Lone father paralyzes Sydney in rush hour protest
(AFP) – 2 hours ago
SYDNEY — A lone protester paralyzed rush-hour traffic in Australia’s largest city for hours Friday by scaling the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge and forcing the closure of the country’s busiest roadway.
The man, who said he was “ex-military”, evaded extensive security precautions to climb the bridge at dawn and hang two banners in a protest apparently linked to a custody dispute over his children.
The stunt forced the closure of the bridge that links north Sydney with the downtown area for around two hours, causing massive back-ups and leaving thousands of motorists and train and bus commuters stranded. ….
“If I have to stuff four million people around for one morning and that gets my kids and other kids help one day sooner, I have achieved my goal,” he said before rappelling down onto the roadway to be arrested by waiting police.
“Stuffing” four million people around. Goal achieved!
Getting more contact with your kids. Goal not so much achieved as hindered, I’m guessing.
More on the protestor here. He’s apparently a “bikie” – the Australian version of a biker – and “was almost killed during an alleged bikie shootout last year.”
UPDATE: As a result of this, the protester, Michael Fox has, not surprisingly, been ordered to not contact his ex-wife or family members.
And here’s an interesting detail from the coverage:
He left a note in his car, warning police to close the bridge and not to try to bring him down by force. “If anyone attempts to climb the upper arch of the bridge during my protest, the consequences will be fatal. Do what I ask and this will start and end peacefully,” it said. “You’ve taken my kids, I’ve taken your bridge.”
Generally speaking, nonviolent protestors don’t threaten “fatal consequences” for those who try to arrest them.
UPDATE 2: Another odd detail:
He last saw [his kids] almost 70 days ago, soon after a home owned by him was engulfed by fire. His estranged wife and one young daughter were sleeping inside. Both escaped the blaze.
Bikie isn’t “biker” it “Hell’s Angel/Motorcycle Gangster”.
This guy took it to an extreme, but this is merely an example of the kind of self-destructive things that omegas are pushed to by being treated as second class by alphas and bitches spitting on them all day. It drives omegas, like him, crazy, and that’s understandable.
I dun actually see what’s wrong with this : Protesters and activists of all stripes use peaceful protests and disruptions of these kinds to get attention to their cause. It inconveniences a lot of ppl, yes… but if we want MRAs to get off their butts and do real activism, we can’t then yell at them when they DO. As a feminist, and trans activist (among other causes 🙂 ), I hear this a lot from critics “why don’t you go protest in some park some place far away?” “Why don’t you go sign a petition and not bother us?” and etc etc… which would of course make us easy to ignore and shove under the carpet. Whether you AGREE with father’s rights or not (and I DO support father’s rights and fair family courts, but as we know, it’s more complicated than what many MRAs think and it’s not the fault of a feminist conspiracy >_> and it has a lot to do with misogynist ideas of women’s roles ), this is a way to protest. And presumably this guy knew he’d be arrested and charged and fined, so he knew what he would be sacrificing b/c of something that clearly means a lot to him. It MIGHT hurt his cause, but then MANY causes have been told this a lot “if you do this everybody will hate you, be good and smile and sign a petition”. I’ve heard this myself from cis people when trans people get loud or march or etc.. the whole thing of “if you do this everybody will look down on you”, except that if you don’t protest, or march, or disrupt things sometimes, as activists have done for generations, then ppl won’t notice you at ALL. I’m not saying whether it WILL help or it will hurt, or if ANYBODY will join his cause, and obv he inconvenienced many ppl (so did the Tamil march in Toronto a couple years back, but feminists & anti-racist bloggers/activists everywhere defended their right to do so from the same sorts of criticisms and rightfully so) but I give him credit for trying, and by doing it in a way that does not harm ppl (like so many MRAs calling for violence). You just said they should protest. This guy is. 🙂
I thought Omegas could never get laid! How does this man have kids?
Easy, Plymouth! His wife must be fat. That’s the other reason he’s crazy. It’s also the reason he should get custody, since fat people never love their children.
Trufax.
MRAL: What makes him an omega?
I just assumed he was, because only omegas are driven to this kind of thing. An alpha would be allowed custody, because the courts, like everyone else, are biased toward alpha fucking ASSFUCKS. FUCK THEM.
I second Pecunium’s question. He’s obviously physically fit and decently attractive in the news photos (which we can assume aren’t flattering). And he’s had trouble with authorities and other “bikies.” Wouldn’t this make him one of the “thugboys,” according to MRA classifications?
If by ‘alpha’, you mean ‘decent father’, then, yes, I guess the courts are biased towards them.
MRAL, actually, from the photos I’ve seen of him, (click that second link in the post)he’s a tall, buff, macho, not-bad-looking dude and, given his nature of his protest, his military background, his apparent status as a biker, probably very macho and assertive. All very “alpha” sounding to me.
…. and, MRAL, I’ll be deleting those last two comments of yours, and putting you on moderation.
Oh, wow. So, is that WAY over the line? I’d say yes.
THANK you. 🙂
You can delete my reply, too, David – it does not make much sense without MRAL’s comment before it.
Gah, nevermind, wrong comment >.<. Go ahead and delete this one. Is obviously time for bed for me.
Yeah, he seems very much an ‘alpha’…
Ami, I understand your points, and, yes, most protests do inconvenience some people, but in this case we’ve got one guy who’s decided that the whole of Sydney needs to be brought to a halt because he feels he’s been mistreated. It’s a protest that put other people at risk — the police who had to deal with an unpredictable character at the top of a very tall bridge, plus the traffic blockage gets in the way of ambulances and fire trucks, etc. And there’s no indication that he tried any less-radical ways of drawing attention to his case, much less tried to organize any kind of protest involving more people besides just him. Is this sort of protest actually going to win anyone over to his cause or just anger people?
And if he is concerned about seeing his kids, an action like this had pretty much shows the court that he’s an unpredictable guy given to drastic actions. If he’s willing to pull this stunt, would he also try to kidnap his kids if he were allowed time with them? If I were a judge, I wouldn’t want to take that risk.
I love how MRAL throws around his system as though it were a real thing he and 5 other people just made up, especially the name. Googling “Greek system” turns up nothing that doesn’t relate to fraternities. Wikipedia doesn’t even have a disambiguation page for it.
Ami’s got a point. What this guy is doing is not very constructive, and probably outright damaging to his own case. But it is activism, and it certainly got some attention given that I’m reading about it on the other side of the world.
He doesn’t seem an ideal poster boy for the “unfairly deprived of his kids!!!” movement, what with those pesky gang warfare connections, but you have to give him points for trying.
But there’s no indication he didn’t either, or that he’s “unstable” : I just kinda dun think we should be making assumptions b/c of his perceived ideology (we don’t even know he’s an MRA, if he hates ALL women, or why he’s so desperate). It just seems like it’s a little early too start judging him, and it just seemed to rly stick out of everything else you’ve snarked at and pointed out is all 🙂 If I was on the other side (and I know many ppl who have), I’d want the benefit of the doubt too, regardless of my ideology 🙂
I may be with Ami on this one (not sure exactly). The source gives the impression that the guy’s kids weren’t being looked after during the divorce; the other gave the impression that they were given to the mother, who posed a big threat to them.
Though this blog usually does deal with MRAs and MGTOWs, the OP doesn’t mention either in connection with the case. Not much information, long story short, though I’m not really sure what circumstances could justify rapelling up (and closing down) a major bridge during rush hour… Way to make your own problem everybody else’s as well…
Quite a few of the original fathers of Fathers 4 Justice are similar to this man in that they find that their payments to the mother are enforced while visitation is a lot harder to enforce making them often pay for kids they “never see”.
He may just be “desperate and angry” wanting to be heard. I know a fair few people who were criminals but turned out to be loving caring fathers, while knowing some terrible parents who are smart and intelligent people.
People do crazy things for their kids, this may be one of them.
Dave: Speaking as someone who did a career in the Army… I am not sure I buy his “combat vet” status. He may have been in the army (and his free abseil/rappel supports this) but everyone (it seems) was in special forces. The “combat on four continents” seems hard to believe how little the Australians have done in the way of combat operations.
The “bikie” association is also something which argues against his being a long service soldier, and esp. one who was in SF. Those tend to be fairly law abiding types.
It’s not certain, but I’m skeptical.
I don’t agree that this is, “activism”. It is protest, but activism implies something greater than personal grievance.
Maybe he is correct, and the kids mother isn’t good for them, but we don’t have more than hearsay (and hearsay based on his accounts) about it.
In journalese ‘north shore’ means rich, usually upper class and ‘bikie’ means organised crime drug business and violence. The shooting I think was related to the bloke who was bashed to death at Sydney airport. Australian soldiers have served in quite a few countries as part of the UN.