The IPCA report is a whitewash.
Here is what I think.
An unhinged minority of antivax protestors and conscientious objectors mixed and mingled and amplified natural health crystal Karens and white supremacists into a hate algorithm feeding frenzy of rage and hurt at being ostracised in their own country.
Some of these unhinged extremists had a list of ‘war crime politicians’ they were going to hang and asked fellow sovereign citizen lunatics to vote the order of hangings.
I was bitterly disappointed not to have made that list.
I believe Jacinda and the Labour Government did an outstanding job flying blind into the face of a once in a century pandemic from a novel virus.
I believe that the mandates were harsh and awful, but were necessary to stop a mass death event.
I believe we did a poor job of ensuring the economic needs of these people were looked after.
I believe Jacinda could not meet directly with protestors who were using such extreme violence in their messaging.
I believe a representative of the Government (Willie Jackson) should have come from Government and listened to the concerns and that would have dissipated this.
Jacinda refused that.
This was Jacinda at her worst haughty head girl routine.
For Jacinda, the greatest sin was unkindness and the news that a girl cried because she was mocked for wearing a mask was akin to evil. She refused anyone aknowledge their existence.
But you can’t just cancel protesters camping out on Parliament Lawns.
While I disagreed with their protest, I believed in their right to protest.
The media and the MPs who were being escorted in and out of Parliament under heavy protection melodramatically believed they were surviving their own January 6th Insurrection. This paranoia fucked up any chance of de-escalation.
I believe we are a conflict avoidance culture due in part to our terrifying domestic violence rates, but when the conflict does occur, the fight/flight triggers become flight to fight. Wellington’s middle class activists were terrified by the animosity from the aggrieved and demanded the Police Commissioner storm the Lawns with dogs, tear gas and riot Police.
Dr Bryce Edwards was attacked by the woke and criticised for pointing out the identity politic activists were wrong about the majority of protestors and that this was a class issue primarily. They attempted to have him canceled from his job.
The Wellington Middle Class activists saw Nazi’s everywhere and demanded violent State suppression of the Nazis.
One Woke Warlord, Clint Smith, called upon the Governor General to sack the Police Commissioner and replace him with an internal security panel whose first declaration would be to green light force to remove the Nazis.
Police Commissioner Andrew Coster stood up to Wellington Middle Class fear and refused point blank to trigger a level of violence that would scar NZ.
This mob were manipulated by far right bad faith actors, but that mob wouldn’t have existed in the first place if Labour had been transformational for their economic anxieties.
Trevor Mallard’s little man syndrome temper tantrum on the first Thursday caused him to see the protestors as an existential threat and commended Police clear the Lawn. This tactically stupid decision live streamed to a population images of violence they had never seen before.
The vast amount of NZers interact with Police via the TV show Police 10-7. There they see heavily edited funny, helpful, wise, kind, brave Police helping everyone.
On that day they saw Police forcibly arresting people that looked just like them.
Trevors temper tantrum forced Police to commit to arresting everyone at a point in the protest when the whole protest was ending. The factions inside the protest had argued overnight at the previous days attempt to enter Parliament (which was professionally handled by the NZ Police), and most of the factions had packed up and left by 6am of the Thursday morning because of all the over night fights.
So this was a protest that was ending.
Right up until Trev’s temper tantrum, because as soon as the Police were forced to start making mss arrests, the remaining protestors had a common enemy.
The Police arrested hundreds which quickly filled the cells to over flowing and they had to stop mid afternoon!
Trevor livestreamed a 10 hour recruitment video to every quack with an axe to grind and the protest swelled from 700 to 5000.
Thank you Trever you fucking moron.
The SIS infiltrated the camp in the second week and brought back frightening tales of plots and threats from the protesters, but because none of the threats could be verified for capacity to actually carry any of these threats out, so it was hearsay that finally spooked Coster into action.
On the day Police illegally took over a firehouse to use against protestors.
They fired sponge bullets.
They used experimental sound weapons.
They threw rocks.
Trevor’s actions and total refusal of any political leadership to de-escalate this meant we are all ultimately responsible for this clusterfuck.
The dark treacle of hate, radicalised by this event has sunk deep into the broken heart of those New Zealanders ignored and othered by a vaccination mandate the majority needed and required.
The only winners are the mass surveillance State who have spooked the MPs into granting then more budgets and more powers.
We all failed each other.
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It was strange days for sure. I was kinda proud as a kiwi to see the protesters planting gardens and plumbing in toilets to Wellington city’s drainage. It’s good to know people who know how to do stuff like that. Ya gotta see the good in everyone sometimes. I’ll remember that forever, with a chuckle.
Yes you do have to see the good in people. Maybe find a common ground to get talking with folks even if their views are opposed to your own and down right hostile.
Just to listen and respect and admit we don’t have all the answers at time. Promote peace.
The Duck definitely escalated things and the end result was a F*ck Up brought back memories of the Springbok Tour and Robbie Muldoon.
Brian Tamaki and his cohorts had there sticky little fingers in there somewhere.
Well, the stats are out, information is readily available that shows that the pandemic was anything but a cataclysmic event. But that is neither here nor there.
The big point here is how anyone who dares challenge the powers-that-be are portrayed and how years on, how they are still seen in the same light.
This is music to the ears of the powerful (the billionaire class and their political minions) as they further fine tune their ability to crush dissent among the masses.
I’d push back on needing the mandates tbh Martyn, though looking at the data again would be helpful would clear it up.
As I recall about 80-85% of eligible population was already vaccinated by the time the mandates came into force. Does bumping that up to 90-95% while also causing this rift, and all the economic pain that has been inflicted on these people really justify the means?
Note: The % vaccinated would have likely continued to increase. I know a fair few people who didn’t get the vaccine initially, because they wanted to see first if the state would force them. Wanted the true colours to be revealed. And revealed they were….
The Duck definitely escalated the problem hopefully he is not as stupid in Ireland?
Mallard was no help…
Lots went wrong.
The covid mandates went way too far.
There was a lack of understanding just how entrenched the antivax feeling was in a small minority and I do not blame the government for that to start with.
Kindness and keeping people safe bloody near suffocated those same people. Again, meant well but it will always quickly lead to infuriation.
There was repeated missed opportunities to vaccinate leading up to the 2021 lockdowns, leading to the reckless dual citizen vaccine passes and job losses to play catch up.
The MIQ’s mostly clustered in Auckland wrecked Auckland
The Auckland lockdowns went far too long and the overreach into people’s lives far too far.
Soviet style border lockdowns dragged on way too long in complete defiance of the reality of the situation.
There was almost loud indifference emanating from Wellington to Aucklands plight, (Chippy)!
When the shit started hitting the fan with the Brian Tamaki led protests in Auckland, no lessons were learnt either by the police or government but those same lessons were hoovered up by the protestors.
When it came Wellington’s turn for protests the police ignored Intel, then reality, then leadership and from the commissioner down looked like monkeys, and the protestors using the lessons learnt, took over.
Mallard thought some old school 80’s police existed to clear the rabble away , not realising wokeness had replaced it.
And in the end a bunch of ordinary, poorly equipped cops had to save the day for their bosses and political masters alike. The IPCA report certainly does not endorse the bumbling indecision of the police executive!
And who can forget the trillion dollar wealth transference!
Love the tinfoil hats though, truly insane and a nice summary to the protests conclusion!
Pretty dark chapter in NZ’s history .
The mandates were great as they weeded out the anti establishment teachers and many have not returned to spread their message of hate .
It was, in fact, a civil rights protest; let that sink in.
Now, whether you agree with the cause or not, the very least that should have been done was an acknowledge of that; some measure of contrition from the government wouldn’t have hurt either. We got “rivers of filth” and hate and vilification. I’ll never forget or forgive.
David+George. 100%. Even if half were mad, it shouldn’t have been that bad. I’ll never forgive or forget Albert Park either, when women were set up by politicians and media whores, then beaten.
I thought the powers-that-be were surprised by the strength of the protests, and didn’t know what to do. Some people were affected by conspiracy theories, some were worried by a vaccine that hadn’t been tested in normal time-frames, and others had civil liberties concerns even while supporting vaccination. I agree Trevor was totally counter productive, but as JA’s former mentor, I guess she wouldn’t confront him.
I thought the powers-that-be were surprised by the strength of the protests, and didn’t know what to do. Some people were affected by conspiracy theories, some were worried by a vaccine that hadn’t been tested in normal time-frames, and others had civil liberties concerns even while supporting vaccination. I agree Trevor was totally counter productive, but as JA’s former mentor, I guess she wouldn’t confront him.
The protesters were racist, LGBT phobic Trump supporters who wanted to impose a theocratic police state.
Yep without doubt National and ACT right wing supporters
You Millsy, are a typical wokie, with your usual tiresome race, gender, and religion accusations, based upon some sort of feelings and not upon the miscellaneous facts of the matter.
Everybody, absolutely everybody amongst our elected MPs failed their duty as representatives in a democracy. That is to listen to everybody in the electorate and consider their views, good bad or off planet. They all failed DEMOCRACY 101. Jacinda to the lowest ranked too wimpy to just go out the door and engage.
As for those Wellington middle class parasites calling for violence against the protest, well done you totalitarian halfwits. Who really are the reactionary nutjobs?
Well done Police Commissioner and our cops.
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