I need somewhere to vent...
These idiots have been camped down the road from me for almost three weeks now. They refuse to wear masks and harass or assault anywhere in the area they've claimed for their 'commune' who does wear a mask, forcing several local schools to shut down because staff and students no longer feel safe travelling to school. They go into local shops without wearing a mask, putting the low waged service workers in the awkward position of having to enforce the mask mandate and risk a confrontation, or ignore them and risk catching Covid. Their portaloos are in a state of constant filth and they've even put their raw sewage down the stormwater system, which empties directly into the harbour, so no one can fish or swim there for the time being. There's also been many cases of people getting spat on by protesters. Plus corrections says there are high risk sex offenders down there and yet there's at least 30 children down there who are supposed to be back at school by now. To top that off there's clearly some very sick people down there due to the Covid outbreak, but they're convinced the government is using some 'EMF' weapon to give them radiation poisoning and that's the source of all the sickness at the camp. The ambulance drivers and medics refuse to go on there now though because of all the abuse they've endured.
On top of all that they're incubating Covid at a time when community cases are doubling every day (we went from 6,000+ cases two days ago to 12,000+ cases yesterday) and all sorts of far right trash - from the Steve Bannon affiliated Counterspin Media to the homophobic charlatans at Destiny Church - have set up shop there. I am trying to forget about the festering petri dish of Covid and fascism that is down in the city right now but I can hear them when they're chanting or using the PA, which is like 15 hours a day. It actually blows my mind that certain ultra-left and Anarchist types thinks there is anything positive about the anti-vaxx movement, its a reactionary and quasi-fascist movement that is completely hostile to communism and any kind of public health policy that restricts their individual freedom.
Help me please, I'm going insane.
Well, you have my sympathy
Well, you have my sympathy and solidarity for what it's worth!
I am kind of impressed that so far we have only had to ban one ultraleft conspiracy loon from libcom…
So the police have cleared
So the police have cleared out the protesters a week ago, they used 500 cops in the operation including many raw recruits. The protesters responded in a predictably violent manner and the whole thing descended into a riot, with anti-vaxxers lighting fires and throwing paving stones at the police (some alt-right types are now blaming Antifa for the violence). I can't stress how surreal this is for New Zealand, there hasn't been any kind of violent protest her since the anti-Springbok tour protests in 1981 (and in that case the violence was almost entirely perpetrated by police). The leader of the New Conservatives was pepper sprayed and arrested.
I'm certainly not alone in saying I'm glad to see the occupation go, they harassed and disrespected and even spat at us locals particularly anyone wearing masks, and the whole place absolutely stunk. Even worse, it was a gathering point for all sorts of fascists, conspiracy theorists, Jesus freaks and every type of disaffected petit-bourgeois you can think of.
A bunch of them tried to set up at a nearby marae but the locals caught wind of their plans beforehand and set up a checkpoint to stop them setting up another camp. The Wainui marae has been targetted by anti-vaxxers quite a bit because its also a vaccination centre. Lots of them a stuck in Wellington now, they can't travel very easily without vaccine passes and the cops have seized like 60 odd vehicles.
It will be interested to see who was funding this whole thing, I'm sure a lot of local right wing types will turn out to have been contributing as well as foreign anti-vaxxers. The amount of resources they had there was insane, especially the amount of free food they were giving out, that was a big reason why it continued for such a long time.