Dear Jacinda
I know you are busy. Great job on the whole saving NZ from a pandemic thing.
You are the best and you are my favourite politician.
Appreciate you are busy, but I think you have to call in the US Ambassador to spell out our Country’s concern for the naked abuse of human rights that we are now seeing in America right now.
It is the obligation of a Democracy to hold other Democracies to account because no one else will or can.
The horror of the casual violence used by American Police on their own citizens in a liberal progressive democracy is an abomination BECAUSE we are supposed to be better than authoritarian regimes.
We have to be held to the highest standards precisely because that’s the freedom, liberty & human rights protection that democracies promise.
When those promises are so cruelly broken, protest and solidarity is the only response.
How does one even respond to a man who would fire on protestors to clear a path for him to wave a Bible in front of a church?
Every time we tell ourselves Trump can’t sink lower, he manages it with gusto and flair.
This latest display of police brutality has been followed up by even more police brutality…
- A New York City police officer tore a protective mask off of a young black man and assaulted him with pepper spray while the victim peacefully stood with his hands up
- New York City police officers, in two separate vehicles, rammed a crowd in a street. Separately, a moving police vehicle slammed someone with a car door and drove away
- Security forces in Minneapolis marched down a quiet residential street and shot paint canisters at residents who were watching from their private porch
- Police in Louisville raided a public square, confiscating and destroying water and milk, which is used to counter irritants like pepper spray
- Atlanta police stopped two black people, inexplicably shooting them with tasers and tearing them out of their car
- A New York City officer used two hands to throw a woman to the ground, reportedly calling her a “stupid fucking bitch”
- San Antonio Police used tear gas against people. So did Dallas police. So did Los Angeles police. So did DC police. The list goes on.
- Many people reported being shot by rubber bullets. MSNBC host Ali Velshi says he was shot after state police fired unprovoked into a peaceful rally. A freelance photographer in Minneapolis says she went permanently blind in her left eye after being shot by police.
- Police have brutalized lawmakers participating in demonstrations, including New York State Senator Zellnor Myrie
…Police using brutality to suppress protests that have erupted because of police brutality seems toxically ironic.
Call in the US Ambassador and convey our shock at the unravelling of a country we regard as a friend.
America needs an intervention, and history is watching for your leadership Prime Minister.
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I have a simple answer. It’s roid rage.
Agree totally with the sentiment of your letter.
What scares me sh****ss is that the Democrats do not have a strong candidate for Presidency (is Biden really the best they could find from among their party? Really?) and that, if Trump wins, he will have four more years without the restraint to be re-elected in 2024 and that could mean a chaotic four years not just for the USA, but the world. He may even change the constitution to make him President-for-life (a la Putin, Qi
etc etc – they’ve set the precedent and Trump is very much a member of their club).
Hold tight, folks, and fasten your seat-belts, it could be a bumpy ride!
Yes. And while you are engaged in making our country better, please also take us out of the Commonwealth. I understand that this one may cost you a holiday or two but I simply cannot bear the fact that this unnecessary remnant of the British empire aligns us with the Trump’s, Johnson’s and Morrisons of the world. Regards, a citizen of the world.
What do you expect the police to do when confronted by rioters.
While you are at it you had better call every other ambassador.
Filipinos locked in their houses to starve, Brazil , China etc etc.
What do I expect the police to do when confronted by rioters? Probably something different then when they see a peaceful protest. Do you agree?
“The sudden use of force left protesters bruised, bleeding and in shock. Although the previous night’s demonstrations had turned violent after dark, with fires set and stores looted, the scene in front of the White House on Monday had been smaller and calmer. People danced and sang to a woman playing a guitar instead of knocking over barricades — a stark contrast to the “violent mobs” and “professional anarchists” …
They fired rubber bullets and tear gas at peaceful protesters. Strange that when that sort of stuff happens in Hong Kong Trump and mental midgets who support him go crazy about human rights abuses.
Estimate 12,000 Filipinos killed by vigilantes and police, no demonstrations and how many African kids die every day and no protests, pretty selective morality. Auckland protesters have no credibility and the Wellington demonstrators should be outside the US embassy not parliament. Get a reality check Kiwis.
Two wrongs don’t make a right.
There are many situation globally where murder is being committed by Police, armies. racists and criminals but the USA stands out as a hypocritical aggressor in many countries. 1.4 million killed in Iraq for no legitimate reason other than stealing resources.
But within the USA racism is endemic and deaths of minority non whites at the hands of police is out of all proportion to the population.
The point made is that the USA and NZ are 5 eyes spy network partners and NZ cannot afford to turn a blind eye to the flagrant abuse of human rights from a so called “partner”, who tells us what to do.
NZ needs to create independence from that crap.
The Auckland protestors have high credibility as they are voicing support against racism which is alive and well in NZ also, with a plethora of evidence and stats describing that.
The Wellington Protesters will choose where they protest and if you wish to protest outside the US Embassy down the road then you are free to do so.
To add reality to your comment may well like to say where you protested.
DS : What do we expect from police? How about consistency, valuing life over property, treating protesters with respect (as some police did) and, perhaps, not using their badges and their numbers and their weapons to vent their own personal grievances. I agree that other countries (though not your ridiculous “every other ambassador…etc etc) are worthy of reproach:- Deaths of indigenous people in Australia, the ongoing atrocities perpetrated by the Indonesians on West Papua, the opportunistic destruction of indigenous people’s habitat-and thus, their very existence, in Brazil, The quiet sequestering and “re-education” of Uighurs in China. Yes, the list is long, but this does not mean we ignore the obscene abuse of power of “the leader of the free world”. He is a bad president in both senses, inept and malign, and he needs to be brought to book.
Aboriginals in the outbacks were still being shot for sport in the 1960s.
When reported to the Perth police they were not interested and my friend who tried to report it was warned off by Police.
Deeply rooted systemic racism mixed with psychopathy.
Ideally @ Martyn. “BigNorm” may have done so in years gone by, but since then, apparently we’ve become so much more suphusticated and incrementally pragmatic, and as I look out the window – there are pigs flying over Thorndon, Tova is preparing her next gotcha, Max Headroom is preparing for the night’s “cross” to parliament, and Jane Patterson is busy putting the finishing touches to her opinion piece and readying for Checkpoint.
Half of cabinet plus the kitchen sink are leaving her all the work while they swan around the town on a well-deserved lunch break (I just encountered one of them near the Lambton Quay Countdown), and the boffins are preparing their differing analyses of the situation.
People are ‘pivoting’ left, right and centre (even as they are “going forward on the back of’ whatever it is that’s on their mind. And as I walk East and hear one or two American accents as I pass the QT Hotel, I guess I will have to rely on faith that 54 Avatars are, as we’ve been promised, in lock down.
I saw Trump at the church. Tragedy, farce and comedy all in one. The whole thing was a farce. The tragedy was trampling on the Constitution by attacking peaceful protesters. And Trump supplied the comedy. He could have said a few words or bowed his head in a moment of silent prayer. Instead he had to check that he was holding the Bible up the right way before waving it around like he had just one a prize. Pure gold.
No doubt he did it to create an image of strength, triumph and hope and have those with a strong religious outlook be swayed.
Don’t you think there’ll be many who don’t see the tragedy, the farce, the comedy and the parody in front of them but still think he’s God?
Put aside the Trump derangement syndrome for a minute and I’ll break it down for those who only get their info from the mainstream (and yes TDB is pretty much a mainstream echo).
The peaceful protests have been hijacked by violent fascist organisations. Some of us here are struggling to differentiate between the peaceful and the violent. Are we shocked that innocent bystanders are getting caught up on this on both sides?
This has become purely political and the mainstream media and the democrats are loving this turmoil. They want to see America burn.
Call in the US Ambassador and convey our shock at the unravelling of a country we regard as a friend.
Perhaps you should rephrase that as ‘Call in the US Ambassador and convey our shock at the unravelling of a country I regard as a friend’ because a large number of people living in NZ regard the US as our enemy, a rogue state with a reputation for flouting international law and penalising nations that don’t fall into line with whatever the US demands, however harmful those demands might be to the welfare of citizens of that nation.
I’m not sure what will be achieved by PM calling in US ambassador. A note will be made, that will be sent to Washington, that will be filed and ignored as all such missives have been in the past. Better to use what is happening in the USA as a catalyst for examining our own past and failures in regards to race or just differences in our peoples. In the 70’s I was told that NZ had the best race relations in the world. My eyes were first opened when the dawn raids came and I saw PI and Maori kids from my college having to carry ID proving that they were real kiwis. The Springbok tour came a couple of years into my first job. You couldn’t talk about HART in the smoko room in case someone decided to set you straight after work. Now we have Hobson’s bloody pledge telling everyone that Maori have it too good in this country and plenty of people nodding along to the rhetoric. We have total fuckwits telling us that giant red headed white people were the original inhabitants and it must be true because the local paper published the story. We have ACT and National calling for mass arrests of Maori at ihumatou because, you know, private property. Seymour still warning that Maoris will take over your very home if we let them, the Human Rights Commission should be closed and people should be allowed to point at other people and say whatever racist crap they want because ‘it’s only words’. We must evolve from this knuckle dragging shit and look in the mirror instead of tut tutting the USA. That being said, the USA is a nation founded on slavery and unfettered capitalism. The non WASPs will always struggle. BLM is too narrowly focused IMO. Perhaps change it to Non Wasp lives matter NWLM!
When Chris Trotter first mentioned the killing of George Floyd in his article I thought he was mentioning an earlier killing of an Afro American several years ago by the USA cops and the riots that followed… I have not been up with the news , you see…
Then a friend mentioned it to me and I hurriedly read up on it…
I was horrified. I did not watch the youtube for some voyeuristic exercise,…I was simply gobsmacked at the time. I watched it and it was with a sinking feeling knowing that in 8 minutes time the man who I was watching would soon be deceased… at the hands of so called ‘law enforcement officers’.
I was sickened.
The tears started welling up.
I would be inclined to want to mob the cop who was doing it to at least cause him to release. It would be a prison sentence I know. Or at least scream in his face as a distraction. Yet always easy to say what you’d do when you were not there. Yet this is the reason that law enforcement are not permitted in many jurisdictions to use choker/ sleeper holds, – because there may be a pre existing heart condition, because you cant tell when you’ve taken it too far.
Many years of Japanese jujutsu and we learnt all of that. It is a direct military combat style depending on the group you train under. Whether they are purists or have moderated things. It is fantastic as the overall self defense, police , security and military toolbox. It forms the basis of many other hard styles including Krav Maga.
Yet in all my years of security I never needed it once. And that makes me glad. My point is that cop knew EXACTLY what he was doing. Knee to the carotid artery. On a handcuffed, immobilized man. That cop gambled on hiding behind the law and execution of his ‘duty’s. He had been trained, and he was going to use it. And he did and he killed another human being. Deliberately.
He will go to his own grave with that on his conscience. He will meet his maker as a common murderer. The sort he was charged to protect against. I would not want to be him. I hope he will think long and hard for what he has done.
In this age of handcuffs, tasers , pepper sprays, water cannons, flash grenades, automatic weapons and dogs with officers acting in groups , there is no excuse. We are supposedly a world of the rule of law, and under that umbrella we have protected rights accordingly no matter who you are.
Yet we are not much better than tribal peoples of old fighting over a water hole or the hunting grounds of antelope herds. It was fashionable to mock the concept of ‘sin’,… yet we are a fallen race despite our huge intellects. How can it be that such an assumed ‘intelligent’ species can be so degenerate so often? Criminologists have produced library’s full of books trying to explain it.
From Pol pot to Auschwitz, from Stalin to the Sand Creek genocidal massacre of the Cheyenne and Arapaho order by Colonel John Chivington,…nothing has changed. History is full of psychopathic leaders and corrupt law enforcement, through bias, and toadying.
It behooves us to realize this and the fallen state of mankind and to ward against the worst excesses of our own tendencies by being ever vigilant. To prosecute where ever evil rises up, to speak out and to appreciate that freedom is the ideal state of all human beings and that the freedoms of peoples must be protected no matter whose political toes we stand on.
Because this is the state of an elevated humanity, it is the reason we have ‘democracy’, it is the reason we SHOULD have a free news-media, it is the reason why we should scrutinize every thing the political class does to ensure they are abiding by the rule of law.
And if they are not?
The only recourse we have in a true democracy is to prosecute them and their perpetrators accordingly.
The Sand Creek Massacre: November 29th 1864 – Cheyenne/Arapaho/Sioux History
https://youtu.be/bVMW5P5M2bY?t=1
WK – Well said!
Power and corruption comes with money. Truth is always a casualty.
That cop had killed several other blacks in his custody over a few years, he needed to be stopped well before he got stuck into George Floyd. He is a member of the KKK. His president would regard his policing as …??
Didn’t Donny put a call out to his MAGA crew a few days ago to go and counter the protests? I’m pretty sure the Book of Matthew teaches a righteous life (‘doing unto others’), free of revenge (‘living by the sword’). As for government officials expressing concern about the lack of social distancing in protests this week. The chance of anyone in the crowd contracting a fatal respiratory disease was minute, but the chance of someone suffering respiratory harm by a knee to the neck was certain.
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