Hard News: The standing-still sweep
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The Summary Proceedings Act is the act under which police obtain search warrants. The obtained Search Warrants under that act for suspected breaches of the Arms Act and the Terrorism Suppression Act.
So, they couldn't use that act to open a car boot with a woman's body in it?
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That's definitely 128 Abel Smith St, not the Aro Valley Community Centre (it's a couple of streets away). Some of the anarchists and other activists associated with it are definitely at the extreme end of the spectrum, and while I agreed with them on some of their campaigns, they could get a little scary at times.
I wouldn't have expected actual firearms and stuff, but then again, maybe they decided to get serious with some non-vegans...
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BTW, does anyone see any irony or sick humour in the fact that the TV3 video of this police raid on a house strongly associated with resistance to the bypass was bookended by ads for an SUV?
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Oh come on Russell
Arresting people alleged to have been training in the use of "military-style weapons" (one of the news stories mentioned grenades) for political ends would seem to be quite a bit different.
It's the thin end of the wedge and to say "one of the news stories" is a bit disingenuous with regard to your attitude to the MSM. Yes it would seem to be quite a bit different but we all know things are rarely what they seem.
However, I would be the last one to advocate armed stuggle against the colonial powers that be. That would serve no purpose what so ever. It would not surprise me to find a certain Mr Wishart behind part of all this. Do you remember his piece on the NZAIF (armed intervention force) ?
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So, they couldn't use that act to open a car boot with a woman's body in it?
They could. And indeed did. That's what took them so long. They got all the evidence they had together, swore affidavits and found a judge/JP to give them a search warrant.
That all takes time. The different with this case is that here they actually had time.
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Arresting people alleged to have been training in the use of "military-style weapons" (one of the news stories mentioned grenades) for political ends would seem to be quite a bit different.
Indeed it would - thought they'd need to show that the group was a group that carried out terrorist acts (difficult as none have been committed) and that participation was for that purpose. In other words, they'd need to have serious evidence of planning and conspiring to commit murder or blow stuff up for a political purpose. And if they don't, then all they have are firearms chargesand a big headache.
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This is a strange thread ... regular updates on one of the more interesting/alarming domestic news stories of the year, complete with suggestions of terrorist activity ... and the rather more workaday complaints about Auckland traffic.
I appreciate Tom's attempt to link the two through reference to SUV advertising though. Well done Tom.
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The number of people who will walk out onto the road before teh little green guy lights up is astounding.
I always* wait for the green man**. It's usually cos I'm lazy and I can't be bothered doing the mental calculation and possible running that going on a red man requires.
But I'm shocked to see the kinds of crazy crossing that some people do. Some even will stand on the road, waiting for the green man, then act surprised when a car comes hooning around the corner.
* Don't tell anyone, but if there is no traffic, I might go on a red man.** Or perhaps it's a green lady in jeans.
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So, they couldn't use that act to open a car boot with a woman's body in it?
Of couse not. There were too many cops sitting on it to write in their notebooks.
True, that car was just up the street from here and for 2 days every time I passed there was a cop sitting on it. However, they can spare 200 boys in blue to round up a bunch of looneys playing soldiers.
I still belive this was just a way of showing the yanks that we are serious about the war on terragh. -
They could. And indeed did. That's what took them so long. They got all the evidence they had together, swore affidavits and found a judge/JP to give them a search warrant.
That all takes time. The different with this case is that here they actually had time.
And yet, if memory serves, no such efforts are necessary if an Officer says "Allo allo I think I smell marijuana smoke in this car" and invokes the Misuse of Drugs Act to conduct a warrantless search?
Interesting priorities.
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And yet, if memory serves, no such efforts are necessary if an Officer says "Allo allo I think I smell marijuana smoke in this car" and invokes the Misuse of Drugs Act to conduct a warrantless search?
Interesting priorities.
I think in this case it was definitely a case of "illegally lowered suspension"
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Indeed it would - thought they'd need to show that the group was a group that carried out terrorist acts (difficult as none have been committed) and that participation was for that purpose. In other words, they'd need to have serious evidence of planning and conspiring to commit murder or blow stuff up for a political purpose. And if they don't, then all they have are firearms charges and a big headache.
I guess it's possible that it's all a terrible mistake, and that "The Freedom Fighters" is merely a popular phrase in Tuhoe rhetoric (which it is) and not really an organised group. But there have been some pretty detailed leaks, indicating close-quarter police surveillance this year and last year.
If half of what's being reported is correct, I think that, as Broad put it, it was "prudent" of police to intervene.
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There's got to be a story in why TV3 were either invited, or 'accidentally told' to be there for that dawn raid. And were allowed to film about four feet from the door. The 'raid' can't have been that dangerous if civilians were standing directly in the line of any potential fire.
It was very 'Cops'. I half expected an african american family to be dragged out half naked.
Police looking for some good shots of their big day busting activists, needed to bring a TV camera on the only raid near a TV station?
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It may well have been prudent, but at the same time they may have to be satisfied with not being able to use their funky new anti-terror laws. Which will probably mean they'll demand newer, funkier ones, with fewer safeguards, to protect us from this Terrible Threat.
(Personally, I find the idea of police running amok with anti-terrorist legislation more threatening than our local terrorist wannabes. I mean, it's not like the latter have actually killed anyone...)
People are apparently appearing in court in Wellington ATM, though there's no news yet on who they are or what they are charged with.
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Interesting priorities indeed. Perhaps the prohibition of cannabis has helped fund these alleged activities in the Ureweras.
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merc,
The war is over but the terrorists stayed and no laws seem to stop the killing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/10/world/middleeast/10iraq.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Local terrorists, one person's terrorist is another's security guard. -
It's the thin end of the wedge and to say "one of the news stories" is a bit disingenuous with regard to your attitude to the MSM. Yes it would seem to be quite a bit different but we all know things are rarely what they seem.
It was the Stuff story, saying police "expected", based on their surveillance, to find grenades. An updated version of the story now says "in Auckland 10 people are facing charges of illegal possession of Molotov cocktails, rifles and ammunition."
However, I would be the last one to advocate armed stuggle against the colonial powers that be. That would serve no purpose what so ever. It would not surprise me to find a certain Mr Wishart behind part of all this. Do you remember his piece on the NZAIF (armed intervention force) ?
Much as I dislike Wishart and what he does, I see no cause to pluck his name out of thin air in this case.
I suspect that the majority of those arrested and/or raided are guilty of nothing more than having known persons of interest. But there seems enough out there already to suggest that a few people have been engaged in things in which I would damn well expect the police to intervene, whatever the politics of those involved.
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There's got to be a story in why TV3 were either invited, or 'accidentally told' to be there for that dawn raid.
TV3's offices aren't too far from the scene. Apparently a reporter saw a group of cops formation marching down a street and followed.
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I wouldn't have expected actual firearms and stuff, but then again, maybe they decided to get serious with some non-vegans...
i know the place as well. you'd likely find a lot of smokers in there, but i'd very surprised if they were activity associated with any terrorists.
unless you call protesting against people who sell weapons terrorism. afaik these are the same guys who protest against national front.
this whole thing has a keystone cop stink about it, imho.
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There's got to be a story in why TV3 were either invited, or 'accidentally told' to be there for that dawn raid. And were allowed to film about four feet from the door. The 'raid' can't have been that dangerous if civilians were standing directly in the line of any potential fire.
I think there's no doubt that there's been a lot of leaking on this one, already. But that's what journalists have sources for -- that crucial nod on the big jobs.
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just watched more of that video.
must have scared the piss out of the hippies living in that place. nice to hear bellbirds in the background though.
that karori sanctuary is really coming along.
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Interesting priorities indeed. Perhaps the prohibition of cannabis has helped fund these alleged activities in the Ureweras.
Sshhh, Paula!
Unfortunately, I suspect many "Jacqui Dean" types would take the wrong message from any such links, and suggest they would be good reason to make Cannabis a Class A drug.
On the other hand, perhaps the "terrorist organizing" was all just stoned bravado? :-)
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Stuff is reporting that one of the residents at the Wellington house is Sam Buchanan. Sam is a long-time community activist/anarchist, active in environmental and peace issues. He certainly will be well known to the police.
In the early nineties the police raided the Auckland People's Centre after a protest and he was batoned in the eye, suffering permanent bone damage and loss of eyesight. I can't remember the exact details, but I think the police paid out for medical bills or something.
I haven't spoken to Sam for most of ten years, but I'd be surprised if he was involved in anything involving firearms. Damage to property, I could understand. Thinking about hurting people? I'd be very surprised.
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The quote attributed to Edmund Burke springs to mind "first they came for the communists"
*cough* *splutter*
There weren't any communists when Edmund Burke was around. Burke died in 1797, Marx wrote Das Kapital in 1867.
Also Burke was as crusty a conservative as you could get and I think would have been greatly in favour of rounding up troublemakers.
The quote you are thinking of is probably from Pastor Martin Niemoeller. ObWikiRef
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I suspect that the majority of those arrested and/or raided are guilty of nothing more than having known persons of interest. But there seems enough out there already to suggest that a few people have been engaged in things in which I would damn well expect the police to intervene, whatever the politics of those involved.
Better safe than sorry eh? Cry Freedom and uleash the dogs of war.
The reference to Wishart was not out of thin air, it was from memory.
This whole scenario smacks of an "exercise" in anti terrosrist action dressed up as an operation. Whilst I may sit here feeling secure in the knowledge that the "war on terror" is just as usless as the "war on drugs" and the threat is all smoke and mirrors I have to acknowledge that there are loonies out there on both sides of the fence and some of them wear blue uniforms. As many here would accept the real threat is not the badly organised groups of nutters but the well organised body of power that is trying to take what little freedoms we have away from all of us. We must not allow ourselves to be bamboozled into thinking that we are at war, we're not but if it camre to the crunch I know which side I would be on, do you?
Hasta la victoria siempre
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