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An iconic Australian known for walking the streets of Sydney with signs preaching the importance of love and happiness is in hospital after being violently arrested by police.
Footage posted online shows Danny Lim, 77, being handcuffed by two officers inside the Queen Victoria Building, in the city’s CBD, just before 11am on Tuesday.
The Malaysian-born provocateur can be heard yelling “help” as the officers put his hands behind his back and throw him to the ground.
NSW Police said they were called to the scene by security guards after Mr Lim allegedly failed to leave the building when asked.
Footage posted online shows Danny Lim being arrested by two police officers on Tuesday
“Police will claim that the man was then ordered to go by officers and did not follow through,” they said in a statement.
The man’s arrest was halted after he struggled with police and suffered an injury to his cheekbone.
“He was treated at the scene by NSW Ambulance paramedics and taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital.”
Police said Sydney City Police PAC has reviewed body-worn video of the incident and investigations are continuing.
Criminal defense attorney Chris Murphy, who shared the video on Twitter, called the arrest of the “innocent man” “heavy,” and many of Mr. Lim’s fans agreed.
“Just outrageous,” one person commented.
More outrageous is the complete lack of interest or concern from the passing public [the] incident. Head/face first to tiled concrete floor, unscrupulous.’
Mr. Lim (pictured with his Chihuahua Pomeranian smarty) is a Sydney icon, known for walking around with signs urging others to be kind and happy
Another said: ‘This is absolutely appalling. Shameful.’
“This is bloody awful and heavy handed,” another wrote.
Mr. Lim is known for parading around Sydney on a sandwich board displaying social and political messages, with his beloved Chihuahua Pomeranian Smarty at his side.
Tuesday’s incident is not the first time the elderly activist has been at the center of a viral video involving police.
In January 2019, Mr. Lim was filmed being arrested while carrying a sign that read ‘SMILE CVN’T! WHY NOT CVN?’.
His arrest sparked a massive protest outside the Sydney NSW police command center on the city’s Day Street days later, as hundreds of his supporters flocked to the station to show their support.
Mr Lim, who was left bloodied and bruised in the incident, was fined $500 but took the case to court where a judge ruled that the term ‘cvnt’, while brutal, was not criminally abusive.
In quashing the fine, Magistrate Jacqueline Milledge, who was highly critical of the arresting officers’ conduct, said the law was concerned with what would offend the “hypothetically reasonable person.”
Pictured: Footage shows Mr Lim being arrested by officers in Barangaroo in January 2019
“It’s not someone with thin skin who is easily offended,” she said in August 2019.
“It’s someone who can ride some of life’s roughnesses. (The sign is) provocative and cheeky, but it is not offensive.”
Ms Milledge said she personally didn’t like some of the signs and advertisements that played on the c-word or f-word.
But she noted the “overwhelming opinion” of people in the public square at the time of Mr Lim’s arrest and said he meant no harm and was not harmful or abusive.
Speaking to Daily Mail Australia days after the incident three years ago, Mr Lim said he couldn’t believe he had been arrested.
“It really shocked me,” he said.
“It shouldn’t have happened at all.”
‘Many people hugged me’: why beloved sandwich board activist Danny Lim, 74, returned to the streets of Sydney calling for ‘unconditional love’ days after his violent arrest sparked anger
By Stephen Johnson for Daily Mail Australia
Eccentric Sydney sandwich board activist Danny Lim and his dog have returned to the same spot where three police officers used force to arrest him four days ago.
The 74-year-old Malaysian-born provocateur appeared on Tuesday morning with his 16-year-old Chihuahua Pomeranian mutt Smarty at Barangaroo in the city, this time with a different signboard.
‘Unconditional love. Be kind to animals, our voiceless children,” it read.
Mr Lim told Daily Mail Australia his dog Smarty, who also accompanied him to the police protest, was a companion animal
The former Strathfield councilor told Daily Mail Australia he was greeted with hugs from passers-by during the two hours he spent at the bottom of the escalators where three police officers arrested him on Friday.
“Many people come to hug me and thank me,” he said.
Mr Lim, who moved to Australia from Malaysia in 1963, said he wanted to ‘show I’m fine’ by appearing in Barangaroo for two hours from 7am on Tuesday.
However, the father-of-two daughters was shocked by the brutal arrest on Friday morning, after police asked him to continue holding a swear sign.
Although Mr Lim has taken legal action against New South Wales Police, he said he was not angry with law enforcement officers for apprehending him and taking his dog.
“I don’t blame the police. They’re doing a good job,” he said, but declined to answer questions about possible legal action.
An image of Mr Lim standing on the exact spot where three police officers forcibly arrested him on Friday was posted to a private Facebook group, Irish Around Sydney.
‘He’s back. Yessss!!!,” Aimee Muschamp wrote in a social media post.
His arrest sparked a large protest outside the Sydney police command center on Day Street in the city on Sunday