‘Coffee Cup Gestapo’: The Latest Covid Crackdown Viral Video Out Of Australia

Examples of Covid policy crackdowns out of Australia have only grown more and more absurd as viral videos continue to hit the web on a weekly basis showing the insane and Orwellian lengths police and government authorities are willing to go supposedly in the name of keeping people “safe”.

The latest encounter of an Aussie citizen with police in Melbourne shows officers actually briefly inspecting a man’s beverage, apparently to ensure that his pulling down his mask in order to consume coffee was “justified”. It should also be noted that this took place outside in the fresh air of a public park…

Melbourne Police grabs a guy’s coffee cup to check if there is coffee in it otherwise, he would of fined him for not wearing a mask 👀

Coffee is known to kill COVID 🙃☕️ pic.twitter.com/7wUB1lBXDF

— DIOGO THE FIVE8 (@Diogothefive8) October 16, 2021

The short clip, which since being posted online has been reported on in multiple international media outlets, shows a masked-up and glove-wearing officer grabbing the man’s coffee cup, while saying, “Do you mind if I check if there’s actually anything in that?” 

After giving it a shake, the officer gives it back to the man and says, “Enjoy your coffee” – apparently satisfied at finding liquid in it.

Some news reports mocked the scene as a “North Korea-style” encounter and others dubbed the officers as part of the “Coffee cup Gestapo”.   

The clip of the encounter has racked up millions of views across various social media platforms this weekend.

Two years ago if anybody had said, in the future groups of Police Officers will be checking to see whether you are carrying an empty coffee cup to avoid wearing a mask that will not protect you against a virus that will not harm the healthy we would have laughed in their face.

— onlywayisup (@mark1854now) October 16, 2021

The Daily Mail captured some of the outraged social media commentary in response to the incident as follows:

‘They were all standing around like a council worker leaning on his shovel, waiting for smoko,’ posted another. ‘Innocent passer-by suffered the brunt of their bored frustration. Poor grunt, no heads to bash, they were made to look stupid.’

And some are noting the irony in applying the same obsessive social distancing standards to the police, who themselves ended up being the potential ‘contaminators’ by grabbing the man’s coffee in the first place:

Others were concerned the police officer – who was wearing gloves – could have potentially contaminated the cup by touching it before returning it.

‘Why wasn’t the officer forced to change his gloves to touch another person’s property? He could easily spread Covid,’ said one. 

‘If that police officer unknowingly had Covid he would absolutely spread it. It is completely irresponsible (and against all infection control) to behave that way.’ 

But ultimately it appears to be “all about control” – as many commentators have pointed out of late, also following multiple recent videos showing Australian police going door to door to confront residents over their social media posts expressing pushback against the government’s blatantly authoritarian laws and regulations forced on the population during the pandemic.

Australia has fallen. pic.twitter.com/iQnlCokZT6

— Avi Yemini 🇦🇺🇮🇱 (@OzraeliAvi) October 10, 2021

No doubt there’s more to come, with the daily and weekly examples getting more and more absurd and outlandish.