This event had been planned for quite a while. It was originally planned as a protest walk over the Auckland harbour bridge, but then both the NZTA (NZ Transport Authority) and the police have been finding ‘reasons’ to deny him a permit to do so.
It’s been portrayed as an anti-immigration protest and the Head of police is an immigrant…
But in the end they was decided Brian couldn’t lead a christian protest over the bridge because it’s structurally ‘unsafe’ !
(It’s an 8 lane bridge that’s used every day by traffic…)
In the meantime, we are meant to forget that the bridge has been routinely by various protest groups (free palestine, Lgtb…something, etc, and marathon races, etc, until now.
Curiously, a single pedestrian set out to walk across the bridge a few days earlier ‘by mistake’
On the day before the protest, there was a TV interview, where that Police officer, Niala blustered out that no one can walk on the bridge ever again…
On the day, about 2000? turned up to listen to Brian speak. It wasn’t one of his best efforts, and was a bit of a political rant, rather than something positive. That is forgivable though, because things were tough on the day, and the Police had turned up with the riot squad, plus 300 extra officers from around the country.
After the speeches, we walked towards the harbour bridge onramp, where a large ‘concerned’ police contingent was waiting for us, least we walk on that ‘structurally unsound’ bridge and endanger ourselves.
It was clearly meant to be a ‘showdown’ to put Brian in his place, but thats not how it worked out.
After a speech and a prayer by Brian to the Police, we all went away peacefully.
https://x.com/i/status/2017403935343157599
In the aftermath of all this, remember how I mentioned marathons are run across the bridge every year, and that the Police said no more pedestrians are allowed on the bridge ever again?
This story is progressing so fast, it’s been hard to keep up…
Update, the NZTA doubles down and says marathon runners are OK, but not walkers..
The bridge is not designed for use by pedestrians. Uncontrolled large groups of people walking across the Auckland Harbour Bridge generates swaying of the structure, which causes vibrations leading to large movement between the clip-ons and the central truss bridge lanes.
NZTA supports planned, structured events, such as the Auckland Marathon … as runners move in a dispersed and dynamic pattern, which reduces the risk of the movement on the clip-on lanes. The event also has additional safety measures in place. Attendees are registered and controlled.
As well as the structural risks to the bridge itself, protest events pose additional risks due to the mass concentration of people and lack of attendance certainty.
There are several factors that could result in serious injury to a member of the community during a protest including:
Unstable footing caused by increased bridge vibrations
Increased movement between the clip-on structure and the bridge truss is a hazard, which may mean a protestor could have their foot trapped. a protester could have their foot trapped and crushed.
Uncoffined 