Reflections on 2 March 2022

As dawn broke three weeks ago, on Wednesday, 2 March 2022, police — and those dressed in police uniforms, with numbers covered or difficult to easily see — had already gathered outside parliament.

Many were in riot gear — high boots, black helmets with protective brims front and back, goggles, padded armoured vests, and gloves with knuckle-dusters. They carried shields, batons and some had pepper spray. A group had even been waiting to advance from the adjacent church. Another betrayal it seems.

The police stood in formidable lines, facing unarmed New Zealanders, who had nothing but the clothes they stood up in — and each other. With arms linked, like the brothers and sisters they were, those who wanted the despicable mandates to end, who wanted justice for the injection-injured, or the honouring of our human rights and the Nuremberg Code, simply chanted, ‘Peace and Love’. It reaffirmed their closeness, and that their purpose was peaceful. In this way they helped keep each other strong.

When faced with the daunting, burgeoning numbers of police, all padded out, the tension and trepidation was palpable amongst them — and completely understandable.

Yet, so was their courage.

It was Aristotle who said, ‘You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honour.’

And every unarmed protestor there had courage by the bucket-load. Many were scared. But they were doing it anyway.

That takes great immense courage.

Minutes ticked by as police began pushing forward, aggressively shouting in unison, “Move! Move! Move!” The unarmed protestors stood firm, holding the line and each other. The pushing increased, but the protestors had their backs to the antagonists — a clear non-verbal message that they were not there to fight. ‘Peace and Love’, they repeated.

The uniformed police (and, as mentioned, others in police uniforms with badge numbers covered, so it is unclear if they were police or not) began to forcefully advance, destroying everything in their wake. An older woman asked if she could collect her things. No. They were destroyed.

There was a strange dichotomy among some of the police. Glimpses were seen of some with arm muscles bulging as though their shirts were too tight — were they even New Zealanders? — juxtaposed to others who looked as though they felt they were on the wrong side. Their anguish showed, but not on those of the burlier bullies.

An eye witness who had travelled into Wellington with her family, including her 67-year-old mother, to help support the protestors, saw tents intentionally ripped up and piled high, possessions trampled on and destroyed. She saw goggles ripped off protestors and their faces viciously pepper-sprayed. Batons connected with bodies, and teeth and noses were broken with riot shields.

Several protestors observed a person with firecrackers and handed him over to police who led him away — and let him go. Not the same treatment meted out to genuine protestors where the police reached in to grab random individuals, wrestled them to the ground and assaulted them, with footage showing several police laying into unresisting protestors lying on the ground, while another tried to block views of the attack by standing in front. A 74-year old man went to the aid of a woman and was assaulted by police. He collapsed to the ground, sustaining a fractured hip that required replacement. Eye-witnesses reported fire hoses unleashed on protestors, along with an L-Rad machine focused on the people that emitted a deafening, earth-shattering noise.

Reporter Chantelle Baker was attacked with pepper spray while on a fence capturing live footage. She shows a white-haired policeman on film who she reported aimed deliberately for her eyes, and who kept intentionally spraying her face as she tried to get down.

Leighton Baker, a peaceful protestor on the front line with other outstandingly courageous souls, was attacked with pepper spray and arrested. He was hauled off. His family didn’t hear from him until later the following day. Permission for the right of a phone call was denied. He had to walk back to the family and was only released on condition, ‘he did not talk about the new extensions to the covid bill.

No democracy.

No freedom of speech.

No voices of dissent.

Fires were lit by fully-masked perpetrators the protestors had not seen before. None of the protestors had ever worn masks. But it was blamed on protestors. Fire extinguishers police used on protestors were not observed being used by them to put out the fires. Bundles of wood, neatly tied, appeared on the pavement and infiltrators threw these into the fire.

Some police fired rubber bullets, 40mm in diameter. One woman suffered haematomas all over her body. Another protestor tried to stop trouble-makers, masked up, from throwing things. The police hit him over the head with an iron bar, for his trouble. A nearby first-aider led him to steps where another policeman pepper-sprayed his eyes as he was being attended to.

Politicians who did not deign — not once — to come down from their ivory towers, watched the anguish of the people they purported to represent from the lofty perch of a nearby balcony. It appears they worked in collusion to cause this mayhem and applauded each other for the success of their cohesive brutality and destruction. They congratulated those in uniform for what — live footage shows — can be described as a vicious attack on unarmed New Zealanders. And now there are moves to make it unlawful to film ‘live footage’ if it is deemed ‘objectionable’.

The 10 February 2022 was the first attack on the peaceful protestors. On that day, New Zealanders watched in horror as an unresisting 17-year-old was dragged from the crowd and arrested while a cop did push-ups on his head. Another peaceful woman was dragged out and suffered excruciating pain. She later said that she pleaded for a policewoman to stop pressing on her chest. In answer, her chest was pressed harder. She was told to stop being a ‘drama queen’. An x-ray later showed a third of her sternum was fractured.

Another protestor reported that his arrest ties were viciously tightened where the plastic band almost cut through the skin and part of one hand remains numb. He witnessed some of the taller police selecting small women to menacingly tower over — as if waiting for male protestors to help them, so it looked as though the protestors were “attacking” the police. He was beaten to the ground, arrested, and made to wait, in a cramped position before finally being driven to jail, with the ties painfully cutting off his circulation.

Thousands of New Zealanders saw the footage and dropped everything to make the pilgrimage to Wellington in support of those wanting an end to the discrimination, the mandates, and Kiwis being ostracized for making personal health choices about an experimental gene-based therapy injection, still on trial until 2023. They came in support of many thousands who had felt forced to get it, or lose their livelihood and their ability to feed their families, or were now injured as a result. Others came in support of those who had died from it. They also came in support of those brave doctors and nurses who were threatened with de-registration if they spoke out about the dangers of the injection — but who did so anyway — and lost their careers. They came in support of first responders, firefighters, ex-police, ex-military, teachers, midwives, and every day New Zealanders who hadn’t done anything wrong, except to courageously stand up for democracy and freedom for everyone. They came to protest the violence.

The numbers kept growing. They arrived in their thousands to help stand beside our brothers and sisters for freedom, democracy, and to insist the Nuremberg Code be honoured. New Zealanders rose up. And they kept rising.

Did the groundswell of support alarm ministers of parliament, from both sides of the House, who purported to serve all New Zealanders? It seems so, for both sides of government apparently agreed — according to Mallard who was at pains to thank the leader of the Opposition for all his help in the successful destruction of Camp Freedom — to act together to destroy every last vestige of the lively, loving community on parliament grounds who were creating a new world.

Scorched earth.

That is the thing with despots. They destroy.

Today, much of the footage of 2 March remains with us all. One of the most poignant, saddest photos was that of a jackboot on a placard that contained the photo and story of a young, severely injured, New Zealander after her trial injection.

Lives ruined. Lives trampled on. Cast aside.

This day is a raw wound on the soul of our nation. The lies of mainstream media add salt. Although, as they print their outrageously incorrect stories, even a cursory glance can see through the distorted reports.

The lies will come back to haunt them, as is happening now, with Pfizer’s reluctant release of eight pages of serious side effects, to which neither government or media have paid any attention. An increasing majority are waking to the realisation there is no media, just reporters mouthing government propaganda.

It is very awkward when government funds media, for the country loses the voice of objectivity and must seek answers from more trusted independent sources. Not content with ever-increasing surveillance and controls, it seems the cabal crave to control how we think as well.

Reports of police congratulating each other on the bashing of unarmed protestors, and the wanton destruction of their private property after 2 March, deepens the sadness, for it felt we had already lost any ministers of parliament genuinely representing all Kiwis, as well as our trust of the medical system, teachers, the judiciary — and now our police, as well.

The 2 March 2022, was a very dark day in our history, for although we probably still have many good police, we have lost our basic trust in most of our men and women in blue. NZ police used to have an enviable international reputation for their trusted relationship with the people, but on this day, that trust was betrayed and it will take a mighty effort for that to be regained, for we saw too many of them no longer protected the people, but instead took political orders from a government pretending to represent the people.

The good police found this, too. One put his proudly owned long-service medal up for sale on Trade Me, with no reserve, for it no longer held meaning. Other police resigned in protest. Some still go to work each day with no joy in their hearts, for they are also scarred.

I talked to an ex-policeman and policewoman, one of whom had been a former member of the riot squad. He saw the live footage and was disgusted and appalled. He said it was against everything he was taught, which was to cordon, contain, and sort out with communication. His wife concurred, saying they used to feel proud of having served and of those they had helped, but as they watched the coverage they felt ashamed and betrayed.

A day of tragedy.

Yes, the courageous protestors collected some battle scars along the way, yet their spark has not dimmed, it has just been honed into a stronger, more focused, unwavering light.
We will continue to create a new New Zealand. We know we can do it, because we have the ability to create new worlds. It is part of the joy of having soul.

And although we can get knocked down, courage is also about getting back up again. And again.

Together, we are doing that, too.

Kia kaha.

Mary Hobbs