An elderly woman believed to be in her 70s was attacked by Melbourne police agents and pepper-sprayed by an operative while she was on the ground during a public protest against Covid-19 lockdowns on Saturday.

As she held an Australian flag and stood in a silent protest on the road facing toward a group of approaching heavily armed state agents, one operative violently shoved the woman, sending her tumbling to the ground. Two more state cops then stepped forward and bending over the stricken grandmother pepper-sprayed the woman as she laid motionless and unable to protect herself.

Seconds after the attack, with the offending officers having already moved on, another group of policemen and women perhaps fearing bad public relations coverage came to the woman’s aid in an attempt at damage limitation.

Videos of the attack from multiple angles went viral on social media this weekend, with many Australians accusing the Melbourne police agents of police brutality.

Even parliamentarians, notoriously defensive about the protection offered by the state’s ring of steel were outraged. Australian MP Craig Kelly called the attack ‘despicable,’ ‘disgusting,’ and ‘illegal.’

‘This is not my Australia. We cannot accept police in Australia pushing to the ground an unarmed 70-year-old woman who presents no threat and then have two officers pepper spray the unarmed, defenceless person in the face while on the ground.’

Embarrassed former New South Wales Senator David Leyonhjelm also condemned the attack, calling the officers ‘gutless,’ while journalist Ky Chow wrote, ‘I’ve watched several videos of this, and it’s hard to see how the Vic cops defend this’ (they will – Editor).

Several other incidents of violence between uniformed and armed state operatives and protesters broke out during the protest in Melbourne on Saturday and 235 people were reportedly arrested.

Melbourne state police were also caught on camera pepper-spraying dozens of other Australians who were involved with the ‘unauthorized protest.’

Both Melbourne and Sydney have experienced repeated protests over the past few months in response to Covid-19 lockdown restrictions in the two cities. In August, a man from the state of Victoria was sentenced to a maximum of eight months in prison merely for helping to organise a protest in Sydney, New South Wales.