why we’re arresting you.”
Her boyfriend, James Timmins, offered to delete the Facebook post, saying, “How about she just doesn’t do the event? It’s not like she’s done it, she made a post.”
But the cops wouldn’t budge. “You’ve already committed the offense,” one of the officers said.
The footage quickly went viral, with Liberal party politician Craig Kelly declaring, “This is what you’d expect to see in Nazi Germany.”
Victoria police defended the arrest in a statement saying the planned protest was a “public health risk. “
“Any gathering of this nature is in blatant breach of the chief health officer’s directions and puts Victorian lives at risk,” the statement read, according to the Guardian.
Buhler is the fourth person to be charged with incitement in Victoria amid a crackdown on anti-lockdown protests in recent days.