Protest finale

Last Wednesday, the “anti-mandate” protest at the Parliament Grounds in Wellington, which had lasted for 23 days, came to an end. It was not an end that the protestors wanted, but was forced on them by police action.

Over the past few weeks, Mark and I have written about the protest. It initially started out as something of a curiosity, and Mark visited it in person. Over time, it appears to have become increasingly dangerous, with many protestors displaying increasing hostility toward those not agreeing with their cause(s).

Despite protestations to the contrary; that the protest was peaceful; that all they wanted was dialogue with the government about ending mandates, there were numerous examples, caught on social media video posts, where less-than-peaceful behaviour was on display.

And the protest was never just about ending vaccine mandates. The protestors covered a vast array of topics including those that wanted an end to the government, including executions of politicians and media. Most protestors were firmly anti-vaccine. All, it would seem, were in the grips of rampant mis- and dis-information.

There were undoubtedly some highly organised groups behind the event. I've written many times about Voices for Freedom, and Mark has covered other groups such as Counterspin Media and their people. Voices for Freedom, identified by their distinctive colouring of their signs and t-shirts, were on full display.

With the arrival of the Omicron variant of Covid on our shores and a lot of community transmission, it became clear that the protest would be a super-spreader event. Protestors were invariably maskless, and,being camped on site, living in close quarters for extended periods.

Amusingly, symptoms of Covid were blamed on EMF weapons, and we saw images of protestors wearing tinfoil hats, in a misguided attempt to reduce their susceptibility to EMF radiation. It does seem clear that a large number of people at the protest now have Covid, though most are resistant to testing so it's unlikely we'll know the full extent of the infection.

On the day that it all ended it was all shown on video - with various prolific “alternative media” channels covering things in great detail. I spent a bit of time watching it all unfold on Chantelle Baker's livestream on Facebook.

We've covered Chantelle Baker before, but briefly she's the daughter of ex-New Conservative Party leader Leighton Baker. (Baker senior was also at the protests, and got arrested, and, as a bonus, has tested positive for Covid.) Her livestream commentary on the day was quite enlightening. There were moments where she witnessed less than savoury behaviour, and called it out. There were also times where she suggested that the “bad actors” were actually Antifa people rather than genuine protestors. I guess that's a good example of cognitive dissonance and the No True Scotsman fallacy at work

Image from Braden Fastier/Stuff

The police ended up using pepper spray on protestors. Amusingly, we saw images of people treating the pepper spray by pouring milk into their eyes - a clear misunderstanding of just how that works - water would work better, whereas milk, not being sterile, could possibly lead to an infection especially after the eyes have been aggravated by the pepper spray. It would seem that people thought that when you have hot food, milk is good for that. The way that works is that the fat in the milk forms a protective layer on the tongue to insulate the taste buds from the chemicals causing the hot sensation. That's not going to work on your eyes.

Towards the end of the day things devolved into tents being set alight, and there was certainly the danger of the fire spreading uncontrollably (with all that hay on the ground), with consequent danger to protestors and police. Chantelle Baker claimed, or at least gave air to comments that suggested that the police started the fires - by knocking over a generator in a tent. Later analysis of video from the day showed that the police were about 5 metres away from the tent when the fire started. More details about the fire here.

I personally witnessed, on Baker's livestream, instances of protestors throwing items into the fire in an effort to make it bigger - items including gas bottles! And I also saw a person actively transferring fire from one tent to another.

Near the end, protestors were seen digging up paving stones to throw at police.

The videos taken on the day will make useful viewing for the police in identifying people who actually performed criminal acts (over and above the act of trespassing on the grounds). It would seem that some livestream videos are being removed from social media, in an attempt to hide the evidence, but I'm reliably informed that it's already been saved elsewhere.

There are clear parallels with the January 6th attack on the US Capitol, and it seems that at least some of the protestors were hoping that an actual storming of parliament would take place. We can only hope that police here take swifter action to hold the criminal elements and organisers to account than appears to be happening in the US.

There's clearly a misinformation epidemic in the world, and we're not isolated from it here in Aotearoa/New Zealand. While the protest has now been shut down, I don't expect that the underlying causes will go away anytime soon.