Heather says follow the UK
HDPA writes:
How much more of these hand gluing protests in Wellington are we going to tolerate?
Especially now that we know how badly it’s tying up police resources.
We’ve just found out today that up to 10 police officers are now dedicated to dealing with these protestors.
Up to 10 police, between 7am and 9am daily, waiting to find out where the protest is, then responding quickly to get them off the road and get traffic flowing again.
Those are ten police officers who are now unable to do their actual jobs, which is to deal with crime.
Harsh at it sounds, I’ll say it again, these people should be put in jail so that this stops.
This is exactly what’s just happened to a kiwi in the UK.
Morgan Trowland is a civil engineer who grew up in Ashburton and now lives in London.
This week got sent to jail for three years for blocking the Queen Elizabeth bridge in October during a climate protest.
The judge told him he had “to be punished both for the chaos [he] caused and to deter others from seeking to copy [him].”
The judge also said “You plainly believed you knew better than everyone else, and it did not matter if people suffered in consequence so long as it allowed you to impart your message. In short, to hell with everyone else.”
The Judge summed it up nicely.
There is a difference between protest and obstruction. Protest is legal, obstruction is not.
It’s crazy they now have 10 police officers off their normal duties, waiting for them to block more traffic. But they’ll keep doing it unless there is a serious deterrent like in the UK.