Wheeler’s Corner
“Connecting Citizens Who Care“. Every Monday
at 4 pm on Access Manawatu 999AM” Join Peter’s blog http://wheelerscornernz.blogspot.com/
15 8th April 2018
1. It’s Our Future Manawatu is a small but highly active group of
like-minded but diverse people who believes that converting desire for social
and community change will benefit all regardless of age, ethnicity or gender
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| Non-violent police |
They believe strongly in
non-violent community activism. Their ages cover the full spectrum. They even
practice non-violent behaviour before taking part in protest activities.
Last Thursday they [IOFM] met for
their usual review of past events and future planning. This latest meeting was
particularly important because it covered the protest in Wellington where
Manawatu members along with hundreds of others made public their deep concerns
about New Zealand’s present actions of continuing down the path of mining
fossil fuels via the fracking process etc. so popular in Taranaki and in our
coastal waters.
Each individual who took part in
the actual protest expressed in both positive and negative terms their lessons
learned.
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| Non-violence in action |
The police as can be plainly seen, don’t seem
to practice ‘non-violence’ And act in what would appear to be extremely
assertive practiced drills.
Each of our members gave examples
of how the police actually pushed and shoved them, it was almost as if their
intention was to provoke violence rather than prevent it.
When the police were confronted by
a group of non-violent ‘Super-grans’ all in their sixties or seventies…because
of their brave resolve to maintain their non-violent behaviour was clearly
evident… the police troopers suddenly backed off and quickly moved to a group
of younger protesters where their bully boy attitude could possibly inflame the
behaviour of the protesters so as to justify collective police violence.
The general consensus appeared to
be that the police never understood the concept of non-violent behaviour.
On the positive side of the ledger
was the fact that our members quickly recognised the organised pro-violent
behavior of the police and their media supporters who seemed to have an obvious
desire to provoke protester negative reactions. Even though many of our members
were bruised and frightened by the gloved hands that pushed and shoved them
they stayed calm and followed the lessons learned during and while practicing
non-violent reactions to aggressive police behaviour on the day.
It was agreed that while there is
little hope that any police-person will ever be charged or convicted as is absolutely
evident based on past records of police non-convictions and the length of time
the police spend in even reaching any negative conclusion about their own
behavior, the records show that the public can wait up to two years for the
police to even respond to complaints. And they always seem to find themselves
not guilty.
The positives out-weigh the
negatives in people taking collective actions to protect the environment, in
protesting against behaviour that makes the rich wealthier and it’s ironic when
one considers world history: imagine if we could have stopped Hitler legally
before he murdered millions of Jews, if we had stopped the attack on Iraq by
George Bush Jnr before he declared a false war because of so-called weapons of
mass destruction. One day we may even realise that giving police or the
military the power to break the law whenever they wish is no way to protect the
populations that make up the world in which we live.
To view more on Wellington protest go to:
Peter J Wheeler
1 comment:
Received by email:
Peter,
I agree entirely with your sentiments regarding the gendarmes. They are little more than a bunch of uniformed bullies. I watched the videos included with your blog which showed the protesters making their way along on of the wharves escorted by the bullies. One young guy was walking alongside one of them who for no reason reached out and pushed the young guy, quite roughly to one side, not once but a couple more times that I saw. The other thing is their acquired sense of omnipotence they are Right, no matter what, and to Hell with everyone else. You may remember the Iron Maiden disaster some years ago. I don’t know how it happened but I somehow became privy to the communication between CD which had their communications set up in the old TVNZ building a couple of hundred metres from where I live and the police involved in the drama. The police had a lone bobby on the job. Iron Maiden was in trouble with High seas and violent winds. CD spoke to police HQ and on a number of occasions, asked if they wanted helicopter assistance. This was never taken up, and from what I recall the offer was simply ignored. It was quite early in the peace and perhaps a helicopter at that stage would have been instrumental in lifting off the two crew members. Nothing happened, and Iron Maiden carried on its way. It seems it was approaching the confluence of the Pacific ocean with Tasman Sea, which is always prone to great turbulence. Iron Maiden was in radio contact with the authorities, and described the seriousness of the situation and their suggestion they were considering resorting to life rafts. That happened it seems. I read the official report of the incident a couple of days ago and it seems there was a helicopter on hand and endeavouring to lift the crew members to safety. The conditions were such the rescue never took place and both guys were drowned. My thoughts are that due to police intransigence in not availing themselves of the helicopter when CD first made the offer those two guys may just have been alive and well to this day. In the newspaper reports much capital was made of the captain having smoked a Marijuana cigarette at the start of the voyage with an unspoken inference, that, was the sole cause of the accident.
More recently there was an incident outside my gate where a young guy in a car had run off the road at high speed and brought down the lamp-post by my gate. We alerted the authorities with a 111 call. Ambulance and fire brigade turned up. Last to arrive were the rozzers. I was present offering assistance which was ignored so I reverted to the role of interested bystander I was standing at the end of my drive well inside my boundary watching the rozzers fart-arsing around with felt tip markers and tape measures. One of the gits stopped what he was doing and said to me; ‘Get Away. This is a Crime scene now.’ Cheeky Prick!
When you review the videos of the Petroleum conference demonstration. You will see Kreyp’s version of a ‘Rent A Mob’ dressed in Yellow Hi Viz gear,brandishing a bolt cutter with no idea of how to use it!
Peter G.
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