NaCLedPeanut makes the case for concentration camps for the great unwashed
At some point we need to accept that the proverbial horse has already bolted and so we need to start thinking of ideas of how to catch it before it kills or injures someone (though it seems the latter has already happened).
The government is attempting to ignore something that won't go away. They saw Brian Tamaki and his flock of deluded sheep happily flout the law and only see Tamaki spent break his bail multiple times and only spend a paltry amount of time in prison. The seditionists themselves spent a whole day in Wellington verbally and physically assaulting members of the public and making threats against media personnel and against politicians. A few ended up attempting to break through the police line. They're not leaving without a fight, and they will be back. They will not be finished until all the restrictions are removed and even then, they'll still be out for the blood of those whom they believed have wronged them in accordance with a grotesque idea of justice.
I don't understand where Hickey believes a light approach to responding is the "Kiwi way". Anyone who was alive when the Springbok protests occurred, or even when participated in them, knows that the Kiwi way is to beat the absolute shit out of people with riot police. Hell, police have donned riot gear on multiple occasions to clear out houses filled with rowdy teenagers. To turn around and see what is a comparatively light response, especially given previous protests have received almost instantaneous rings of officers intent on making sure a bunch of people sitting on a street are not up to no good. It makes me wonder whether or not there was serious thought given to this and if it was allowed to happen, because the convoy wasn't a secret and the kinds of people who support it are known in their communities for being militant to the point of open violence. As much as this is portrayed as the "Kiwi way", I secretly question whether or not police were caught off guard or simply let the seditionists harass and abuse members of the public as it wasn't deemed "serious enough" to warrant intervention. But that's another conspiracy for another day.
Whether or not we want to admit it, New Zealand cannot count on its isolation from the world any longer, and with that comes a need to recognise the dangers of foreign interference and to identify and deal with actors that seek to destabilise our society and social cohesion. This isn't some conspiracy, this is the reality that we live in. This is the reality our government chooses to ignore, our people are blind to, and one in which we have already been in the past. These are not some misguided souls that, if given access to the right information, will come to see the flaws of their beliefs. No, these are people with views and beliefs completely alien to ours, whose only end goal is violence against, and subjugation of, those they see unfit to remain members of society. These are individuals whose beliefs and views are alien to the concept of liberal democracy, of freedom, of tolerance, of peace. These individuals have already killed 51 innocent worshipers, and maimed dozens more. They will kill again, because we've returned to the same torpor of ignorance we had before, falsely believing that it was a one off. We will rue the day when the blood of more innocents is spilled in the name of hate again.
And we will rue that day because it will demonstrate to us that we did not use the nearly three years since that attack to not only learn from our mistakes, but to identify and remove those hateful elements from our society. We openly embraced tolerance of extremism at the expense of our own collective welfare and security, and more people will pay the price. The government can no longer be about aroha and turning the other cheek when it comes to people who will happily and, very likely, kill others to achieve their aims. We shouldn't be taking the threats of those as the ramblings of lunatics but as what they are. And Hickey is right in this regard. They are illegal, the people making them could be inclined to carrying them out, and thus they should be prosecuted and imprisoned for being a clear and dangerous threat to our society. We have to accept intolerance for intolerance. We need to catch the horse and we need to do it now.
Parliament livestream feeds
1 News - https://www.1news.co.nz/2022/02/09/live-stream-large-police-presence-at-parliament-anti-mandate-protest/
RNZ - https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/461228/live-updates-anti-mandate-protest-enters-third-day-at-parliament
Stuff - https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300514229/live-protesters-at-parliament-marched-off-amid-skirmishes-with-police
NZHerald - https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-omicron-convoy-protest-three-arrested-amid-heated-day-of-protests-at-parliament/5BJJOFKPPQ6MLRJVJHEMYJZU3A/
#massarrest #infiltrateprison #ftp #filmthepolice
