Eve Lamb
A Castlemaine woman has been arrested and charged following an incident in the town’s Victory Park last weekend.
The arrest last Saturday morning took place during a protest gathering which police say involved a small number of people who were demonstrating against vaccination and mask wearing mandates.
Castlemaine’s Senior Sergeant Darren McQueen has confirmed that Castlemaine police attended the park on Saturday morning as a small anti-vaxxer, anti-mask wearing demonstration was being held.
When the middle-aged woman who was present was requested, by attending police, to provide her name and confirmation of her place of residence she failed to comply, Sen Sgt McQueen said.
The woman was subsequently arrested and charged on summons with resisting arrest, failure to provide identification as requested, failure to wear a mask in public in line with the state’s current requirements around mask wearing and failure to provide confirmation of her place of residence as requested by police.
Senior Sergeant McQueen said that following her arrest the woman had subsequently complied with requests to provide details of her identity.
However she will now be expected to face the magistrates court at a subsequent date in relation to the charges against her.
“Our stance is that we will police these protest activities and if they are within the directives we won’t interfere with the right to protest,” Snr Sgt McQueen told the Mail this week.
“We observe the right to protest however if someone is behaving in an anti-social manner we will police that.” Read more in today’s Mail…