Two elderly men have been arrested and charged by social media police in NSW and Western Australia over alleged racist emails and online threats directed at federal MPs.
Officers from the Australian Federal Police’s National Security Investigations (NSI) teams, which have been described by Commissioner Krissy Barrett as “flying squads of hate disruptors”, carried out raids in Wollongong and Perth on Thursday and Friday.
On Thursday a NSI team searched a house in Koonawarra, NSW, on Thursday after receiving a report in April relating to a social media post allegedly containing a violent threat aimed at a federal parliamentarian.
Police arrested a 62-year-old man, seized electronic devices and ammunition, and charged him with one count of using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence. He was granted police bail to appear in Port Kembla Local Court on June 25.
Then on Friday an NSI team searched a home in Yanchep, WA, and arrested a 70-year-old man for allegedly sending eight emails containing racist remarks to the electorate office of a federal politician.
He was charged with five counts of using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence and bailed to appear before Perth Magistrates Court on July 10.
Both men face a maximum five years’ imprisonment if convicted.
The NSI teams were created by Commissioner Barrett shortly after she was promoted to the role in August last year, and in November and December carried out a highly publicised series of raids and arrests over social media posts while the Bondi Islamic terrorists were planning their massacre undetected.
A week after the attack Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced funding to double the number of NSI teams, despite public outcry over the AFP’s focus on “hate speech” and the failure of security services to detect and stop the ISIS-inspired terrorists.
Then in February Ms Barrett said the NSI teams had ramped up their aggression since new “hate speech” laws were passed by the major parties a month earlier.
Header image: The Wollongong man being arrested (AFP).
