See, the problem here is that the protesters are protesting against government authority at a government building, the Parliament. The Powers That Be do not like when their Subjects use their Constitutional Rights to protest government to actually protest government
New Zealand’s PM signals harsher stance on vaccine protest
New Zealand’s prime minister on Monday said protesters who oppose coronavirus mandates were using “intimidation and harassment,” as authorities appeared to take a harsher stance toward the convoy of demonstrators that has disrupted the capital of Wellington for nearly a week.
Police initially let the protesters set up tents and camp on the grounds of New Zealand’s Parliament before arresting 122 people on Thursday and then backing off again. The size of the protest dropped to a few hundred last week but increased again to around 3,000 over the weekend.
Speaking with reporters, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern signaled the thinning patience of authorities.
“I very clearly have a view on the protesters and the way that they’ve conducted their protest because it has moved beyond sharing a view to intimidation and harassment of the people around central Wellington,” she said. “That cannot be tolerated.”
Notice that not one shred of evidence is offered for this “intimidation and harassment.” No stories, no anectodes, nothing. Nor did the press ask her (it’s an AP article). Which means that the elected officials, including Ardern, are simply annoyed that the plebes would dare protest government. Remember, it was the government that started getting frisky first, what with arresting people engaged in protesting peaceably, free speech, and association, then loudly playing songs people do not like, then turning the sprinklers on. Much like in Canada, she’s attempting to label the protesters as something they’re not in order to squelch their Constitutional Rights.
Ardern said the timing of the mass camp out couldn’t be worse.
“At the very point where we are seeing an increase in cases, and an increase in risk to the public health and wellbeing of New Zealand, they want to see removed the very measures that have kept us safe, well and alive,” she said.
So what? They have the right to protest. Of freedom of expression.
(MSN) Copycat demonstrations have already cropped up in countries around the world, from the United States and France to Israel and New Zealand. Each has taken aim at vaccine mandates and other pandemic-related restrictions and sought to challenge elected governments. So far the immediate political effect has been fairly limited because the people protesting constitute a minority just about everywhere (though sometimes a fairly robust one).
But that doesn’t diminish the potency of this specific act of dissent, which has already proven quite effective at delivering a swift kick in the Achilles’ heel of the center-left politicians and parties the world over. The trucker protests have gone a long way toward demonstrating the limits of the progressive capacity to represent the interests and outlook of the working class. (snip)
But this isn’t at all the way progressives have responded to the trucker protests in Canada and elsewhere. From elected officials to commentators in the media, the tone of the reaction has been closer to outright contempt. And the reason why is obvious: The truckers aren’t pursuing progressive aims. They’re taking a stand against public health regulations and restrictions imposed by progressive governments, and that has angered the powers that be.
They’re protesting directly against government authority, including against authority the government has taken which it doesn’t really have. They were fine with the BLM/Antifa protests, even with the violence, property damage, ruined businesses, etc, because those were asking for more government. Nor does it matter if any of these protests are popular: Rights are Rights. Either support them or admit you are for a Fascist government.
Our esteemed host quoted:
Note that these demonstrations, which started in France with the gilets jaunes protests, and then changed to something else in Canada, weren’t among the evil Donald Trump supporters, but in much more politically liberal countries. In saying that, “The trucker protests have gone a long way toward demonstrating the limits of the progressive capacity to represent the interests and outlook of the working class,” the article points out that ‘progressivism’ is a movement which claims to represent working people, but is ‘led’ by people who have no flaming idea through what the working class goes.