The Government is still refusing to acknowledge the protest, even though 4 ex politicians have walked amongst the protesters and spoken to them.

The standard excuse is possible violence, and don’t seem to acknowledge the professional negotiator, who has been working on the protesters behalf

I can only conclude that they don’t know how to react to the situation, so they are hoping it will go away if they keep their head in the sand for long enough.

History is not on the Governments side. They spoke to the protestors at Ihumateo, and sympathised with them, They gave money to the Mongrel Mob gang, and have had dealings with the Taliban in Afghanistan recently.

The Police themselves aren’t in a good position to negotiate either, because nobody trust them after the events of a few weeks ago.

So the standoff continues.

The Police keep trying to quietly nobble the protest, while trying to win over the media at the same time.

They started by stopping the truck that empties the toilets…..

The protesters countermeasure to that was to install semi-permanent toilets.

(This is what happens when tradesmen are amongst those at the protest)

Semi-permanent showers were installed the next day by the protestors, but the Police took exception to these and removed them with a show of force later that night.

So how will this end?

At present the Police are likely to surround them and push them off the premises in the next few days.

They need to be careful though, 55% are women, and there are quite a few children, also 30% of the public are behind the protestors. That simply can’t be ignored.

Every second person there has a phone or camera, and any unprovoked voilence by the police isn’t going win them any friends.

At the end of the day, it’s a battle for public opinion. If the Police get it wrong through a gun-ho attitude and lack of discipline like the last time, it isn’t  going to go well for them.

Tomorrow could be interesting.

Update

The Police lauched a major operation to end the protest, and I’m waiting for the dust to settle before making any comments. There are lots of rumours flying about, but unless I can verify them, I’m not repeating them.

It was business as usual at ‘camp freedom’, they had  a quiet night without any ‘police events’, and there was only the regular homeless people to deal with.

Continue reading “A last glimpse of the Wellington protest (for now)” →

Day 4

I’ve spent most of today working as a volunteer security guard for the protest. This involved keeping drunk and other disorderly people out initially in the early hours of the day, but later on, it evolved into mostly helping people out, and giving directions in much the same way a tour guide would. The day went very quickly and it was quite a positive and rewarding experience.

It was interesting when a guy started casually ‘interviewing’ the other volunteer guard I was with. He spoke with her for quite some time, and it soon became obvious he was a journalist trying to make a news story, rather than report one. His questions were designed to persuade her around to a certain point of view. She was on to him thou, and said nothing that was useful to him. He left the site several hours later in a non-talkative mood.

The police have been steadily reducing the area that the protest resides in. They have been letting cars leave the protest area, but not return. This strategy suffered a setback overnight when the protesters managed to move one of the barricades, which allowed some cars to get back in.

This set the scene for another drama that happened just in time for the 6PM news. The Police in riot gear moved forward to allow a forklift to put more blocks in place. The protesters held a line and shouted ‘peace and love’ at the Police, who retreated once their work was completed.

It remains to be seen how this situation will evolve, as reinforcements are likely to turn up for the weekend.