Victoria Police have raided the home of a prominent Australian nationalist over a peaceful protest in Melbourne in October where officers attacked demonstrators with batons and pepper spray.
Father and former boxing gym owner Tim Lutze had already left for work when six armed officers searched his home at 6.20am on Thursday morning as part of a investigation into alleged offensive public conduct.
Mr Lutze, a member of right-wing activist group the National Socialist Network (NSN), later revealed on Telegram that police seized two of his jackets and other items related to his NSN membership.
“They went into my teenage daughter’s room while she was sleeping, and woke up my other 11-month-old daughter,” Mr Lutze told Noticer News.
The raid was in relation to a counter-protest where about 30 NSN members with a banner reading “fuck off, we’re full” turned up at a rally where so-called refugees were demanding permanent visas alongside far-left activists.
Mr Lutze told Noticer News the officers claimed that because the nationalist protesters allegedly walked in formation, concealed their identities, and chanted slogans like “Australia for the White man”, they were being investigated for grossly offensive public conduct.
He was not arrested or charged. Victoria Police were contacted for comment.
The raid comes just days after bombshell documents revealed 683 Victoria Police officers have been investigated for sexual and family violence offences since 2021, including 185 for child sex offences or sexual assault.
Victoria Police is also struggling to contain African gang violence and a sharp rise in crime, with youth crime and domestic violence at 15-year highs, and overall criminal offences up 13.4%, according to official statistics released last month.
Theft from motor vehicles reached record highs in 2024, and crimes committed by children increased 16.9% to their highest levels since 2009. The amount of family violence incidents also surpassed 100,000 for the first time in history.
At the same time Victoria Police is suffering a recruitment crisis mirrored in state police forces Australia-wide, and is so undermanned it cannot give frontline officers air-wing backup, allowing offenders to escape in stolen vehicles.
Mr Lutze has previously criticised police for their failed investigation into left-wing terrorists who firebombed his car and tried to burn down his home on Christmas Eve, 2023, and last month pointed out the huge difference in how that attack was treated versus the attention given to the alleged firebombing of a Melbourne synagogue.
“As far as I’m aware not a single politician commented on the attack on my family, and police did not collect physical evidence including unexploded molotov cocktails on my lawn and in my driveway, and did not take any photos,” he said.
Mr Lutze said the unexploded firebombs were left outside in the rain and never examined by police, who rang his wife on December 3 to tell them they were closing the case as unsolved.
Header image: Left, Tim Lutze. Right, the NSN counterprotest (Noticer News)
