We Talked To Danny Lim, The Local Sydney Legend Who Was Fined $500 For An “Offensive” Protest Sign

Like many other lucky Sydney-siders, my weekdays are occasionally enlivened by a jolly elderly man standing outside Edgecliff Station, in Chippendale and around Strathfield, waving colourful placards and spreading welcome cheer to those of us drudging through our morning commute.

His name is Danny Lim, and yesterday he was fined $500 by the police for offensive behaviour.

Generally, Danny’s placards carry a message of peace and love — but lately some of his signs have become decidedly more political, and particularly critical of Tony Abbott. Yesterday’s offending placard read ‘PEACE SMILE / PEOPLE CAN CHANGE/ TONY ABBOTT YOU CANT’ — with the ‘A’ in ‘cant’ written upside down.

The implied word that resulted upset a number of motorists who drove past, and subsequently called the police.

“When you say ‘happy morning’ and smile at people it tickles them, and opens their mind to having a positive day,” Danny, a former councillor for Strathfield, told me. That’s why he’s been so dedicated to spending his early morning sharing the love — and the politics — at various intersections around Sydney.

But yesterday, the police weren’t having it.

“It actually came to our attention when one of our duty officers saw it,” the Rose Bay duty officer inspector, Tracy Trevallion, told the Daily Telegraph. “It was the offensive nature of the placard that caused us to take action.” Police on the scene also said they had received complaints from the public.

Before fining Danny, police had confirmed on their database that he has no prior convictions or prior warnings; they have discretionary powers in most instances to issue a formal caution instead of a fine, making his on-the-spot punishment particularly surprising. But perhaps it was all part of a larger story: the same sign had made headlines last week, when Danny wore it while greeting Malcolm Turnbull outside his Edgecliff office.

@breko @HuffPostAU Malcolm Turnbull & Danny photo I hope this wasn;t the picture that set the police on Danny pic.twitter.com/AsetIriTIG

— Maureen (@Moby011) August 25, 2015

The internet loves nothing more than a hero of the people, and it didn’t take long for social media to rally around him. The Twitter storm his story generated yesterday triggered two separate crowd-funding campaigns, which each raised over $500 in under two hours. Within hours, Twitter also helped deliver a lawyer who is now working on Danny’s case, and wants no payment or publicity.

Danny cried when I told him of the tsunami of support that has been generated in less than 24 hours. For a man who offers so much generosity to others, he is slightly uncomfortable with it being returned: he would like all the money raised to instead be donated to charity.

“The most important thing we can do is give our children the best environment to inherit, along with a strong health and education system,” he told me. He is determined to continue challenging governments of any persuasion that are failing us in those areas.

Danny is also prepared to go to court to get clarity on which whether he can ever make similar parody signs in the future. But this morning he was back on his beat in Edgecliff, this time with signs supporting the police and emergency service workers.

He’s looking forward to this all blowing over so he can get back to what he does best – brightening our days with his big smile, his little dog, and tidings of peace.

–

Jeremy is co-founder of TheBanter.com.au. He lives in Sydney and tweets @hillmanjt