The Police handling of the 25 March Albert Park Let Women Speak event has come under fire from multiple quarters.
A group calling itself NZ Media Watch, active on Twitter and describing its goal as “Keeping New Zealand Mainstream Media honest”, says “selective enforcement of politically-motivated violence is not a standard of policing New Zealanders should accept.”
Media Watch last night tweeted that Police worked with the Green Party and trans activist Shaneel Lal resulting in Police pulling back to the outskirts of the park and failing to take action as protesters breached the barriers separating them from supporters of pro-women’s activist Kellie-Jay Keen (also known as Posie Parker).
The Women’s Rights Party agrees with Media Watch criticisms of Police handling of the Albert Park violence by an angry mob targeting the women and men who were there to hear Kellie-Jay Keen.
Women’s Rights Party National Secretary Jill Ovens said women learnt that day that “we cannot rely on the Police to treat us as citizens worthy of protecting our right to assemble and to speak”.
Ms Ovens said that when she got to the band rotunda with some other women, there was concern that there appeared to be no police presence.
“We were saying to each other that it feels like we are sitting ducks,” she said. “As the situation deteriorated, I was yelling out to the TV news crew beside me, ‘Where are the Police? Where are the Police?’ ‘Yes it’s crazy,’ the reporter said.”
Tania Surt, a founding member of the Women’s Rights Party and one of the organisers of the Let Women Speak event, says she was trapped on the band rotunda calling the police as the anti-women’s rights crowd surged forward.
“The Police had assured the organisers prior that they would be in attendance and actively policing. By the time Kellie-Jay arrived at the rotunda, we were already worried,” Tania says. “I didn’t see the Police anywhere at all and the police operator kept telling me she couldn’t hear me.”
Tania Sturt says the incident where tomato juice was thrown at Kellie-Jay Keen and also landed on herself, seemed to be a signal for the mob to break through the barriers.
“We were surrounded. People were calling 111 and getting nowhere. There was no sign of the Police as protesters clambered onto the rotunda. We decided we had to break through the mob to get Kellie-Jay out.”
The violence was well documented by video footage, including the assault on a 71-year-old woman by a 20-year-old man. The man punched her repeatedly and viciously.
The case went to the Auckland District Court on April 20 when the man was charged with assault and granted interim name suppression. He was due to appear in the Gisborne District Court on June 12, but was granted diversion and so will not appear again.
Despite video evidence of the more serious Section 194 Male Assaults Female offence, Police charged the man with a Section 196 Common Assault. Diversion is not available to defendants facing a Section 194 charge.
The NZ Herald has today reported the woman’s story for the first time on the basis of her anonymity.
She told the Herald she saw a woman taking down the roped-off area and she put her hand on the protester and said “No this is not fair. This is our space and our turn to speak.”
“She basically laughed at me, pushed me aside, and next thing I got hit in the back of my head.”
The woman told the Herald the first hit was to the back of her head, and from that point she staggered away.
“Everything was black. I can’t remember seeing anything. There was bit of a flash of colour and I thought I was going to fall on one of those spiked railings and I thought he was going to hit me again,” she said.
“I can’t give an accurate timeline of when he punched me in the back of the head, to when he hit me in the face. I made my way through the crowd, who could see I had been attacked. One guy whispered ‘F*** you’ in my ear as I walked past, then saw the side of my face was purple, and ran off.”
The Herald reported that Police later entered the increasingly tense environment to escort Parker (Kelly-Jay Keen) to safety and disperse the crowds.
“This is definitely not the case,” Tania Sturt says. “We had to force our way through the crowd as the mob tried to attack us. I was knocked to the ground and kicked and punched and I lost the others. Kellie-Jay feared she would not get out alive. The marshals, bodyguard and other supporters who helped Kellie-Jay to safety should be commended. Certainly, the Police were no help.”
There have been no arrests made in relation to Tania Sturt’s assault.
The Police did not intervene until Kellie-Jay Keen, the Let Women Speak marshals and the security guards reached Princes Street where police officers were still standing by at their van. No police assistance was offered to anyone else. Kellie-Jay Keen was later hurriedly rushed out of the country under police protection.
There have been numerous official Police complaints made by women who were at Albert Park to support Kellie-Jay Keen, including by Tania Sturt. The few responses received so far indicate the Police are refusing to take responsibility for failing to do their job.
The Women’s Rights Party says the Police owe an apology to the women for their lack of action to protect their rights to free speech and to peaceful assembly.
As a hitherto supporter of the New Zealand police, I have little confidence in police policy after viewing an Albert Park victim telling Sean Plunket, that cops in a car told her that it is not their job to protect women. This means that the Rule of Law is in abeyance in New Zealand. If transgendered persons are now being prioritised over and above biological women, the Commissioner and the Minister of Police need to provide justification for this. As far as I know they have failed to do so.
I gather that this may be taken to the UNO as a ‘ freedom of speech ‘ issue, but the practical implications for all New Zealand women, often physically disadvantaged compared to the more favoured transgendered people, are chilling, knowing that we’re not safe in the public places where we should be.
“Anti women’s rights protest”!
That is powerful language. That is how those who support women’s rights should describe that mob. And that support should be universal!
Our elected parliament should be standing up for the rights of law abiding citizens and groups. What is going on in Wellington?
This is not the time to stand back in apathy. Where does the police stand on this lawlessness? The buck stops with the Commissioner of Police. The Commissioner should be held to account! That is the only way we can flush out those in Parliament that have lost their moral compass.
Johan Thiart. The event at Albert Park was intended to “ Let women speak”, help women to find their voices, and use them. MSM and some politicians deliberately presented it as an anti transgender campaign, but in fact Kellie-Jay k’s involvement seems to originated from her concern about what is happening in the school system with gender ID scenarios, and the predicament of girls and women having transgendered persons sharing their private spaces.
I’m not too keen on my dear six year old granddaughter sharing toilet places with persons with penises, and my small grandson could get confused and worried if his teacher says that having a penis doesn’t mean that he’s a boy. He has a boy in his class now wearing frocks to school, and fortuitously, a rather flamboyant transgender neighbour who the children have grown up alongside, and accept in their stride. But it’s when the Department of Education forces children to become involved in genderID ideology as part of the school curriculum, that the scenarios become questionable, especially when it’s an ideology without a scientific or medical basis, and which sexualises young children.
The police look as if they have been captured by the transgender extremists, and were keen to show that they’re not anti-transgender, by stepping back and letting them throw their weight around, instead of behaving dispassionately. The buck probably stops with the Commissioner, as the Minister can claim no right to interfere in their operational decisions – although this didn’t stop Mallard at the Parliamentary precinct demo – and the Commissioner can deflect responsibility onto his policy advisors, and it looks rather as if they may be public service pc types, who aren’t always the brightest, or they wouldn’t be so pc.
But as Marama said during her attendance that shameful day, all the violence in the world is caused by cisgender males, which gets the transgendered blokes in wigs and frocks bullying women, nicely off the hook. It would be better if this issue doesn’t get advanced to the UNO, but given Labour’s determination to corral freedom of speech, anything is possible. Any taxpayer or ratepayer monies used to fund the anti – free speech protestors at Albert Park should also be explained; it too is an assault upon democracy.
And the police are ducking responsibility! On the Sunday or Monday following, I put in an OIA with the police. Like so many govt depts today who do not want to be held accountable, I couldnt find a single contact point except for their online contact me form.
I wrote out the OIA asking what intelligence they had gathered prior to KJK’s visit, what meetings they held prior and what was agreed to. Who specifically made the decision to not intervene and asked for a copy of the communications log for that day showing convos between those on the ground and those at HQ.
I noticed that the format did not allow for copying of the OIA which was clearly marked. So I screenshotted it all and copied it so that there was a digital footprint indicating at least the likelihood that I had sent it.
Well I have heard nothing since so decided to ring and speak to someone about why I hadnt received anything. I was told they didnt know why but it was probably because I sent it via the wrong platform? and that I should have sent it to the Commissioner. Pity AC’s details werent on the site.
I’m not surprised and I knew as I was doing it that that would be the likely result. So now I am contemplating whether I take it to the Ombudsman or not. Certainly what I asked for has not been put out in the public domain.
I cant remember exactly what was said but I also in April sent a letter to the Minister and said AC must resign. I raised similar issues and after a week or two received a letter that said it was not the Minister’s place to get involved and I should direct my concerns to ?? Cant remember – IPCC or AC? But basically it was a complete brush off and from memory also contained some blanket statement about her confidence in the police.
NZer’s have had to swallow a lot of sh*t the last few years with all the egregious stuff that has come down the pike. But the Albert Park ‘affair’ is the absolute worst as it shows a level of political control deep within the police and shows that they dont police for everyone which is their fundamental job. Also, I heard that as part of the diversion rules, the victim should have been contacted prior to diversion being offered but she has confirmed they never contacted her.
I believe they want it all on the down low because they know there was a conspiracy to cause mayhem and assault (Eli R) (You only needed to read some of the posts on Social Media on the Friday prior to see the likelihood of this). If the offender receives diversion, it means he probably retains name suppression and if so, is not able to be questioned by anybody. Questions such as “What made you decide to leave Gisborne to travel up for this event? (If indeed he wasnt already in Auckland) What made you think it was ok to punch a 70 yr old woman repeatedly? etc”
The whole thing stinks, the message is that women have no rights, they are not safe from violence perpetrated by men and that elderly women are equally ‘fair game’ if they stand against any mob of ‘progressives’ and that it ‘serves them right’ for being on the wrong side of this brave new world.
I think Albert Park stands in history as one of NZs darkest days.
Fantail. I think that if you make a complaint to the police online, as opposed to making an OIA request ( which used to be a good way of finding information from govt depts) it gets automatically coped to the IPCA, and that triggers another process, which can result in someone very polite contacting you directly, to organise to discuss it with you. In this case have a support person present ( whether you feel you need it or not) and record the conversation. An IPCA complaint is other option anyway, and thence the ombudsman.
Albert Park was a complete disgrace, not just as another attack on freedom of speech, which we all know Ardern spoke to the UNO about, advocating global censorship using Tony Blair-type “ weapons of destruction” verbiage. The police commissioner was apparently picked by Ardern for his job, and I’ve tried not to let that prejudice me. Ardern and Coster photographed saying thank you at the conclusion of the Parliamentary precinct protests, another occasion where Labour, National and the Greens had all tried to not let people speak, was a little sobering, when neither, as far as I know, were anywhere near the front line, and not subjected to the attacks, physical injuries, hospitalisation, and covid re-infections, which the boys and girls in blue were, but that’s probably the way the PR has to play out for the public.
Politicians, just Labour and the Greens I think, and MSM cowboys, played a proactive role in whipping people up against K-J K before she even arrived, and the event was effectively high- jacked into being a pro- transgender event, rather than being to enable women to find their voices, and was celebrated, even in Parliament as an occasion of pure trans joy. The fact that the event officially scheduled for that day was successfully and violently cancelled, was of no concern, when it should have been.
There’s lots of layers involved here. Keen has been vocal about puberty blockers and other procedures involving under-age children, where the powerful pharmaceutical companies have a vested interest, and this issue is also imploding now overseas. These guys make the tobacco barons look like country vicars.
I’d hoped that the Auckland police reported as saying that it wasn’t their job to protect women, were just local idiots, and that they did not reflect police policy. The women of this country deserve clarification and it hasn’t come. It should have been addressed in the aftermath and could have been done quite simply.
The occurrence at Albert Park can also be addressed as a Bill of Rights issue. The Human Rights Commissioner apparently going to Wellington to protest at the cancelled KJ-K event there, was also inappropriate IMO. He also seemed to be prioritising being seen to be pro transgender. “ Being seen” seems to be the operating factor here, but there’s no reason why supportive events cannot exist in their own right, and not at the expense of other people’s rights or well-being.
It’s a freedom of speech issue, but seemingly being twisted into something else, in an insidious way.
played a pro-active role
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Fantail. I don’t do social media so don’t know what has happened there. But the bottom line about Albert Park has to be whether there was police involvement prior to the event and during it, in stopping women from having voices, and if so, why.
It’s shocking that any sober self-respecting man would stand by while women are mistreated, and more so, if they’re police officers whose job it is to maintain law and order. The imbalance of power, with physically stronger and younger transgendered persons and their extremist supporters, and the police, and the ghastly Green MP pioneers of identity politics, all lined up against biological women, is terrifying, and of course, unconscionable. The IPCA actioning of complaints made to it should shed light on what was going on here.
NB: TDB comment 25/3/23
“Are the police going to charge the violent protestors? I doubt it, in today’s woke police and dual justice approach”.
22/6/23 A single charge but zero consequences.
Fantail. Coster seemingly belonging to a small sort of church like Luxon does, may have conservative views about empowering women. Misogynistic Saint Paul did, and the church’s role in suppressing women is documented. This doesn’t excuse Albert Park, but Parker and co were portrayed as trans haters, which she has denied, and it looks as if this was the end justifying the means. So was the Spanish Inquisition.
Police tardiness in addressing the thugs who bullied and assaulted women could be due to manpower and cost issues. The Minister expressing confidence in the police was predictable, but it is the left who are hellbent on cancelling freedom of speech, with the right being equally repressive for failing to call them out on it, the Greens clueless.