Charles Wright
About a week ago, Brian Tamaki announced that he wanted to do a protest against lockdowns.
I thought it was a great idea, and I even sent a quick “good on ya” email to Brian because I too believe that all these lockdowns have gone on for far too long and I was just happy that at least someone was willing to stand up for what they believe is right. (And no, I’m not a member of his church or anything like that).
In a democracy, we have a right to protest and that includes protesting against the current lockdown.
Tamaki discussed the protest with the police, who agreed to the protest “in principle”.
The protest was then carried out last Saturday, with thousands of people showing up. It was a significant number, especially since it’s only the tip of the iceberg. I watched part of Brian’s speech and I thought that it was pretty straightforward, except maybe for the part where he called Ashley Bloomfield “Hitler”. I understand why he would say that but perhaps that kind of thing is best left unsaid.
It is important to note that there were no arrests (as far as I’m aware), so clearly, the police were “OK” with it on the day of protest itself.
Then someone started a petition for Brian to face charges, which I believe now has more than 128,000 “signatures” on it.
Shortly after that, the police charged Brian and he now has to face court this coming Tuesday. I’m not sure whether the police felt pressured into doing that (by the petition) but I guess we’ll find out the truth soon.
Somewhere in the middle of all of that, Jacinda condemned the protest as “a slap in the face” (for Aucklanders), and “morally wrong”.
Well, first of all, I’m an Aucklander, and I didn’t see it as “a slap in the face” at all. I thought it was wonderful to see that I’m not the only one who feels deeply unhappy with what the government is doing regarding lockdowns, masks, home detention, experimental vaccines, vaccine passports etc. I mean, is “Covid” really still about health, or are there other agendas here now?
Secondly, I thought the “morally wrong” comment was a bit strange (coming from Jacinda I mean).
For example, Jacinda tells me that we must take the vaccine, and “do it for the kids”, while at the same time she pushed through the most horrific abortion law this world has ever seen at the beginning of the first lockdown in 2020. In case you missed it, you can now legally abort your child up to 1 day before giving birth.
Now that is morally wrong.
Clearly, different people have different ideas of what is “morally wrong”, and that’s exactly why we have specific legislation such as, oh I don’t know, the Bill of Rights?!
Protests should definitely not be violent, but I do believe that they should be allowed, no matter what alert level we’re in. I guess the government doesn’t really like to be scrutinised by other people anymore, and it has been a really tough season for people like Billy TK, Vinnie Eastwood, and now Brian Tamaki.
It feels like they are being made an example of.
“Don’t protest, or else!!“
And that of course is “morally wrong”.