A protester who was charged with offensive behaviour for holding a sign of fugitive alleged cop killer Dezi Freeman at last weekend’s March for Australia rally in Adelaide will fight the charge in court to defend freedom of speech and expression.
Lee Roberts, 39, a personal trainer and bodybuilding coach from Golden Grove, displayed the placard featuring an image of Freeman along with the words “free” and “man” and the Southern Cross, at the anti-immigration protest in Rundle Park attended by 15,000 on August 31.
Victoria Police are still hunting for Freeman, a so-called sovereign citizen who allegedly shot dead two police officers when they raided his home in the small town of Porepunkah on August 26, and have since placed a $1 million bounty on his head.
Mr Roberts turned himself in to police after a corporate media frenzy over the sign and was charged with “exhibit indecent material in a public place”, but told Noticer News he would be defending the charge on free speech grounds and was raising money on Give Send Go to pay for his legal costs.
He said the said the sign was intended to generate discussion of “the current state of Australia with its ever overreaching government and police state”, and that parallels could be drawn between Freeman and Australian folk hero Ned Kelly
“I went to the March for Australia rally looking at it as an extension of the Freedom rallies I attended during Covid. I was wearing a shirt that said on the front “freedom matters” and the sign depicting Dezi with the words ‘free man’ underneath,” he said.
“Freedom is something I hold in very high regard: freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom to petition the government. The sign itself is a play on words in multiple ways, because Dezi’s last name is Freeman.
“In medieval England people who were not serfs or indentured servants were given the name Freeman to denote their status as a Free Man, giving them the rights to hold parcels of land, vote, get married etc. And also because my family come from a long line of Freemans.”
Mr Roberts said the media had sensationalised the sign and blown it out of context, and that it was well received on the day and not intended to be seen by the family members of the fallen officers, who he said did not deserve to die.
“I knew the audience that would be at the March for Australia and knew the sign would be well received, which it was, and was intended to spark debates surrounding what its like to be considered a ‘free man’ in Australia today, or whether we can even consider ourselves to be ‘free’,” he said.
“One of the criticisms I’ve seen getting around is that I knew the fallen police officers families would have seen the sign to which I would say that is not true as I knew that none of them would be at the rally.
“The mainstream media are the ones who plastered the sign all across the country and they have to accept their culpability in mis-framing the meaning of the sign and sowing division by sensationalising the sign and blowing it out of context.
“Without the mainstream media publishing it everywhere the only people who would have seen it are those who were in attendance at the rally, and it was those people at the rally, the intended audience, who understood the intent of the sign and by whom it was well received.”
Mr Roberts said South Australia Police and the South Australian government were conspiring to censor speech and political expression in his state and it was important that the public fight back.
“I will be challenging the charge in the courts to defend everyone’s right to political satire, freedom of speech and freedom of expression in Australia,” he said.
“We can’t allow the government in coordination with the police to silence speech they don’t like. I have started a Give Send Go to raise money for the legal cost where every dollar donated will go towards defending freedom of speech and freedom of expression in Australia.”
SA Police labelled the sign “offensive” and “disgraceful” after the rally and confirmed they were hunting for Mr Roberts, while South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas accused him of “celebrating cop killers”.
But many Australians reacted with anger when Mr Roberts was charged, and United Australia Party Senator Ralph Babet was among those to speak out in his defence.
“The sign was awful. But arresting someone for holding a poster is insane. If you’re wondering what the charge is, it is essentially ‘displaying offensive material’,” he said.
“I think it’s interesting that the police do not arrest those people holding posters of terrorists at those marches we see every single weekend. At least apply the law consistently.”
Mr Roberts will face Adelaide Magistrates Court on October 28.
Header image: Left, Mr Roberts at the protest (7 News). Right, Mr Roberts (supplied).
The post Aussie charged over Dezi Freeman protest sign slams attack on free speech first appeared on The Noticer.
The Noticer
