Hating the NZ Police State while demanding it in an age of Pandemic Solidarity
So we are under a casual Police state.
I have always believed that this is what we would require to stop this pandemic.
The worst case scenario of 40 000 dead in the space of 8 weeks was an outcome unacceptable to any decent human being.
Fuck the economy if there wasn’t a culture too shell shocked from such collective grief to function as a community let alone as an economy.
My frustration is that we should have been planning for this in January when it became apparent to anyone with a glancing interest in this event that what the Chinese were saying publicly and doing privately in response to this virus were so far apart that accepting them at face value meant you had to pretend to not see the frantic and brutal response happening right over their Ambassadors shoulder.
One doesn’t quarantine tens of millions for shits and giggles.
We had to shut down the entire economy and lock everyone down. It was the only course of medicine that could stop this.
Still.
How my teeth ground as our Parliament willingly handed over our civil liberties to the Police.
This represents the largest transfer of civil rights to the State we’ve seen outside war or heavy handed responses to Industrial action.
As I go about the limited parameters of my life over the next 4 weeks (which will really be 6 weeks, which will probably be 8 weeks, which might have to be 12 weeks) and I pass Police & Military on my streets, I will nod respectfully as they cruise past in acknowledgement of the role they are playing in enforcing the absolute necessity of this moment.
But sweet Jesus, the millisecond we are in the clear of this plague, the moment when this oppressive obscenity of State intrusion into our lives in such a profound and needfully draconian manner has passed, this Parliament must restore our collective freedoms unblemished and protected.
This moment of universal experience that is a pandemic isn’t just testing us individually, it is testing the very fabric of our society.
Currently, the brutality of Chinese authoritarianism and its ability via its enormous military might to enforce its will has tamed infection rates, liberal progressive democracies however rely on the collective good will of its citizenship to do what is right.
Our value as a Democracy is being tested and history is watching us.
It is our obligation not only as New Zealanders to protect one another by compliance, it is our sacred duty to the very principles and collective values of our democracy that demands the same valour our forebears have showed.
The restoration of our Democracy with our collective civil liberties in tact and a Government focused on healing and rebuilding in the wake of this pestilence must be our lesson to history.
On the day our Government restores our collective civil rights we will know we have answered this challenge and the sacrifice was worthy of our whakapapa and mana.
Kia kaha.
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“We may even have a little drive with you to see where you’re going.” oookaay .. ‘mission creep’ @ Mike Bush.
note to self : have level 4 quarantine restrictions document readily available for any one in law enforcement that may need it for the purposes of re-education ..
Hemi: ““We may even have a little drive with you to see where you’re going.” oookaay .. ‘mission creep’…”
Creepy, in my view. This is the sort of overreach that risks antagonising the inoffensive sector of the citizenry, who might otherwise be broadly supportive of what the police are obliged to do.
at a time like this and for the good amount of taxpayer funded salary they receive , it’s important not to be incompetent , yet there’s already some confusion within police and between government which in turn is being wrongly imposed upon the ‘inoffensive’ public of which you speak.
Hemi: “….which in turn is being wrongly imposed upon the ‘inoffensive’ public of which you speak.”
Precisely. And it annoys the hell out of me. Especially when, if one were to question what the police are claiming, one may be threatened with Consequences. Who will be brave enough to stand up to that sort of intimidation?
In my view, there are plenty of bad buggers about to whom the police can be paying attention instead; and they’ll surely have their hands full dealing with increasing family violence, I’d have thought.
Extraordinary powers for the cops and other state forces are always there, just waiting to be activated. And now they have been greenlit–a queasy feeling for some of us–and I can only imagine Mr Bradbury’s inner reaction after his run in with the NZ Police!
But bar an asteroid or nuke strike, the current pandemic is as serious as it gets. Extreme measures are warranted because of the type of society we have today after 30 years of neo liberalism. Many hyper individualists that clamour over Boxing Day Sales etc. strangely enough will likely need coercion in some form–even to prompt them to try and save their own skins.
I just saw from my front deck, a Toll company branded ute driving down SH14 Whangarei, with a big ’ol Jetski on the trailer–wtf…stay the fuck home people!
Martyn said; quote “My frustration is that we should have been planning for this in January when it became apparent to anyone with a glancing interest in this event that what the Chinese were saying publicly and doing privately in response to this virus were so far apart that accepting them at face value meant you had to pretend to not see the frantic and brutal response happening right over their Ambassadors shoulder.”
Well said Martyn.
We warned the Minister of Health back in January 20th to be very cautious but they failed to listen then so we hope they have woken up now for all our sakes; – https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO2001/S00041/ceac-calls-for-ministry-of-health-to-be-cautious.htm
Here is the press release we made then;
CEAC calls for Ministry of Health to be cautious
Monday, 20 January 2020, 2:31 am
Press Release: Citizens Environmental Advocacy Centre
Monday 20th January 2020
“CEAC calls for Ministry of Health to be cautious of mystery viral pneumonia spreading from China.”
CEAC calls for Ministry of Health to be “cautious” of mystery viral pneumonia spreading from China, of a new ‘coronavirus’ that’s in the same family as SARS, MERS and the common cold, health officials said Friday; – https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/407631/new-wuhan-virus-cases-emerge-in-china-but-no-plans-for-screening-at-new-zealand-airports-yet
(1) https://abcnews.go.com/Health/us-airports-screen-passengers-chinese-city-virus/story?id=68358416
Since the US (CDC) “Center for Disease Control” has just placed Three airports in the United States under screening for this new global virus.
According to the CDC they will screen passengers arriving from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of an outbreak of a new coronavirus that’s in the same family as SARS, MERS and the common cold, health officials said Friday.
Quote; (1)
US authorities have said they would start screening at three airports to detect travellers arriving via direct or connecting flights from Wuhan who may have symptoms of the new virus.
In Asia, authorities in Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand have stepped up monitoring of passengers from Wuhan at airports. Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines say they have strengthened screening at all points of entry in response to the outbreak, as well.
Japan screens all incoming travellers for high temperatures and started displaying notices at airports around the country asking passengers to come forward if they have travelled to Wuhan and have become sick.
A report published by the London Imperial College’s MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis asserted there are likely “substantially more cases” of the new coronavirus than the 45 currently announced by Wuhan authorities.
A summary of the report on the centre’s website says its baseline scenario estimates that there would be 1723 cases showing onset of related symptoms by 12 January. The full report was not available, however.
Unquote;
• NZ is a large transit point for Chinese visitors and immigrants,
• So we are already effectively in harm’s way.
• So we support the Otago University Health Department calling for NZ Ministry of Health to be wary of danger to the new virus that could threaten the health of NZ citizens as stated I n the report below.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/407631/new-wuhan-virus-cases-emerge-in-china-but-no-plans-for-screening-at-new-zealand-airports-yet
End.
Well, I started eating humble pie about a week ago. I was one of those people making light of the situation, claiming right here on TDB that it was just like a bad flu and that shutting down public events would be an overreaction. Bomber called it, and I got it badly wrong. Mea culpa.
So the police are now the muscle for the Health Ministry? Will the cops be monitoring our health records in future? If we come down with influenza (a disease which has existed since life began) when all of this has spluttered out, will the police arrest us on suspicion of a runny nose? Do we really have to see this bully Mike Bush every day on TV threatening to enter people’s homes when he should be out catching the drug pushers and rapists in his own police force.
Pandemic…so “they” tell us. House arrest…for our own good…so we are told. But…what if?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcS0KyC6LJ4
If we’re alive because it was nothing much or just a hoax and overestimations were made I guess we’ll be able to look back because we’re alive and say it was nothing much or just a hoax and overestimations were made.
If we’re dead I guess we won’t be in a position to say, “Shit, that was for real.” If we’re alive we might look back and say, “She died from covid-19 in 2020 and no-one was able to go to her funeral.”
“No one likes the police and the police know, no one likes them.” Jesus Christ Country Boy, you talk a lot of shit!
@ Gary – read the rest of what CB said then you might understand what he is saying instead of attacking him with your negative nonsense. You obviously don’t read and observe what is going on around you. The Prime Minister and Commissioner of Police said it is ok to take exercise in your local area but the cops in Hamilton act like bully boys and order an older couple out exercising by walking around the lake close to their home to go home. Then in Auckland a woman goes ballistic in a supermarket when she is confronted for stealing food and all the cops do is warn her for theft.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12320352
What do we take from this? Oh, I know, it is much easier for the cops to bully law abiding older citizens than it is to enforce the law against a thief.
CB is right but you are totally off the mark and your comment displays a real lack of insight.
@youngsuffrajet “What do we take from this? Oh, I know, it is much easier for the cops to bully law abiding older citizens than it is to enforce the law against a thief.”
How do you know that the supermarket wanted to press charges, probably they didnt. An older couple gets intimidated walking their dog. Who says they were intimidated? The old couple? Perhaps they were they were the type that just hate cops like countryboy.
The way you judge the actions of Police in 2 incidents you know nothing about (because you weren’t there) shows your lack of insight.
I have plenty of insight, and the above comment like yours is a stupid as anything countryboy has said.
Gary, your response to YS confirm her comments about you.