Armed police interrupt Australian funeral to enforce coronavirus social distancing: report

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Two police officers in Australia interrupted a funeral service over Easter weekend, entering a church with their weapons despite the family following appropriate social distancing measures meant to curb the spread of the coronavirus, according to a report.

Helen Kolovos, who buried her father on Saturday, said the two officers entered the Greek Orthodox Church in Victoria and began counting the number of people sitting in the pews. She said police came into the church at the end of the service while her father’s casket was being carried down the aisle and out for burial, The Guardian reported.

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“It was just totally disrespectful, to carry a gun in a Greek church, it’s totally against our religion. But the way they came in, they didn’t bow their heads or anything. They just started speaking to some of the people who were working in the church and taking notes as we’re carrying out my dad,” she said. “Just pause what you’re doing for one moment, bow your head, just give that man a little shred of respect. I was inconsolable. That whole moment of fare-welling my dad, that moment was taken away from me.”

Kolovos said officers interrupted the funeral despite her family following legal restrictions on attendance. Funerals have been restricted to 10 guests since March, according to The Guardian. She said her family members spaced out and sat in separate pews despite some being from the same household.

“Being from a Greek family it was already mission impossible to do that, but we did, we literally had to pick and choose our own family and say you can come, you can’t come,” she said. “To see the police come in at that moment, it broke my heart into a million pieces.”

Police officers refrain a woman from swimming on Bondi Beach in Sydney on April 11, 2020. Authorities have closed Sydney's Bondi Beach and increased police patrol in an effort to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.  (AFP via Getty)

Australian police have been given unprecedented and sweeping power to curb aspects of public life in an effort to slow the spread of infection. Since March, health ministers in most states have issued public health orders allowing officers to fine or arrest people gathering in groups of more than two people or who are caught outside the home “without a reasonable excuse."

Some people both in Victoria and New South Wales have been fined thousands of dollars for sitting inside their stationary cars. One man was fined for sitting alone outside on a park bench to eat a kebab in Newcastle after ignored two warnings from police, The Guardian reported. Others were pulled over and fined for not having a “reasonable excuse” as to where they were headed.

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Victoria Police had issued 199 fines for violating public health orders by April 5. By Sunday, that number jumped by 931 fines, with the bulk issued over Easter weekend. Since March 17, New South Wales Police have fined a total of 464 people and issued 57 court attendance notices related to the breaking coronavirus measures.

Compared to other nations, Australia has been praised in its progress in flattening the curve. The country recorded at least 6,400 confirmed cases, with at least 61 deaths by Tuesday. At least 3,598 people have recovered after falling ill with COVID-19.