As a Senior Member of the New South Wales Police Force Public Order & Riot Squad (PORS), I have been involved in many large-scale events and protests since 2009. Until 2016, PORS Commander Chief Superintendent Steve Cullen ran the unit in a manner that approached each mission, with consistency and without prejudice.

Since his departure, the unit appears to have been overrun by bureaucrats and we find ourselves in a situation where a once cohesive unit, has been replaced with uncertainty, division, and conflicts, driven by increased red-tape and competitiveness, causing the demise of good judgement in policing.

This situation has intensified during the declared National State of Emergency, as Police are asked to enforce arbitrary rules against the population, without any verifiable and objective scientific basis, in the name of public health and safety, often infringing upon basic human rights in the process.

Excessive force is being deployed with increasing regularity, causing harm when it is apparently meant for good and the public is losing respect, trust and faith in us. I was shocked when I learned that New South Wales is NOT operating under a declared a State of Emergency. Yet the police are being compelled to enforce directions on the basis they do when it is clearly without these additional powers.

This is contemptible and I have serious concerns over the legality of the infringement notices we are being asked to enforce and issue.

The response to COVID-19 and our directions are often confusing, so I make the point that if the enforcers are unclear, how can we expect the public to be. This has come from what appears to be a rushed response that is perplexing, and its aftereffects are harmful on many levels.

I have read and researched the contents of the open letter sent by officer Alexander Cooney, dated October 26, 2020 [1] and I agree with its contents and echo its sentiments wholeheartedly and strongly support the motion to investigate these assertions and start questioning what is demanded of us, instead of yielding to demands, because they are clearly infringing upon human rights and coming from a place of bias and from those who are not representative or accountable to the people.

To further illustrate this concerning prejudice and unprofessional conduct, an Inspector of PORS, in a recent debrief about one of the “Anti Lockdown” protests, has made obscenely derogatory remarks about a child with her mother, who were peacefully protesting.

This raises serious moral and ethical questions about the present state of the force and the potential dangers it poses to our State and country.

Furthermore, I have been involved in protests where directives given on the ground, have clearly put peaceful protestors and innocent bystanders in harm’s way and in direct conflict with the police.

I am sure you would agree that having the support of the community is in our best interest. When the NRL grand final was packed with a 40,000 strong presence and permissions granted to the pub across the road to have its liquor licence extended to accept double patronage with over 1,000 people drinking.

A constant flow of people heading into the precinct from the nearby train station, PORS were instructed to focus their attention on a small protest held in between those events that had to be broken up for alleged “safety reasons”.

Anyone can see the blatant hypocrisy in such double standards and that there is another agenda at play and that it has nothing to do with public health and safety.

3 It appears that the medical establishment has taken over the decision making through unelected Chief Health Officers. Their decisions corner us into relenting to their demands, so questioning the factual basis of these decisions should be encouraged. If there is truly no conspiracy here, why aren’t we having the conversation? Why are we being silenced? Why are we being ostracised for having a differing view? Aren’t these issues the very cornerstone of our democracy?

When we assume a person has committed a crime, we conduct an investigation, yet when a citizen assumes wrongdoing by its government, it’s called a conspiracy theory. If this is not covert social conditioning, then I put it to you that we need to be openly discussing the points raised in Alexander Cooney’s letter.

In the Oath of Office, I swore that peace would be protected to the best of my power and all offences against that peace, defended faithfully to the law. I am aligned to this and the NSW Police Force statement of values which is about integrity, lawfulness, preserving human rights, improving community quality of life, striving for civil and personal satisfaction, capitalising on the wealth of human resources, while making efficient and economical use of public resources, and ensuring authority is exercised responsibly.

Infringements of peace are occurring right now and we must act to defend this and uphold our values, so as a self-respecting and proud officer of the NSW Police, I cannot flout them by allowing this conduct to continue unchallenged.

 And as weeks have passed since Alexander Cooney’s open letter was received and clearly, no further probing of its contents done, I have accepted his challenge to write a similar letter and show my solidarity, in the hope that our requests will be taken seriously, so we can persuade positive change and restore community trust in our otherwise honourable police force.

Regards, Kevin Dawson Senior Constable, 42923 New South Wales Police Force Public Order & Riot Squad 1 Edwin Flack Drive Sydney Olympic Park NSW

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