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The terrorism Supression Act was not necessary .... something we all seemed to know ...... but it has had its outing and the trimmers are out to make it more effective next time ........
The police comissioner needs to resign. I watched his "explanation" on TV tonight .... I wasn't at all convinced. It would seem that he set in motion an action which was waaaaay over the top and is now trying his best to deflect our attention away from the issue of his massive over-reaction and invocation of some nasty laws .... clearly incompetence is the issue ... unless he was the dog on the leash and was following orders ..... let's see how it flies.
For the government is sounds like another wip round ... this time not for moneys ... no this time it is for ideas .... a good old tweak.
It may be ... the people 1 and the cops 0 .... but unless the commissioner is held accountable and the government promises a more measured approach to our right to be politically active in our country (a promise in writing and then double checked so that it would be binding)...... all we will get is some more smarmy smiles from politicians ..... promises to tighten up the law so it can be used more effectively and police chiefs who can do what they like, when they like, to whom they like..... and make no mistake .... this wasn't just the police apprehending people with firearms ..... the action invoked is political .... the police just acted as an enforcer of the state .... state police.
Joined: 15 May 2007
Posts: 596
Location: north-east victoria
Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 7:42 pm Post Subject:
it might be more to the point , to ensure political representatives , are representative , not "leaders" actually in foreign pay , and that media executives are responsive to the kind of mandate that we all grew up assuming....objectivity , impartiality , humanism, instead of being toadies , pimps and traitors , also in foreign pockets .
never mind repealing laws , if your "leaders " are just using their position to sell out to the gangsters. they are patient , and will ratchet up success , as traitors , inch by inch
what is needed , is for local groups to get strong , stay strong , and hold their representatives FULLY accountable , ALL the time
Joined: 15 May 2007
Posts: 596
Location: north-east victoria
Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 9:38 am Post Subject:
This is the text, minus some pretty crappy photos, of an article from "The New Internationalist" , a lukewarm & fuzzy, guilt-ridden, nominally left-wing magazine, which i suspect of disinfo....(for example, it had a full issue on the depleted uranium topic, but never once mentioned Starmet Corporation, the sole suppliers to the US and UK military-industrial)
Activists
accusedof
terrorism
On 15 October 2007, armed police conducted dawn raids at 50 bouses and places of work
across New Zealand/Aotearoa. They arrested and imprisoned 16 activists involved in the
Tina Rangatiratanga (Maori self-determination), anarchist, environmental and anti-war
movements. All 16 received multiple firearms charges, with the police seeking permission from the
Solicitor-General to lay charges under the as-yet-unused Terrorism Suppression Act.
Politicians - including Prime Minister Helen Clark, who authorized the raids - and the media
subsequently smeared those arrested with unsubstantiated claims of involvement in terrorist training
camps in Tuhoe. This North Island region is populated by the iwi (tribe) of the same name. Unlike many
other Maori, they never signed the Treaty ofWaitangi with the Crown in 1840 and have always strugglec
fiercely for their autonomy. As Tuhoe activist Taamati Kruger puts it: 'The history of Tuhoe shows that
Tuhoe did not concede, did not cede, did not give up, did not even rent out their sense of sovereignty ...
their view is as an independent people that want interdependence as a lifestyle.'
Some of the most extreme raids occurred in Tuhoe. In Ruatoki, houses were searched and the
town was blockaded by armed police. For several hours they stopped and searched all cars leaving
and entering the town and took photographs of their occupants without their consent. Rubbing salt
in still-fresh wounds, the blockade was set up on the 'confiscation line', marking the border of a vast
tract of land confiscated from Tuhoe by the Crown in 1867.
A solidarity movement sprang up across the country, with people marching, attending
court hearings, raising funds and speaking out against the raids. In the first four weeks, all 16
,
arrestees were relocated to two
/
Auckland. prisons, to make.their
prosecutions more convenient
'I for the police. This meant moving
them away from their support
networks. Four prisoners were
granted bail in the two weeks
following the raids. Then on 1and
2 November all 16 arrestees were
heard in one court for the first
time. Two'more were granted bail.
Valerie Morse, a Wellington
anarchist arrested on 15 October,
said: 'Arrest was traumatic, but
not nearly as traumatic as a
month in prison not knowing if we
would be charged with terrorism
offences. We had no idea what
the evidence was against us, yet
we were expected to try to defend
ourselves. As I have now viewed some 6,500 pages of disclosure from the police, it is very clear that
this investigation was prompted by political fear about Maori sovereignty. Tuhoe was used once
again as an example for the rest of Maori about what happens if you try to truly resist the neoliberal,
white-supremacist paradigm.'
The Solicitor-General decided against laying charges under anti-terrorism legislation, and after
four weeks in jail all the remaining prisoners were released on bail. In late December, the UN's
Special Rapporteur on Human Rights while Countering Terrorism decided to investigate the New
Zealand Government over its conduct during the raids, based on 14 specific claims of human rights
abuses. This is the first time that a complaint from a group against a nation-state has been accepted
by the Rapporteur.
The arrests were not over though: in mid-February three more people were arrested and charged
with firearms offences.
Asher Goldman
For background I I information and up-to-date news on the hearings, see www.octobensthsolidarity.info
iSPEECHMARKS
--J "Ex-t?e'lnis'lnin the defence of liberty is no
vice; 'lnoderation in the pursuit of justice is
no virtue. "
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43BC),
Roman writer, senator and outspoken cri.tiCof ppwe);
executed for offending the rUling~iUnlirate j ,
It would be interesting to hear from those closer to the action, how well this international mag represents the story
