So the fundamental dishonesty continues. It seems the most remarkable thing to think you can set yourself up a roadblock, pretend to call it a checkpoint, and get approval from the Prime Minister and the Police Commissioner.
As we found out over the weekend from a NZME journalist who arrived at the Ngataki in the Far North, there wasn’t a police person in sight. Locals had already talked of friction at the sight, as people try and access beaches, something perfectly acceptable in level three.
The journalist, despite being an essential worker and allowed to go where they want, was told they couldn’t. Told they couldn't by a person with no more authority than you or me. The Ngati Kuri spokesperson didn't regard media as essential. Really? Under what power, law or authority? A police officer, astonishingly, arrived 10 minutes after the journalist.
And that is what the Prime Minister with yet another of her astoundingly naive utterances has started. To even countenance, in the slightest of ways, the prospect of non law officials taking the law into their own hands, you are asking for exactly the sort of trouble that has unfolded.
I listened to ZB's Drive show on Friday. The head of another checkpoint listed the gangs present including, in her words, "the mighty Mongrel Mob."
All of this is premised under the foe spin that these are vulnerable communities. As far as I can work out when it comes to the virus, we are all vulnerable. In fact, what we do know is the most vulnerable are old people, so why they haven't got road blocks up I have no idea.
But under what circumstances could you have imagined yourself living in a country where a race based policy of breaking the law is endorsed by the highest office in the land, endorsed by the Police Commissioner and backed up with so called evidence? Like all road blocks aren't road blocks, they're checkpoints, and all checkpoints have police at them when that is simply a straight up and down not true.
The police operate with the support of all of us, they are respected because the vast majority of us believe they are on the right side of the law, justice, and community service. This is the opposite of that, it is race based, and therefore racist. It is illegal, yet defended. We are told one thing when another is clearly the truth.
And worst of all it's political. The Labour Party are beholden to Maori for the Maori seats they can't afford to lose the vote. They would sell every non-Maori out to offer a level of tacit support for illegal activity the rest of us wouldn't stand a hope in hell of getting away with.
Why are we putting up with this?
Mike Hosking is a political broadcaster on Newstalk ZB, who
has hosted his number one breakfast show since 2008 - see HERE.
5 comments:
Are we putting up with this? unfortunately yes we are. Collectively we have been called "sheeple" and rightly so. For some reason it seems we dont give a toss about much so long as we are not affected at a personal level.
The tacit approval of police and the PM has enabled maori, or anyone else for that matter, to set up road blocks for any reason whatever. The precedent has been established.
I have said before, if I set a up roadblock at the bottom of my road on the pretext that mostly elderly people live on the street, the police would shut me down before I had time to get my hi-viz vest on.
This is my comment that I published a few days ago:-
From Newstalk ZB recently:-
"National Party leader Simon Bridges said those checkpoints were illegal and claimed police had turned a blind eye and condoned the checkpoints by adding their presence.
Coster completely rejected this. He said they'd not turned a blind eye and had come alongside the community checkpoints to work with them to ensure they were legal."
Having said this, would the Police "come alongside" other criminals also? Burglars, Drug Dealers, Car thieves, would also love the cosy comfort of the Police "coming alongside"
This comment is still relevant today
As the house arrests continue, and the various draconian examples of the BBQ police keep coming, the covid has revealed for us just how many state actors are mad with power. We have our Habeas Corpus trigger. A savvy political might represent the people and offer to clamp down on the political overreach we have seen these last few months. Let us enact the legislative impulse we inherited with common law. Shackle the power mad, redistribute power, decentralise the government. Once the economic ramifications start to hurt, we will have our impetus. This recent road block brown shirt separatism rhymes with the attack on Free Speech we have seen across the world. There is a common theme: attacking our god given right to free speech and free association. Indeed an attack on morality itself. Benevolent dictatorship is a poorly disguised impulse to externalize guilt.
Another previous comment, which is still applicable:-
I said this before, but it still bears repeating:-
"The separatists will get great encouragement from the fact that two successive police commissioners have, on two successive occasions within the last month, been asked point blank what action they will take in response to the illegal blockade.
Each commissioner in turn made it quite clear that the police are turning a blind eye to the blockades.
The separatists will of course now be greatly encouraged to continue in their quest for a separate Maori state. They will also be grooming friendly reporters in the media to prepare the ground.
I can already hear the cries of "Racist" launched in protest against anyone (including the Police) who supports any action against these criminals."
While some of those manning and womanning the 'checkpoints' may well believe they are protecting their communities from a virus, the real motivation underlying the invention and creation of these road blocks appears to be mischievous. Some members of some iwi like the idea that they can govern their own area and they have taken the opportunity to act as if this were so. They spoke about borders and they set up border control posts, accustoming the NZ population to a divided country. Police probably had no mandate to assign their powers to civilians but they acted is if they could, with inane references to ensuring laws would not be broken even though the road-block activity was fundamentally illegal. Government foolishly tolerated all this nonsense. The Maori king joined in the fun by declaring an open-ended rahui on the entire Waikato river so it could 'spiritually rejuvenate'. The king instructed iwi leaders to 'enact' the rahui, a term closer to 'enforce' than 'respect'.
The almost inevitable outcome will eventually be violent repression of Maori separatist groups. The longer this is left the more risk there will be of serious civil war. Our current government will be culpable for encouraging groups to foster unrealistic beliefs about their rights and privileges.
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