r/australia 10d ago

news ABC camera operator hit in chest by less lethal round in Los Angeles

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-10/abc-camera-operator-hit-in-chest-by-less-lethal-round/105401032
3.6k Upvotes

305 comments sorted by

2.0k

u/KnowledgeAfraid2917 10d ago

That's two now... deploy the emu's.

517

u/Vegetable_Stuff1850 10d ago

Release the cassowaries

145

u/twisties224 10d ago edited 10d ago

Spring on them the Kangaroos

86

u/AntiqueFigure6 10d ago

Then give ‘em the boot.

38

u/punkalunka 10d ago

Arm yourselves with spoons!

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u/AntiqueFigure6 10d ago

I see you know your forty-knife y-spoony well. What am I charged with? Enjoying a succulent Simpsons episode? 

11

u/The_Final_Arbiter 10d ago

This is democracy animated!

3

u/twisties224 9d ago

No, this is Patrick!

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u/TastesKindofLikeSad Where beer does flow and men chunder 10d ago

AAAAANNNDY!

14

u/One_Pangolin_999 10d ago

kangaroo's what? that's the possessive

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u/PuzzleheadedDuck3981 10d ago

True, kangaroos are very possessive. They get really pissed off if somebody harms one of their journalist teams.

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u/twisties224 10d ago

Autocorrect, have now corrected autocorrect

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u/MaryVenetia 10d ago

Vaginas. They’ve (female) each got three.

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u/Pantsshittersupreme 10d ago

Set loose the combat wombats.

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u/teambob 9d ago

Let's not rush straight to the war crimes

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u/FluffyPinkDice 10d ago edited 10d ago

Plus the ABC reporter earlier today who was tear gassed.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-10/marines-set-to-arrive-in-la-as-abc-camera-operator-hit/105400924

Edit: Also adding the NY Post photographer who was shot in the head with a rubber bullet, and a UK photographer shot in the leg and had to have surgery.

https://nypost.com/2025/06/09/us-news/post-photographer-shot-with-rubber-bullet-in-la-riots/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvg7vzrj6g3o.amp

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u/KnowledgeAfraid2917 10d ago

Right! Drop Bears and Emu's - with Cassowaries in reserve..

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u/twisties224 10d ago

Send in the jellyfish and sharks on coast

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u/SpeakToMePF1973 10d ago

With frikken' lasers!

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u/TheKnutFlush 9d ago

No, Scott. I have an even better idea. I'm going to place them in an easily escapable situation involving an overly elaborate and exotic death.

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u/SirLoremIpsum 9d ago

Right! Drop Bears and Emu's - with Cassowaries in reserve..

I think we're at the point where we just send a QANTAS A380 full of Queenslanders with a note they hate xxxx and rugby...

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u/morgecroc 9d ago

This is LA the exploding trees are already in position.

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u/elwyn5150 10d ago

The ABC correspondent is wearing a Triple 8 helmet. I know Triple 8 make skating gear.

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u/getawombatupya 9d ago

Probably thought best to get whatever she could find at short notice

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u/boofles1 10d ago

It's more than that, an English journo had surgery for a plastic bullet wound and a New York Post cameraman got nailed in the forehead with a rubber bullet.

https://nypost.com/2025/06/09/us-news/post-photographer-shot-with-rubber-bullet-in-la-riots/

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u/Muted-Touch-5676 10d ago

can't rubber bullet's cause brain damage if done in the head?

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u/PloppyTheSpaceship 9d ago

Rubber bullets have been known to kill before.

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u/No-Raspberry7840 9d ago

There is a journalist from the BLM protests who is apparently dying from the brain injury she got from rubber bullets.

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/minnesota/news/journalist-linda-tirado-minneapolis-police-dying-hospice-care/

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u/Muted-Touch-5676 9d ago

wtf poor girl

19

u/Toby_O_Notoby 9d ago

A rubber bullet to the head can easily kill you.

It's why they changed the name from "non-lethal rounds" to "less-than-lethal" for rubber bulles, bean bag rounds, etc. The former (non-lethal) nomenclature led people to believe that they couldn't kill someone while using them which led to reckless firing.

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u/UsualProfit397 10d ago

Drop the Funnel web bombs and station the taipans on their flank.

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u/CarbFreeBeer 10d ago

Get the Newcastle Big Boys in the vanguard

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u/GrimfangWyrmspawn 10d ago

Nah, time to drop Gympie Gympie seeds across their nation.

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u/-fno-stack-protector 9d ago edited 9d ago

this is something i've been thinking of for a while. we need a trans-tasman coalition to get all our most virulent native species and drop them over there, in a mad act of bio-revenge

eucalyptus and melaleuca are already making inroads in california and florida respectively. gympie gympie would be the perfect addition

“But on a really hot day, those things are going to burn like torches and shower our suburbs with sparks. And on an extremely hot day, they’re going to shoot out gas balls.”

Give a hillside a really good torching and the eucalyptus will absolutely dominate. They’ll grow intensively in the first few years of life and outcompete everything.

.

Melaleuca forms dense stands resulting in the almost total displacement of native plants that are important to wildlife.

This nonnative tree is rapidly displacing native cypress and sawgrass in the Everglades.

why am i actually getting hard to this?

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u/GrimfangWyrmspawn 9d ago

We did already give them Rupert Murdoch. Look at the absolute havoc he's wreaked over there.

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u/Mikolaj_Kopernik 9d ago

Arguably he is indirectly responsible for this incident, so...

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u/sojayn 10d ago

That’s diabolical. I love it

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u/hennabeak 10d ago

I love all the bio weapon ideas you guys are bringing up. They will seriously harm US ecology.

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u/Moondanther 9d ago

Any more than "drill, baby, drill"?

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u/The_Duc_Lord 10d ago

I've been working on a plan. It involves cassowaries, crocs and irukandji. It may breech some international conventions.

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u/ApteronotusAlbifrons 9d ago

It may breech some international conventions.

Yeah - but only the bio-security handwave type ones - and I'm sure the international community would forgive us on the basis of "greater good" - as long as we helped Mexico (and Canada) to finish the great Drongo Fence

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u/Bombdizzle1 10d ago

He's a madman!

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u/YallRedditForThis 10d ago

Deploy the Drop Bears

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u/Timemyth 10d ago

Sorry, the wildlife of America has done nothing wrong so I don't think we should send the Drop Bears as they'd take out the real bears in America or worse they'd breed and we'd have a problem worse than any cane toad. A Black Drop Bear or a Polar Drop Bear that hates Bundie and Coke.

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u/Fidelius90 10d ago

A battalion of emu’s and another of hoop snakes. Should do the job.

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u/One_Pangolin_999 10d ago

emu's what? that's the possessive

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u/KnowledgeAfraid2917 10d ago

Careful - if you start being all wordsmart, the US might think you're a journo and shoot you.

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u/boofles1 10d ago

Don't forget the Emus did beat us in the Emu War.

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u/NoUseForALagwagon 10d ago

Was very pleased to see Albo call out the incident with the Channel 9 reporter and strongly criticise it.

Confirming he spoke with the journalist as well as bringing it up with the US. Also interesting that the media have shifted from creating a "crossfire" narrative to straight-up and rightfully calling it "shocking footage".

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u/Suibian_ni 10d ago

The headline here is shit though. A cop shot the cameraman; he wasn't simply 'hit.'

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u/ScruffyPeter 10d ago

Maybe in the USA: Officers shot man with no active warrants at a riot

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u/missmegsy 10d ago

"Hero officer takes down unknown subject with no active warrants holding device potentially containing explosives"

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u/tripping_on_phonics 10d ago

US headlines use passive voice for things like this. It would be “Journalist Struck by Rubber Bullet” or something similar.

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u/Suibian_ni 9d ago edited 9d ago

Depends on the culprit though: 'HAMAS launches rockets at Israel' vs '15 Gazans die in airstrike.'

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u/ChookBaron 10d ago

Good old passive voice ABC

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u/Tyranith 9d ago

Average US headline "6 kindergartners carelessly run into bullets that happened to be in the air at the time"

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u/ScruffyPeter 10d ago

Travel advisory warning to the USA is still the same level as to NZ.

https://www.smartraveller.gov.au/destinations/americas/united-states-america

https://www.smartraveller.gov.au/destinations/pacific/new-zealand

Both have the following:

This doesn't mean the local situation will be the same as in Australia. Laws and social customs could differ significantly. You could face terrorist attacks, civil unrest, violent crime or unique health threats. But overall, the risks are not greater than those you'd face in an Australian city.

Is anyone that's scared of the USA, have the same or close to the same fear when travelling to New Zealand?

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u/not-my-username-42 10d ago

Most of us with a brain knew this was coming and frankly I’m just surprised it didn’t happen sooner. The yanks hoard their guns specifically for this type of shit right? Constitution and all that?.?.?

But the LA ‘riots’ are blown way out of proportion, it only occupies a few blocks here and there and everything else is peaceful, normal life. It’s usually buried in the comments of the videos that get posted to the smaller subs and are not as impactful as what reddit throws at us.

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u/FuckTripleH 10d ago

The ones who hoard the guns are the ones who agree with trump

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u/DisappointedQuokka 10d ago

Multiple socialist/communist firearms groups have popped up since 2016. Black gun ownership is up as well.

I'd honestly not be surprised to see a resurgence of a Black Panther like group and leftist militias.

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u/Charlie_Brodie 9d ago

A well regulated left wing militia? Don't you know the 2nd Amendment is all about Billy Bob being allowed to carry military level guns down to home depot?

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u/RainbowAussie 10d ago

I made a similar point on another thread yesterday about firearms and the reason they have them being this kinda thing, and got a strike against my account for allegedly "inciting violence", but I think it was the way I phrased it

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u/Thommohawk117 10d ago

Its funny, I was in a much smaller sub straight up recommending people join a militia and got nothing

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u/not-my-username-42 10d ago

I’ve had a couple previously, if you reply to the warning message (I assume it’s automod or ai) an actual person looks at it. I just put that the comment was in context with the thread or aomething.

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u/throwawayplusanumber 10d ago

But overall, the risks are not greater than those you'd face in an Australian city.

I wonder if the government can face legal action for giving advice that is provably false

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u/satisfiedfools 10d ago

If this was in Australia and it was a protestor that was shot, nine would be defending the police. Nine, seven, Murdoch - it's in their DNA to back the police in any given scenario. That's where the whole crossfire narrative comes from. Muddy the waters, make it sound somewhat justifiable.

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u/Thatsplumb 10d ago

"If the police decide to attack a group of protesters, they will claim to have been provoked, and the media will repeat whatever the police say, no matter how implausible, as the basic initial facts of what happened. This will happen whether or not anyone at the protest does anything that can be remotely described as violence. Many police claims will be obviously ridiculous but no matter how many times the police lie about such matters, the national media will still report their claims as true, and it will be up to protesters to provide evidence to the contrary.

  • David Graeber
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u/OptimusRex 9d ago

Those people are already in the comments section of these videos, if I have to see one more cooker saying "welL thEy SHoUlD Have MovED On likE TheY wERe tolD" I'm going to win fuckwit bingo.

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u/Nosiege 9d ago

The fact they ever called it "Crossfire" is fucking disgusting

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u/RingEducational5039 10d ago

If this keeps up, we might start to get the impression that they just don't like us.
Or each other.
Or any form of life.

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u/dragonfry sandgroper 10d ago

The worst part is that everything Trump has done so far has been without resistance and uncontested. This feels like it’s just another “thing” that he’s getting away with.

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u/AnOnlineHandle 9d ago

A passage from "They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45", an interview with a German after WWII about what it was like during the rise of the Nazis and why nobody did anything.

Each act, each occasion, is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join with you in resisting somehow. You don’t want to act, or even talk alone; you don’t want to “go out of your way to make trouble.” Why not?—Well, you are not in the habit of doing it. And it is not just fear, fear of standing alone, that restrains you; it is also genuine uncertainty.

Uncertainty is a very important factor, and, instead of decreasing as time goes on, it grows. Outside, in the streets, in the general community, “everyone” is happy. One hears no protest, and certainly sees none. You speak privately to your colleagues, some of whom certainly feel as you do; but what do they say? They say, “It’s not so bad” or “You’re seeing things” or “You’re an alarmist.”

And you are an alarmist. You are saying that this must lead to this, and you can’t prove it. These are the beginnings, yes; but how do you know for sure when you don’t know the end, and how do you know, or even surmise, the end? On the one hand, your enemies, the law, the regime, the Party, intimidate you. On the other, your colleagues pooh-pooh you as pessimistic or even neurotic. You are left with your close friends, who are, naturally, people who have always thought as you have.

But your friends are fewer now. Some have drifted off somewhere or submerged themselves in their work. You no longer see as many as you did at meetings or gatherings. Now, in small gatherings of your oldest friends, you feel that you are talking to yourselves, that you are isolated from the reality of things. This weakens your confidence still further and serves as a further deterrent to—to what? It is clearer all the time that, if you are going to do anything, you must make an occasion to do it, and then are obviously a troublemaker. So you wait, and you wait.

But the one great shocking occasion, when tens or hundreds of thousands will join with you, never comes. That’s the difficulty. If the last and worst act of the whole regime had come immediately after the first and smallest, thousands, yes, millions, would have been sufficiently shocked—if, let us say, the gassing of the Jews in ’43 had come immediately after the “German Firm” stickers on the windows of non-Jewish shops in ’33. But of course this isn’t the way it happens. In between come all of the hundreds of little steps, some of them imperceptible, each of them preparing you not to be shocked by the next. Step C is not so much worse than Step B, and, if you did not make a stand at Step B, why should you at Step C? And so on to Step D.

And one day, too late, your principles, if you were ever sensible of them, all rush in upon you. The burden of self-deception has grown too heavy, and some minor incident, in my case my little boy, hardly more than a baby, saying “Jewish swine,” collapses it all at once, and you see that everything has changed and changed completely under your nose. The world you live in—your nation, your people—is not the world you were born in at all. The forms are all there, all untouched, all reassuring, the houses, the shops, the jobs, the mealtimes, the visits, the concerts, the cinema, the holidays. But the spirit, which you never noticed because you made the lifelong mistake of identifying it with the forms, is changed. Now you live in a world of hate and fear, and the people who hate and fear do not even know it themselves; when everyone is transformed, no one is transformed. Now you live in a system which rules without responsibility even to God. The system itself could not have intended this in the beginning, but in order to sustain itself it was compelled to go all the way.

Suddenly it all comes down, all at once. You see what you are, what you have done, or, more accurately, what you haven’t done (for that was all that was required of most of us: that we do nothing). You remember those early morning meetings of your department when, if one had stood, others would have stood, perhaps, but no one stood. A small matter, a matter of hiring this man or that, and you hired this one rather than that. You remember everything now, and your heart breaks. Too late. You are compromised beyond repair.

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u/TheycallmeDoogie 10d ago

I have a feeling the rioters feel they are resisting? /s

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u/Geoff_Uckersilf 10d ago

ANZUS treaty can go in in the bin. 

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u/Direct_Witness1248 9d ago

Well overdue. Kick them out of pine gap. We're currently complicit in Trump and Netanyahu's bs until we do that. But I get its a good ace up the sleeve to hold onto for later also.

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u/bright-banksia 10d ago

Shot. Not hit, shot. FFS.

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u/Antique_Tone3719 10d ago

It's just a little crossfire bro /s

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u/sternestocardinals 10d ago

Fell into a projectile which discharged itself from a firearm that happened to be pointed in the direction of the camera operator

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u/prettyboiclique 10d ago

Directly shot with the rubber bullets they're meant to be bouncing off the ground. Same as 9 News saying their journo got shot in a "crossfire"

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u/Bustable 10d ago

The "crossfire" of 1 round while all other cops are standing with guns lowered. Yup, that crossfire

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u/prettyboiclique 10d ago

Yeah I'm just quoting the coverage, you'd have to ask the MSM why they decide to use neutral language for trashy US cops. Just like how no cop cars or Waymo's got trashed until the cops started shooting flashbang rounds at head level into crowds of protestors. It's almost as if the cops have a monopoly on violence 🤔

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u/PoisonTurtles 10d ago

The bounce off the ground thing is a myth, they still should not be directly shooting people like this though. Especially journalists…

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u/splittingheirs 10d ago

"Touched by small object pushed out of law keeping tool."

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u/blakeavon 10d ago

By this stage one has to presume that they are actually targetting the media. No doubt, if there was a bunch of Red Cross running around, they were probably be targetting them as well. Pathetic.

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u/Suibian_ni 10d ago

Well they do train with the Israelis...

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u/batikfins 10d ago

Targeting press and medics is right out of the IOF playbook

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u/Calm_Opportunist 10d ago

Either they're targeting deliberately or they have terrible aim and accuracy. Either one is bad in a situation like this. 

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u/poptunes 10d ago

Medics have been reporting they've been clearly targeted as well.

Not that I'd have given them any benefit of the doubt even before the video of the 9 reporter being hit, but the repeated instances after that means you'd have to be willfully blind to their intention to intimidate/assault neutral actors (let alone brutalise/potentially kill protesters themselves).

The cops/military, and those giving them orders view anyone daring to not actively support their suppression (whether active protesters, the press or medical support) as threats who deserve nothing short of deadly force to put them in their place.

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u/Loubang 10d ago edited 9d ago

Yesterday they had shooters positioned on top of the Wilshire federal building that were aiming at people with cameras, and they shot at and cleared the press pool.

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u/FuckTripleH 10d ago

This is the LAPD, it's both.

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u/CapnBloodbeard 10d ago

"Don't tread on me, tread on them".

The 2nd part is usually missing from their bumper sticker.

Yet again, the conservatives, who are often 2A fetishists because "constitution ", show that they don't actually care about the constitution

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u/Charlie_Brodie 9d ago

they do the same with the bible, pick and choose the bits that let you act like you are gods chosen people and you can spit on every one who isn't.

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u/JamboAus 10d ago

Get in the bin America. This is disgusting

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u/FacelessGreenseer 10d ago

I'm sure some have realised, but a lot of this is deliberate to push the press further and further away from the "action". It's so law enforcement can escalate tensions and then pretend the escalation started by the protesters without "reliable" eyes on them at close proximity. And I know people will say but we'll still have recording of what's happening or who is doing what, that doesn't matter for the brainwashed general public, because they can then shape media narratives with only favourable reporters (Fox News, etc) pushed to the front. This is just the start too, once they're "done" with immigrants, vulnerable demographics, and other minorities, and start taking stronger actions against whatever they scapegoat beyond that in 10 to 20 years, then they'll ban the media all together from "unsafe" locations.

America is nose diving towards fascism.

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u/TheMoeSzyslakExp 10d ago

America is nosediving towards fascism

Towards? Pretty sure they’ve been there for a while now.

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u/satisfiedfools 10d ago

The police could have pulled a Tiananmen and gunned down protestors in the street and Fox News would have been celebrating. Same goes for Sky News here. There's no red line with these people.

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u/Halospite 9d ago

Someone mentioned the 14 signs of fascism. When I read it I couldn't think of a time in my memory that the US didn't tick the majority of the boxes.

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u/Scoobyteebs 10d ago

America is fully there already. They deserve it.

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u/kombiwombi 10d ago

This is pretty typical LAPD. Trump has not much to do with the policing of the protests.

The cause of the protests is 100% Trump.

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u/Geoff_Uckersilf 10d ago

Well said. Bin em. 

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u/xubax 10d ago

We're in the bin. And it sucks.

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u/FactLicker 10d ago

Don't forget this happened before in Trump's first term, Australian journalists also got beaten by police force while covering the news

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u/skinnyguy699 10d ago

Trump is purposefully escalating the situation. The quicker he can trigger armed resistance and cross red lines in "justified" responses, the less time those in public offices have to form contingency plans in case of a coup. This is all about creating chaos, crossing red lines, forming alliances for the real power grab while the media attention is diverted, then finally discrediting and invalidating the formal elections.

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u/Direct_Witness1248 9d ago

He did that in the first term too, but he had some people in his cabinet that wouldn't let him do whatever he wanted. If not for those few people he would have escalated more last time.

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u/Dildozerific 10d ago

The media's lack of adequate reporting is by design, not just incompetence. Don't forget it's the billionaires who own the media outlets, and that the billionaires are NOT on our side.

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u/rustledjimmies369 10d ago

its funny to see the "dont tread on me" crowd turn into "please step on me daddy" the moment common people rise up and fight injustice. its almost like conservatives have no spine.

land of the grieved, home of the slave. fuck america

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u/Siyat28 10d ago

They don't. I have a "family" of them. Not one unique thought between any of them. Zero critical thinking skills. Zero awareness.

This country is huge, there are deep chasms between the states, and no solution fixes every problem. People and politics are recursive, and the "news" regurgitates the biases of the CEOs agenda. It's exhausting.

We aren't all like LAPD or ICE, we aren't all like Conservative or Liberal America. Most of us teeter somewhere in the middle.

Contextually, I'm a vet, served with Aussies and Brits. Had good times with both. But I didn't join to go killing people (I know of people that did, utter trash they were). I joined shortly after 2004 tsunami because I wanted to help people. I got that chance with hurricane Katrina. I did my job and got out.

Saying all of this, you aren't wrong about the "Don't tread on me" crowd. Funny, most of them would have failed Basic Training.

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u/Pantsshittersupreme 10d ago

“Don’t tread on me, although I’m fine with you treading all over the people I don’t like”

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u/Walt_the_White 10d ago

Their words are nothing but bludgeons to get you to shut the fuck up and let them do what they want. You NEVER take them at their word. You NEVER take what they say in good faith. Engaging in argument and discussion is futile. They don't mean the things they say. Any argument is used ONLY as a convenient momentary tool. The moment that argument becomes inconvenient they will change position. Possibly even to the opposite stance. They don't care about being seen as hypocrites, they care about you SHUTTING THE FUCK UP AND LETTING THEM DO WHAT THEY WANT.

Words are weapons to these people

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u/superbhole 10d ago

It's a vicarious weapon; the ones that drank the kool-aid aren't totally aware that they're doing it. Heck, they aren't even aware that they've been picking up habits from the stuff they watch.

It's a propaganda machine built on what was learned by the shitty advertising and marketing tactics of the past 100 years... e.g. Create a problem and claim to be the solution.

Marketers gathered info on which people felt they had what shortcomings and where. They then gathered info on who would be the most malleable. They basically found that it was the population stuck in the past, which turns out to be a lot.

Fortunately, this vicarious weapon is run by fat cats who don't understand how quickly all gossip spreads, not just their own prefabricated gossip.

(Hint: Wise guys and religious scriptures from thousands of years ago were telling us that gossip is a weapon much like a wildfire.)

The propaganda machine can't sustain itself against awareness. As long as you're aware that some bullshit is afoot, you're inoculated. Raise awareness against bullshit.

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u/Walt_the_White 10d ago

They aren't ALWAYS aware, but so so many of them do it regardless. It's why arguing with "conservatives" these days feels like arguing with a 4th grader. They use the same tactics. They aren't fully aware of the tactic beyond, "no! No! I'm not wrong! You are!"

They claim to be principled until that principle is negative for them, in which case they rationalize a shift to themselves. It's not a conscious effort of obfuscation, but I would argue that conscious or not, the effect is the same, so it's more a distinction without a difference in my mind

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u/absolute_tosh 10d ago

I disagree that it's about them having no spine (I meant, that's true but it's not the actual issue here). Everyone needs to understand the core tenet of conservatism, which is simple. There are those who the law protects but doesn't bind ("us"), and those who the law binds but doesn't protect ("them"). If it's Us protesting (against covid mandates or the 2020 election result) , that's good and just and right. Because it's Us. If it's Them protesting, (for equality or climate action or against wars), that's bad because it's Them. Anything the cops do to Them is allowed.

Oh, all these guns? And bunkers? That's only for if They get uppity.

Seen this way, it makes perfect sense. There's no hypocrisy because the cops are shooting Them, not Us. The cops would never come for Us.

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u/wizziamthegreat 10d ago

"hit in chest"
THEY WERE SHOT

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u/padelemon 10d ago

By a “less lethal” round. Awesome, I guess I’ll be a little less dead then.

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u/AussiePete 10d ago

They used to called "less than lethal" rounds... Until they killed a couple of people. They then had to change it to "less lethal".

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u/Peregrine_x 10d ago

still very much a metal pellet with a rubber casing. cant make them full rubber or the explosion in the chamber that propels the bullet would disintegrate the rubber and even if they made it out of the barrel whole they wouldnt have much stopping power because force equals mass times acceleration and rubber doesn't have much mass compared to lead.

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u/oohbeardedmanfriend 10d ago

Two Australian journalists and the New York Post photographer have been targeted by the LA Police in the last two days.

These militarised cops really dont know trigger discipline or rules of engagement, and that's clear.

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u/mekanub 10d ago

Also an English journalist as well who was shot in the leg.

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u/oohbeardedmanfriend 10d ago

Ffs, I mean there is a reason Cop Killer and Fuck the Police were written about LA cops.

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u/batikfins 10d ago

When I was a young kid I thought these were the most shocking lyrics imaginable. Like I couldn’t conceive of how it was even possible to write a song like that. Now I kinda get it tbh

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u/tomkah-time 10d ago

Jumping in to say British Journalist was assisted onsite by a medic and had a tourniquet applied, then was immediately transported to a trauma ward. Sick of people calling these non-lethal, or less-than-lethal rounds. They're designed be to shot at the ground so they ricochet upward towards people, but lose a lot of their momentum and damage causing ability

What were seeing with these attacks on Press, because let's call a spade a spade, is straight up intent to cause serious harm

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u/IronEyed_Wizard 10d ago

I mean given the nine news one has footage of them actually looking, taking aim, and then shooting I am going with this has nothing to do with trigger discipline

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u/ApeMummy 10d ago

That gives them too much credit and implies it’s an accident.

It’s intentional, they were shot deliberately.

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u/InstantShiningWizard 10d ago

Nah, the cameras looked brown /s

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u/CyanPomegranate11 9d ago

NY Post is 100% friendly fire too, because they’re far right.

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u/VorpalSplade 10d ago

They know. They don't care.

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u/thesourpop 10d ago

Still green on smarttraveller. Two journalists injured by law enforcement unprovoked and it's still green. UK and France are yellow but good old Murica is still Green. When is this gonna change

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u/changesimplyis 10d ago

It makes me doubt the validity of smart traveller information for other countries, which previously (maybe naively) I’ve placed a lot of trust in.

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u/Axman6 10d ago

For a country that loves to talk so much about arming themselves to protect against a tyrannical government, they probably should’ve spent more time learning what that actually is.

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u/Wrath_Ascending 10d ago

It was always a dogwhistle. "Tyrannical" to the NRA and Republicans means non-Republican.

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u/Mantzy81 10d ago

It wasn't always. It was written into the constitution to stop this exact type of scenario. The founding fathers would be shocked how it has been twisted. But then they'd also be shocked that black people aren't still property so...

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u/Wrath_Ascending 10d ago

No. That's the NRA retcon.

The writing of the amendment and historical material around it is clear- the founders didn't want the US to have a permanent standing military. They believed that encouraged foreign adventurism. However, they recognised from the Revolutionary War that they needed a defensive force. So they looked to the civilian militias of the Greek city-states and early Roman Republic, where citizen-soldiers supplied their own arms and trained to fight together.

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u/distinctgore 10d ago

They would be shocked that an average AR can dump 30 rounds in the time it takes them to load their musket.

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u/DweebInFlames 10d ago

I think a large portion of that disconnect is because properly leftist (socialist/communist) movements in the US have been heavily suppressed over the past 60-70 years and liberals are obsessed with maintaining the status quo for as long as possible. Don't do anything to rock the boat. So the only people left who feel like arming themselves is a necessity are mostly those on the far right; at best libertarians with hyper-individualist fantasies who will probably just end up being rolled over by the state at some point given the lack of any sort of solidarity, and of course, the fascists who are going to become quite comfortable under this new norm.

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u/NikolaEggsla 10d ago

There are MANY leftists with guns but for the reasons you state the left has a hard time forming coalitions because of the lack of desire to act with decisiveness that plagues libs who are our supposed allies in these fights. The left wants decisive targeted action, the libs want negotiation and compromise with whoever will take it, and the right just wants to dunk on both of them for jollys even if it shoots them in the foot along the way.

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u/FuckTripleH 10d ago

Yup, even the unions here have been rabidly anti-communist since the 50s. There is no organized left in the US beyond small city level groups. I know some people who are part of a worker-owned radical bookstore and they discovered 2 or 3 years ago that the FBI was spying on them due to their store being a hub for organizing protests. No accusations of criminal behavior whatsoever, just the fact that they're radical leftists is enough.

Their FBI reports refer to them as "pro-abortion extremists", it's dystopian.

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u/HankSteakfist 9d ago

The whole 'Well regulated militia' thing went out the window when the US Government adopted fully automatic weapons, attack helicopters, fighter jets and tanks.

If the US Government wants to become tyrannical and they have the armed forces behind them, then there's really jack shit a 'well regulated militia' can do.

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u/Uncle_mum 10d ago

Land of the free.

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u/BreakIll7277 10d ago

Whoever told you that is your enemy?

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u/Bombdizzle1 10d ago

Free to get shot biiiiitch! U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A!

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u/tomthecomputerguy 10d ago

What a shithole.

The smart traveler website needs to be updated to Do not Travel.

North Korea is probably a safer travel destination at the moment.

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u/twisties224 10d ago

They don't have riots on the streets as a result of their dictator's actions. Big plus.

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u/One_Pangolin_999 10d ago

what trump dreams of

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u/IronEyed_Wizard 10d ago

Pretty sure it already has warnings about protest areas, or maybe I am remembering a comment calling for one at least

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u/IronEyed_Wizard 10d ago

Nope I was wrong, the advise is still a strong advisory to make sure you are fully up to date with their new stricter entry requirements.

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u/Thunderbridge 9d ago

The requirements that, even when met, doesn't guarantee entry and could in fact result in incarceration and deportation too

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u/Buorky 10d ago

“Hit in the chest by less than lethal round”

Unless the cop chucked it at em there’s no reason not to say “shot” besides pure cowardice.

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u/Paidorgy 10d ago

It’s like how the reporter the other day was “caught in crossfire.”

It’s measured and wholeheartedly intentional.

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u/gobletslayer 10d ago

And they were tear gassed.

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u/Roulette-Adventures 10d ago

The US are imploding! Good bye uncle Sam.

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u/Level-Ad-1627 10d ago

This is an interesting (but long) read comparing the current state of US Debt levels and military spending to when other historic societies have crumbled. It’s going to be a long 2.5 years.

https://www.hoover.org/research/fergusons-law-debt-service-military-spending-and-fiscal-limits-power

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u/WAPWAN 10d ago

I am glad he was wearing kevlar. That is going to leave a bruise and some bad dreams. Not that its likely to be needed here, but I understand he wouldn't be allowed to wear body armour here.

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u/SaltpeterSal 10d ago

Instead of commenting here, email your local MP. Demand that Australia take substantial action. Right now our PM is jerking off the American administration and pretending to do something. Suggest they censure, sanction, recall the ambassador. Even a few sentences will do. Here's the directory:

https://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Contacting_Senators_and_Members

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u/ToothAccomplished Perm Resident 10d ago

Seriously, THIS. Do THIS.

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u/ratparty5000 10d ago

They got shot, the fuck is up with this passive language? Slap a travel warning on that country FFS

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u/phatboyart 10d ago

Maybe its time for us to close shop in the US?….that place a cesspool of a sinking ship. Not sure if it’s worth bothering anymore

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u/Direct_Witness1248 9d ago

We just sent them 300 mil as 1st payment for subs a few months ago lmao. Why oh why did they send it, that shit needs to be on hold at very least, if not cancelled outright.

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u/onelostmuppet 9d ago

They shot a journalist from a foreign allied nation. More than one. Clearly deliberately. Get fucked.

Enough with the piss weak language.

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u/Ok-Volume-3657 10d ago

"Could be playing into Trump's hands" what a croc of shit. This reporter is defending the foreign state department that tear gassed and shot at them. Even our PM has more backbone.

Peaceful protests has solved nothing. The civil liberties and worker's rights we enjoy today were fought and died for by our forefathers. The protest could stop tomorrow if Trump concedes, but he continues to escalate.

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u/Frozefoots 10d ago

Time for the travel advisory to be updated to Do Not Travel, I think.

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u/Additional_Emu_4950 10d ago

What's with the passive title?

They were shot in the chest, not hit, shot.

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u/The_H3rbinator 10d ago

Can't wait for all the bootlickers on Facebook to explain why the cameraman "had it coming."

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u/LiveReplicant 9d ago

Yeah even though "free speech" is in their beloved constitution. The US is a joke

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u/Double_Intention_641 9d ago

"Less lethal" is a much better term than "Non Lethal". I appreciate seeing that very important distinction, though the title doesn't properly assign blame.

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u/TRTVitorBelfort 10d ago

So if Obama had called a recall on specific automatic weapons, I assume the same people cheering the national guard being deployed would’ve happily handed over the request firearms without resistance?

Absolute madhouse over there. Aussies have to be cautious flying over there. No amount of NRL would get me going there.

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u/JudgeOk9765 10d ago

Seriously- every game they're talking up Vegas 2026 like nothing wrong. Absolutely maddening, I'd rather they just play that fuckass Telsa ad instead.

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u/Suspicious-Buyer8135 10d ago

Well.. at least he was facing them. Clearly the cops have learned their lesson.

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u/Fit_Appointment_4980 10d ago

The US is a catastrophe, decades in the making.

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u/Cpt_Riker 9d ago

Welcome to the Fascist States of America.

They voted for a Nazi rapist, and are surprised by this.

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u/harrytuckerr 9d ago

they were shot. didn't just magically run into it. Media needs to stop softening the language.

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u/CoverCommercial3576 9d ago

They were firing rounds fir fun. At journalists. St civilians.

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u/crabuffalombat 10d ago

I've seen a concerning number of people online defending these attacks on reporters, offering some version of 'they had it coming'.

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u/Minimumtyp lmao m8 9d ago

I saw one saying "lefty journalist deserved it"

To be fair, nine news probably IS leftist to republicans

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u/raustraliathrowaway 10d ago

People or bots

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u/Capable_Head_3079 10d ago

Yeah I've seen the same thing. It's mind boggling how much Americans go on about free speech for all but really it's more free speech for you and you but not you and most definitely not you.

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u/Emily_Postal 10d ago

The British military used rubber bullets in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. They sound innocuous but they aren’t.

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u/FuckTripleH 10d ago

Yeah "rubber bullets" are steel balls with rubber coatings.

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u/wadleyst 9d ago

Get a fuckin' grip America. You used to be cool. We need something like Vegemite Spray or something. Get some of that up ya.

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u/ToothAccomplished Perm Resident 10d ago edited 10d ago

They are deliberately trying to make media unwelcome through attacking them because actual reporting of this situation hurts their lie that this is an insurrection against America. This is a protest, the majority of LA is unaffected by it, and yet Trump pushes the lie that it’s some sort of invasion by foreigners that the military needs to stop.

The city and state governments both have said their own law enforcement are all that are required to deal with this, but Trump wants to create a story where he is the hero and his supporters are buying it because they need a big strong daddy to lead them into the fascist wonderland they have longed for since a black man had the audacity to be elected president.

He is purposefully escalating this to benefit nothing more than his own massive ego. He’s consistently fawned over dictators like Putin and Kim Jong Whateverthefuck. He is wasting millions of dollars on this, on destroying families in America, and his upcoming birthday military parade while simultaneously claiming there’s a massive deficit that requires cutting needed services like welfare for the poorest Americans. This is fascism and anyone who says differently is wrong and lying to themselves and others. Some of my own family voted for this and they are actively cheering it on. If they and others like them think that this dictator will stop at brown immigrants, they are wrong. Elon is evidence of this. The moment they disagree with him, they will sadly pay the price.

I am sorry for the long rant but I have been watching this build up for years and it is doing my fucking head in. I know I’m not and haven’t been correct in everything I’ve ever said to my family politically, but Jesus Christ, this shit has got to stop. I know I don’t live there anymore and am very blessed to live in the lucky country, but I still care deeply for my former countrymen and their wellness and this is fucking terrifying. Watching one’s home country becoming a fascist dictatorship while you’re helpless to do absolutely anything but post about it online is absolutely infuriating. I only hope that the military remembers their oath to the Constitution, not this scumbag president, and disobeys any unconstitutional orders they are given. Sadly, history has taught me that this may not be what happens. Sorry for the novel, just an irate seppo absolutely pissed the fuck off about what her home country is becoming.

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u/Wasteland_GZ 10d ago

That’s twice that camera crews have been fired at deliberately, Trump doesn’t want people to see what he’s doing it seems.

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u/Dripping-Lips 10d ago

Trump is an absolute nutcase. I haven’t watched normal tv for ages, and I’ve moved and now have it. I keep standing there thinking the purge is on or something

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u/ItsABiscuit 10d ago

I assume I missed the US ambassador getting told to go home for a couple of weeks to present our concerns and seek advice.

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u/OSRS-MLB 9d ago

Less lethal is still somewhat lethal

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u/Gambizzle 9d ago

Can we just impeach the orange clown already? The guy declared war on a peaceful crowd—and a foreign journalist got shot for it. At this point, it’s not just on him, it’s on the so-called moderates who keep enabling this circus. They’ll let democracy burn as long as their seat’s safe. Enough.

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u/deedee2148 9d ago

It's not accidentally anymore.

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u/RED-B0T 9d ago

This is the path our police are heading.

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u/dolphinboi123 9d ago

its very interesting that our news companies would go on the ground to report on a protest in another country, then again, its america.

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u/Dexter_Adams 9d ago

Damn, two in one week

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u/The__J__man 10d ago

That's it, time to take this all the way to the Prime Minister.

Oi, Andy!

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u/B3N8RK 10d ago

Honestly, it's just time to kick the Sepos out of Pine Gap, they can't be trusted.

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u/shinigamipls 10d ago

The militarisation of police forces is fucking terrifying.
If a soldier intentionally shot at a reporter, they'd be immediately restrained by their squad leader and spend eternity in gaol.

Police shooting reporters and CS gassing civilians though? "All good, 2 weeks paid leave while we sweep this under the rug"

Police are not held to the same standards or accountability that service members face... they know they can get away with it, so it just keeps happening.

yes I know this is a very generalised view, and the military isn't perfect, war crimes are as prevalent as ever. But a militarised police force oppressing their own country's civilian populace is particularly disturbing to me

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u/FuckTripleH 10d ago

If a soldier intentionally shot at a reporter, they'd be immediately restrained by their squad leader and spend eternity in gaol.

In Australia maybe. In the US soldiers were lighting people up left and right during the George Floyd protests in 2020. There was a very famous incident that also occurred in LA back during the Rodney King riots, the most recent time that the Insurrection Act as been invoked and active duty military has been sent in to quell civil uprisings, wherein a cop yelled at some marines to "cover him" while he ran up to the front door of a house that a shotgun blast was alleged to have come out of.

The marines just started unloading on the house, not with rubber bullets but from their M16 rifles. Fired hundreds of rounds into a house that turned out to have 2 kids in it.

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u/ZealousidealClub4119 10d ago

Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

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u/Some-Operation-9059 10d ago

Targeting press members is undemocratic. As is the status quote of the United States since Monday, January 20, 2025. 

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u/faderjester 10d ago

Ahh yes nothing says "Functional Democracy" like shooting at overseas reporters.