Protest activity - Parliament grounds
Police will be highly visible across Wellington city from today with extra police staff redeployed from across the country, ahead of anticipated protest activity heading to Parliament grounds tomorrow.
We know that over the past few days several groups have been moving across the country in support of a variety of protest causes, most of which are planning to end at Parliament grounds tomorrow.
Police will have a clearer picture of the numbers involved later today as protest groups move closer to Wellington.
Our planning for this has been underway for several weeks, and we are now well placed to respond to a number of, and range of, scenarios. Last year’s Parliamentary occupation provided some helpful learnings for us as an organisation.
Staff numbers have been boosted across all shifts in the district for next two days with more than 80 staff specifically trained in Public Order Policing mobilised to support Wellington district staff.
The focus for Police this week has been on talking to local residents and businesses as well as local iwi and agencies across the government sector.
Road closures are now in place around Parliament, with Molesworth Street and neighbouring streets closed, or operating with restricted access. Parliament has been deemed a no-fly zone, which also prohibits drones.
Our focus has been on ensuring buses and trains are able to operate as normal, and that disruption for local residents and businesses is minimal.
For those coming to march and protest at Parliament, we respect people’s right to demonstrate peacefully in support of their cause, but we are prepared to take enforcement action if it stops being peaceful.
We will have a very low tolerance for any structures being set up on the grounds, and we do have the ability to mobilise additional staff quickly if required. Tow trucks will be on stand-by in the city.
There may be some incidents on which we will need follow up as enquiries later.
To that end, we are keen to have the public’s assistance – to help be our eyes and ears, particularly on Lambton Quay, during the march to Parliament. We will likely want to see any video footage of unlawful activity, and people can report this through 105. But we are also asking that people don’t intervene or compromise their own safety.
It is an important part of our democracy that we preserve people’s right to protest. In the end, our hope is that people come to our city, to have their say on Parliament grounds, and then to leave peacefully.
Poll: Would you rather: Christmas in summer forever or winter forever?
Just a bit of a fun poll to get you thinking.
If you had to live out your Christmas days, would you prefer it was a summer Christmas or a winter Christmas?
-
63.3% Summer
-
35.4% Winter
-
1.3% Other - I'll share below
EMPIRE BUILDING TRUMP
So Donald Trump does not want to start any wars and is a peace maker.
And yet he is seriously seeking to annex the world's largest island, Greenland from Denmark, take over the Panama Canal from the sovereign country of Panama who have owned it since 1977 and even forthrightly suggesting that Canada ceases being a nation and become a state or series of states of the USA.
Greenland above everything else, harbours minerals vital for todays and tomorrows world and that is what probably attracts Trump most. His son is looking things over in Greenland as this thread is being produced. Climate change is also changing Greenland which despite its name is currently mainly covered in ice and snow all year round. Greenland has a population of 55,000.
Panama's major asset after tourism and services is the canal with a current revenue of $5 billion. It operates its shipping charges through an international organisation so that the USA gets an unbias deal for its ships etc that use the canal. Panama is a poor country on the improve and has a population of 4.5 million.
Denmark is a member of NATO. But Trump has threatened many times for the USA to pull out of this Europe-USA defence alliance and Greenland may be the straw that finally breaks the pact.
Canada is surrounded by the USA but it is so much unlike the USA and much more akin to Australia and NZ. In contrast to the USA, Canada is one of the happiest countries in the world and in total land area is the world's second largest.
NZ is going to come under the scrutiny of Trump and his henchmen/women. He will probably look to cut NZ away from its free trade arrangements with China with some kind of ultimatum.
New Year, New Questions You Won’t Solve!
I get smaller every time I take a bath.
What am I?
Do you think you know the answer to our daily riddle? Don't spoil it for your neighbours! Simply 'Like' this post and we'll post the answer in the comments below at 2pm.
Want to stop seeing riddles in your newsfeed?
Head here and hover on the Following button on the top right of the page (and it will show Unfollow) and then click it. If it is giving you the option to Follow, then you've successfully unfollowed the Riddles page.
Loading…
