Posts by Russell Brown
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Just like it was fortunate Mallard wasn't captured on film.
Well at least that might have settled all the who-started-it blathering since.
But I think this was much more dangerous than whatever Mallard did -- if Phillips hadn't got his arm up it'd have been broken facial bones territory.
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A New Zealand passport holder is arrested on suspicion of planning a high-level assassination. He is now critically ill after being viciously beaten by the arresting officers.
But this didn't happen in New Zealand: it happened in Fiji, at the hands of the police thugs controlled by Tame Iti's good buddy and recent gracious host, Mr Bainimarama.
Ironic, no?
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Imagine that you then go to a protest about the issue, feeling is high, but generally ok. There is a heavy police presence and a high level of resentment, but things are not out of hand. Then a Labour delegate wades in, hits someone with a megaphone, and pushes his way out through the police line, without any response from the police.
I hold no brief for Richards -- I'm quite happy to see him charged and/or expelled, whatever -- but the confrontation was at least in part a result of the atmosphere generated by the protesters.
Would it have killed them to stop screaming "Scab! Scab! Scab!" for a moment and actually listen to Ovens, who was, after all, on their side?
There was no need for Phillips and Davies to advance on Richards either.
Instead a protester who confronts this delegate is dragged away, pushed to the ground face down, and arrested.
Rightly or wrongly, he did more than "confront" Richards. He physically grappled with him, and it'd probably have turned into a fight. The cops clearly needed to step in, but not to arrest him -- but that's the kind of spur of the moment decision they have to make.
If you watch the extended TV3 video, you can see that the cops were actually quite patient with him, given that he was resisting. And their composure when they had a crew following them to the van shouting obscenities was quite remarkable.
Of course the temperature went up considerably after this, and, as has been pointed out in another thread, Good Policing would have got it back under control through showing restraint.
That's my point. Look at the footage and tell me they didn't show a whole heap of restraint, over quite an extended period. I just get a bit tired of protesters crying victim when they're the ones generating the aggression.
If they weren't going to arrest Richards for hitting two people with a megaphone, why were they willing to arrest protesters for lesser offences?
What I said in the post. I'm not sure they actually grasped what had happened. To be honest, it's not even clear in the video that the megaphone did strike Phillips in the face, although the intent was amply bad in itself.
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Russell, you don't seem to have activated the Discuss button on your latest post?
D'oh! Done now. Comment away.
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At least she - from the look of the story on Three - had the good sense to just walk away; seems as if her only error of judgment wasn't to make sure her husband/partner followed her inside.
The One News footage shows that quite compellingly: she put down the megaphone and walked away. Shame about hubby.
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Ah. So video referees have wider application than just sport...
Heh. I was thinking : yet again TV3 gets the best pictures ...
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Len was in a bad place to be productive & did Helen Clark mention he & Jill are in a relationship?
WTF would that have to do with it?
Past experience in CTU is no predictor of future actions - Reptilian Shapeshifters?
The "past" in this case being last week, when the CTU made its resolution. That's what Ovens apparently wanted to say to them, although in retrospect she was clearly unwise to think the champions of free speech would actually let her do so.
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Letting violence take place under your nose and allowing the perpetrator to wander off? Bad Policing.
Probably. But when you look at the One News video, taken from the police vantage point, you have to wonder if they fully grasped what had happened. The fact that they agreed to investigate as soon as they saw TV3's pictures suggests that too.
The guy who was (somewhat unfairly) arrested, on the other hand, tackled Richards as he was beating his retreat, right under the noses of the police. There'd probably have been a fight if they hadn't intervened there.
But given the remarkable composure of the cops over several hours (check out TV3's extended video), I'm not too inclined to bag them for that incident. If Richards finds himself charged after the fact, he's only got himself to blame.
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I don't understand whose fault it is, and I wouldn't like to speculate, but it's really clear that the police and a certain subset of activists regard each other as enemies. That's what's behind today's bizarre behaviour,
Actually, the police seemed to exercise great restraint. The kid who spat in the cop's face is lucky not to be spending a night in the cells. If I'd done that in the course of a night on the town I don't think I'd have fared so well.
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SFWU did a dodgey deal a year or so back (defending the bloody bizzar) & Ovens is on Indey media as a "class traitor" (I don't buy into that - the lady has no class at all).
If you could get off Channel Angry for a moment (or even read your own link), Michael ... Ovens beat the annoited Labour candidate -- ie, Darien Fenton's protege. Do you know now even the first thing about her, or are you just going with the mob? If it's the latter, perhaps you should stop defaming people people as a reflex. It lacks class.
But to try and address a crowd protesting your party while wearing the colours & ribbons (ribbons for f*ck sake) within swinging distance (either sides) your asking for trouble.
Michael, she was one of the prime movers in the Council of Trade Unions resolution calling for the repeal in its entirety of the Terrorism Suppression Act. She thought -- foolishly, in retrospect -- she could point this out to the crowd, but couldn't make herself heard.
Look, even some of the Indymedia types are realising that was crazy.
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