In the early hours of the morning of 2 March 2022 — in a police action that will go down in infamy in our history, and which has severely undermined public trust in New Zealand’s police — they descended upon the peaceful people while they were sleeping. There were hundreds of them and the majority had their badge numbers concealed with masking tape.
by Jane Morgan via the BFD
I have always had the utmost respect for the New Zealand police. The men and women of the force who have sworn to serve and protect us, uphold the Law, assist in matters of justice, and keep us safe so we may sleep soundly at night. The men and women who put their safety, well-being and sometimes lives on the line for us.
After witnessing, first-hand, the brutal attacks on innocent and mostly peaceful protesters at Parliament on 2 March 2022, my respect for, and trust in the New Zealand police have been severely eroded.
The level of violence perpetrated on Kiwis by the police was something I never, ever thought I would witness from police on their own people.
In hindsight, perhaps we should have been prepared for their brutality. They had already shown us all what they were capable of, on the third day of the protest – that fateful 10 February 2022 – which saw the rough arrests of 122 peaceful souls, and brutal injuries to many more.
These were the people, and they were merely trying to stand their ground and bravely defend their right to peacefully protest. They were randomly dragged from the crowd, thrown to the ground and beaten – at times, savagely.
Strangely, in the following days, police backed off, possibly because footage of their cruelty had gone viral and had been seen around the world, to much opprobrium.
Once they realised they needed to be human and humane, police were seen tapping their toes to bands’ music. One officer danced with a young teenage girl. Some were nodding in agreement with speakers who were asking for the mandates to be dropped to ease the People’s suffering, while also calling for someone, anyone, from Parliament to come out and speak with the People.
Despite police on the ground remaining peaceful, however, those in the offices above were rolling out a smear campaign against the protest.
Police and the mainstream media (MSM) lied – daily – about the nature of the protest and the happenings there. They claimed children were playing amongst faeces, or that faeces had been thrown at police, or that elderly people, city workers and children on their way to a nearby school or people wearing masks were being abused.
Oddly there was never any media coverage or evidence of any of that happening.
There was footage of the schoolgirls walking through the Freedom Village laughing together and enjoying themselves in the safety and welcome of it all. There was never one arrest for any of the supposed negative behaviours claimed in repeated reports from MSM.
I, for one, did not witness anything but love, care, joy and support from any of the protesters in the encampment.
Yes in the first couple of days there were a small few, justifiably angry people there who, through the mandates, had lost their income, their jobs, even their homes, and who talked of being denied access to family, friends and many services. But if any of them began to cause trouble they were quietly calmed down by the wonderful protest security. If they showed determination to escalate matters and damage the prevailing peace, they were escorted off the grounds.
Speaking on TVNZ’s Q&A programme on 20 February, Police Commissioner Andrew Coster said police planned to work with protest organisers to try and achieve de-escalation.
“Police will continue to work with them (protest leaders) in good faith to resolve issues.” “I think the police could clear the protest but the harm caused wouldn’t be acceptable”, Coster added.
He suggested that one tactic would be to use force to drive the crowds away, similar to the force used in the 1980s, during the Springbok Tour, “but that was a low point in New Zealand’s history….violence used during the Springbok Tour meant there had been a loss of trust in police” and he underlined that he wanted to explore all other options.
These promises – and others – from Coster were all to be broken.
Police broke their promise to allow access to the protest for those delivering food and donations and to allow the portaloo truck access to evacuate the loos. Then they took them. Gouging the eyes of a man – later to become known as Portaloo Phil – who was in a chain of people surrounding the loos in an attempt to prevent their removal.
The smear campaign and daily sewer of lies continued.
Police and MSM claimed that waste from the toilets – which ingenious kiwis at the protest had constructed after losing the portaloos – was being pumped into the Wellington harbour. And that sexual assaults had occurred within the camp. Yet Wellington City Council had previously inspected the cleverly-built toilets and already confirmed that they had been plumbed into the sewerage system.
As for the hysteria around MSM reports of sexual assault, no charges have ever been laid, no evidence proferred, and no further mention has been made since by our increasingly shady MSM.
On 28 February the leader of the Maori Government was contacted by the Police negotiating team asking for an audience to resolve the situation at Parliament.
Arikinui Ripekatangi, on behalf of Pau Arahi Tumuaki, Maori Government Aotearoa Nu Tireni wrote:
On March 1 2022 the Maori Government engaged in good faith discussion with representatives of the protest in Wellington and members of the NZ Police negotiation team. An agreement was made to hold a hui over the weekend of 4/5/6 March 2022 whereby the 2 sides could discuss reasonable, practicable steps to achieve a peaceable resolution.
Part of the agreement was that no hostile action would be undertaken and the email confirming this was sent on behalf of the Maori Government to the NZP on 1 March 2022 at 22.50pm.
That night police removed and trashed the toilets and the generously donated and beautifully built shower block, shipped in earlier to counter despicable government lies about the filth of the protesters.
In the early hours of the morning of 2 March 2022 – in a police action that will go down in infamy in our history, and which has severely undermined public trust in New Zealand’s police – they descended upon the peaceful people while they were sleeping. There were hundreds of them and the majority had their badge numbers concealed with masking tape.
See also this post. Because of the lack of interest by the police in doing what they are supposed to be there for, instead of being NZ’s Stasi under Comrade Jacinda’s Coster, a Kapiti Theft Victims Facebook self-help group has been set up here —Eds