Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald

John MacDonald: The Christchurch protest is illegal, so move them on


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So, Christchurch has got its own anti-vaccine mandate protest going on – with a crew setting up camp in Cranmer Square yesterday. 
I went past last night. It certainly isn’t of the same scale as the Wellington protest. Not that that makes it any less convenient for people living in the Cranmer Square area – because they have had a gutsful of all the anti-vax, anti-mandate, anti-everything protests that have been coming and going from that part of town over summer. 
So, they’ll be throwing their hands in the air at the prospect of some sort of long-term sleepover going on there.  
Which, in my view, cannot be allowed to happen any longer. These people have to be moved on ASAP. It’s illegal what they’re doing so, for the sake of the people living in the area, they need to up sticks and get out of it.  
And I’m not the only one saying that. Central city councillor Jake McLellan is saying it too. 
He says protesting is an important part of democracy – and he’ll get no argument from me on that one. But he says it’s not fair to protest in a residential area for a sustained period of time. And I couldn’t agree with him more.  
These protesters have every right to express their views. But don’t make other people’s lives a misery in the process. And I’m calling on the police and the city council to get in there today and shut this thing down before it takes off and becomes a much bigger problem for the city to deal with. 
But I don’t have much hope of that happening after listening to the Police Commissioner on the radio this morning. 
He’s only just got involved in trying to sort out the protest at Parliament. Did you hear him confirm to Mike this morning that the police are going to be taking a softly-softly approach there?  
Which tells you, doesn’t it, that they’ll be doing exactly the same thing here in Christchurch. Which will be music to the ears of the protesters. 
But I bet the people living in Cranmer Square – who are sick and tired of their area being COVID-protest central – they’ll be feeling pretty gutted. 
And the Cranmer Square protesters know full well, don’t they, that the cops will have no intention of ruffling any feathers. I saw a video they posted online yesterday of them talking to a police officer who dropped by to take a look around.  
They got him to confirm in the video that everything looked fine, that everyone was peaceful and happy. In other words: “Nothing to see here”. 
So, Cranmer Square residents will be dreading how this might play out. And they have every right to be feeling let down big-time by the cops and the council. 
The protesters who have been turning up there since yesterday have been saying that they’re in it for the “long haul” and they won’t be leaving until the Government gets rid of the vaccine mandates. 
Well, dream on guys. Because that is never going to happen. And, I for one, wouldn’t want that to happen. The vaccine mandates are critical and it would be absolute nuts to do away with them now. 
So, if you are in your tent at Cranmer Square, I really do question whether you know what you’re actually committing to. Because if you think the Government is going to ditch the mandates – then you’re in for a very long haul indeed. 
But, of course, that’s not stopping the calls going out on social media for port-a-loos and more people to join in 
And there probably will be more people turning up today. Although I’ve seen some supporters saying online that they can’t make it today – but they’ll be joining in at the weekend. 
If I had my way, these people would turn up on Saturday and find no one there. Because I’d have them gone. 
It’s pretty simple. What they’re doing is against council by-laws (which say you can’t camp there) – so the Council and the Police need to get their act together and move these people on ASAP. 
Otherwise, come the weekend, they’ll have a much bigger problem on...

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Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonaldBy Newstalk ZB


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