Thousands to attend protests against cop who stoned helpless wombat to death but was not charged nor punished
There was a massive online outrage after an Australian police officer who stoned a wombat to death got away without being charged for the torture inflicted on the helpless animal.
South Australian police community liaison officer Waylon Johncock was neither charged nor will face any disciplinary action over the cruel killing of the wombat on October 3.
The decision to not charge him outraged thousands of people who gathered online to protest against the decision. Two separate protest event pages for Adelaide cropped up on Facebook as people from all over the country took to social media to express their concern over the wombat's killing, offering to get involved by funding posters and even getting in touch with their local MPs regarding the matter.
"There are 300+ members here. Who will protest Sunday 15th/Monday 16th at midday? City police HQ," a furious Facebook user wrote on Saturday. Among the two Facebook groups, one is called 'Justice for wombats' while the other has been named 'Protest for prosecution'.
In a disturbing video shot on the Eyre Peninsula, the wombat can be seen waddling along the road as two men follow the innocent animal in a car. One of them is Johncock, who can be seen stepping out of the car in just shorts and shoes. He then begins chasing the animal while the man behind the wheel asks him to 'get up close'.
Johncock then picks up a rock and throws it at the wombat's head, and the two men start laughing. The wombat tries to run away, but the two men keep following him.
"You've got him, you've got him. Hit him, hit him," the man in the car can be heard telling Johncock as he picks up another rock. This is when the cheers come in: "Kill him!"
The man steering the car then speeds up as Johncock throws the rock once again at the wombat, causing the poor animal to topple over. His enthusiastic accomplice replies: "Yeah! You did it! First man I've ever seen kill a wombat on foot, bro."
This blatant cruelty has now resulted in a nation-wide outrage in Australia, with more than 300,000 people signing the petition calling for Johncock to be punished.
Aboriginal elders have slammed his actions too, with Ngarrindjeri elder Major Sumner calling the officer's stoning of the animal, 'wrong'.
"We didn't hunt like that. We still don't hunt like that," the 71-year-old said, reported Daily Mail.
Yet, all the outraged failed to make an impact.
Johncock continued to be on the job while police internal affairs spent over two months investigating the incident, and eventually, the SA Police announced Johncock would neither be charged nor punished for animal cruelty.
Commissioner Grant Stevens said Johncock hadn't done anything wrong as he was apparently was exercising traditional Aboriginal hunting rights. "As a traditional Aboriginal man, [Johncock] has an appropriate permit to hunt wombats for food," he said in a statement.
"Whilst distressing to many who viewed the video, it has been established [his] actions were not inconsistent with traditional hunting practices. I have been advised that the wombat in the video was killed and eaten. The video shown on social media was part of a longer video that has not been released. Johncock was not given any internal discipline for his cruelty, but was advised about not making the evidence public, with police providing 'managerial advice and counseling regarding the implications of social media'. [He] is well regarded and respected by his colleagues, peers, supervisors, managers and the local community in which he serves. I have confidence in his abilities to perform his current role as a community constable."