Danny Lim needs “specialist medical help” while recovering from violent attempted arrest

By CHRISTINE LAI

Sydney activist and icon Danny Lim is requiring specialist medical attention following the brutal attempted arrest by NSW police which saw him being thrown to the ground in the QVB on George Street last month.  

On November 22, video footage posted on social media depicted police officers attempting to detain the Sydney street personality in the QVB on George Street. In the video, Lim can be seen being forced to the ground by officers and falling headfirst.  

Lim’s lawyer Chris Murphy posted an update via Twitter, writing that since being discharged from hospital, Lim requires “two walking sticks to get around” and “specialist medical help that will continue in two areas of damaged health”.   

In the wake of Lim’s arrest, Murphy stated that the activist was “unable to speak properly”.  

Murphy also posted details of the Sydney icon’s health which showed bleeding on the brain in the first scan with doctors monitoring his condition overnight.   

Footage of the arrest went viral online and over 2.4 million people have viewed Murphy’s tweets online, with many condemning the violence of the Police and the anti-protest laws in NSW.  

Brutal attempted arrest of Danny Lim ignores pleas for medical aid  

According to The Guardian, a statement by a witness reported that Lim had repeatedly asked police officers to call an ambulance and had stated that he had a post-traumatic-stress disorder before he was thrown to the ground and handcuffed.  

“He voiced that [he had PTSD] very clearly at the outset. He became increasingly agitated as they approached him”, witness Ashley said. 

The police officers also threatened to charge Lim when Ashley tried to step in and call for medical help.  

“The officer said, ‘If you do that, we will charge you with hindering an arrest,’” he said. “It didn’t seem like the sort of thing that you might use to de-escalate [the] situation”, she said.  

Lim was wearing a sign featuring the word “cvn’t,” like the one that he was wearing in 2019 in Barangaroo where he successfully challenged a $500 fine for offensive behaviour in court.  

During the 2019 court case, the presiding magistrate Jacqueline Milledge called Lim’s sign, “provocative and cheeky” but “not offensive”. Magistrate Milledge added that determining the basis for offensive behaviour under the law needed to see whether the content would offend the “hypothetical reasonable person”. 

“It’s not someone who is thin-skinned, who is easily offended. It’s someone who can ride out some of the crudities of life”, she said.  

Snap action protest called 

On November 23, a snap action was called to protest the violent attack of Danny Lim by police. The action was hosted by community groups including Defend the Right to Protest and Extinction Rebellion where demands included an end to discretionary move on powers, to repeal the anti-protest laws that criminalise dissent and an independent body with prosecution powers to investigate police misconduct.  

Murphy has asserted that “outstanding witnesses have come forward utterly destroying any suggestion Danny Lim did anything wrong”, calling Lim a “victim of NSW Police”.