Wellington.Scoop
The protest at Parliament is now three weeks old, and the police have issued three statements in the last three days warning that it is unsafe. Unsafe, yet it’s being allowed to continue.
What the police said on Friday:
“We urge people to stay away from an occupation site that is no longer a safe environment for families and children.”
On Saturday, the police repeated themselves:
We … urge people to stay away from an occupation site that is no longer a safe environment for families and children.
And yesterday:
Aggressive behaviour from protesters, extremely poor sanitary conditions, the confirmed presence of Covid-19, and the number of unwell people amongst the group all make for an unsafe and unpleasant environment for anyone thinking of joining the protest activity at Parliament. Police have noted aggressive behaviour amongst protestors and towards Police. Increasingly, key protest group leaders are unable to control or influence the disparate groups within the protest… This is not a safe place.
But the protest continues. The best the police are offering is something they call “a highly visible presence in and around Parliament grounds to reassure local residents, businesses and people in the area.” The highly visible presence seems to be having no effect.
A DomPost reporter visited the protest site and described how
“the rancid smell of the overflowing portaloos saturates the air… Police dealing with the fallout have met with a range of people from those with genuine concerns, the disaffected, and some who clearly need proper psychiatric help.”
She quoted an unnamed police officer as saying the protest had become …
“a melting pot of extremities from the far-right to those that have gone down the rabbit hole” … Some officers have had to calm protesters who are demanding verification from police about wild conspiracies that range from Illuminati bunkers under Parliament, microchips, genetically-modified humans, and government brainwashing via electronic currents in the air that have affected the pro-vaccine people. “It’s sad… Many are incoherent in their ramblings. Some days it feels like we are managing a mental health facility rather than a protest.”
The fact that the protest is unsafe led to two nearby schools deciding to close last week. Writing on the Spinoff, two Wellington Girls’ College students said the protestors made them feel scared and unsafe, threatened and abused:
Our message to the protesters? … This is not a peaceful protest, as much as some of you might like it to be. Please, go home, read something other than Facebook. You are not changing history, you’re not standing up for what you believe in, you’re just hurting other people and, frankly, making everything worse. As one of WGC’s head students, Alice Thompson, said, we are mad. Mad that we felt unsafe enough to close the school. This abuse from a “peaceful protest” shouldn’t be tolerated any longer.
Wellington Free Ambulance staff have also been made to feel unsafe, and its ambulances are no longer attending emergencies within the protest area “after an increase in hostilities towards paramedics”.
And workers at Parliament said they felt either ‘concerned’ or ‘very concerned’ about the protest and the impact it is having on their health and safety. The workers include cleaners, security, Parliamentary Service staff, Ministerial Services staff, Office of the Clerk and DPMC staff and MPs. Their union “called for an end to intimidation, harassment and violence from the protestors who are occupying Parliament grounds.”
Victoria University students, whose Pipitea campus has been closed after being occupied by an overflow of protesters, sent an open letter and petition with 27,000 signatures asking for the occupiers to be moved.
“We recognize the complexities and difficulties of the situation; however, inaction will further harm, disadvantage, and impair the lives of everyone in our community.”
That was last Tuesday. Inaction continues.
There’s also a petition with more than 140,000 signatures asking the protestors to go home. The protestors remain.
And let’s not forget covid, with both police and protesters being treated for the virus. There’s a government restriction of 100 on any public gathering as an attempt to control the spread of covid – but it’s a restriction that the protesters are ignoring, with 17 cases from the protest identified so far.
Also being ignored: the 300 illegally parked vehicles which have been allowed to stay in the protest area.
On the 15th, Police Commissioner Andrew Coster said the effect of this protest activity around the Parliament grounds, on roads, residents, schools and businesses, was no longer tenable:
“The roads need to be cleared now or we will be towing vehicles. Vehicles that are towed will be seized and not immediately released to those who have failed to move them.”
But by the 18th he had changed his mind, saying negotiation and de-escalation was the only safe, and therefore most desirable, way to resolve the protest.
“Police’s current assessment of the situation is that any enforcement action by Police runs a serious risk of much wider harm than the protest is presently creating. We continue to carefully navigate our options to reopen the roads, but the most desirable way to end this safely, is to encourage open communication channels.”
The towing didn’t start. Three hundred cars remain.
NZ Herald: It feels as if police have given up.