Guest essay by Eric Worrall

The ABC reports a member of the public intervened at a protest in Brisbane to prevent an Extinction Rebellion protester from escaping arrest.

Extinction Rebellion protesters charged after blocking roads and creating chaos in Brisbane

More than 70 people have been charged over climate change protests that caused major traffic disruptions in Brisbane’s CBD.

…

Superintendent Chris Stream said some protesters were arrested for offences including public nuisance, disobeying lawful direction and also disrupting police.

“It is some time in the Brisbane city area since we’ve seen this amount of arrests,” he said.

‘We will do everything we possibly can to clear intersections and to enable at least limited traffic flow.”

He said police had been “generally happy” with the behaviour of protesters. 

“What we are pleased to see is that the larger amount of police interactions today have not involved violence,” he said.

“The only information I have in relation to a person being tackled to the ground was where a police officer was attempting to affect an arrest at the intersection of George and Elizabeth Street.

“A member of the public intervened as one of the protesters fled that area and tackled the protester to the ground.“

…

Read more: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-06/extinction-rebellion-protest-brisbane-cbd/11384442

I guess we can safely conclude at least one member of the public is less than enthused about having their commute ruined by a bunch of trouble makers illegally blocking the streets.

Let us hope the diversion of police resources to rounding up law breaking hippies did not cause harm to someone who really needed police assistance.

If anyone has a video of the Extinction Rebellion protestor being arrested please post the link.