An excellent article on Wednesday by Stuff’s very measured Chief Political writer Henry Cooke. Its theme was the Police Chief Andrew Coster’s credibility gap with his failure to act on the blocking of the capital’s key streets by protesters vehicles.
I’m told that Coster now has a nick-name with police officers, specifically “Cuddly Coster”.
His handing of the massive disruption by deliberate law-breaking protesters has been shamefully inept. He is temperamentally unsuited for a crime-fighting role for make no mistake, what is happening at Parliament is criminal activity on numerous fronts and Wellingtonians have had enough.
But then again, who knows? He may simply be following orders from the ultimate power, namely the Prime Minister who’s currently missing in action.
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Following orders is my bet.
Coster is following orders.
Notwithstanding this, the vehicles should have been towed long ago; and if it needing Police assistance to do, then so be it.
As for protesting against these compulsory mandates, its a democratic right. Remembering profit is their motive (and they are making plenty), Pharmaceutical companies have a track record to suggest there could be long term health consequences of a vaccine delivered in a short space of time. This may not bother the oldies however.
What covid has exposed however, is the totally inadequate and underfunded health system world wide. Its what happens with a winner take all society, which has left democracy at the cemetery.
Whats even worse is the guy I know who tried to build a (public) childrens hospital himself was sufficiently strangled by bureaucrats he wouldnt do it again. The only good thing we know about bureaucrats is they are very good at spending other peoples money, with total disregard for cost.
Scientists have been studying coronaviruses, of which SARS-CoV-2 is one, for about 50 years and the COVID-19 vaccines, one of which I can only assume you’ve had, have been developed off the back of that research and worldwide collaboration of scientists.
The very strong probability is that it will prevent you from becoming seriously ill and/or dying so if you’re still around in thirty years and in one piece, would you mind letting us know?
I’ll be here because, although getting on at 75+, I’ve been triple-jabbed (where the hell’s that fourth?) and I’m not going anywhere. Take care.
And how will our ‘missing in action’ PM spin this tricky inconvenience?
Silence? Untenable.
Dissipated blame? Possible.
Contrition? When hell freezes over.
Complete pivot with zero reference to previous sentiments? Almost certain.
I thought by now there would have been a mass outbreak of C-19 among all these unvaccinated ferals, resulting in hospitalisations and deaths.
At least that’s what the experts told me would happen for such a “super-spreader” event.
Of course for those of us who have ignored the MSM for the last two years and just read the stats and reports out of places like the CDC in the USA and similar health authorities in developed nations, plus the likes of The Lancet, British Medical Journal, The New England Journal of Medicine and so forth, none of this is a surprise at all.
From even the early days of 2020, watching events in China, Italy and a couple of cruise ships filled with aging Boomers, it’s been obvious that being elderly with health problems meant a higher risk of sickness and death than the rest of the population, but even then we’re talking 5-6% death rate in that cohort.
Meantime, the stats showed that unvaccinated middle aged people without health conditions were always at a vanishingly low chance of sickness or death, with most not even knowing they’d caught the virus. Children aged less than 12 statistically zero.
The results inside this protest is simply a replaying microcosm of all that.
Oh, and “Cuddles Coster” has been a nickname applied to him by many outsiders for at least two years now, based on his multiple failures in dealing with similar protests at Shelley Bay, Ihumātao and the Northland Maori “road checks”. I find the outrage of the Left now to this sudden discovery amusing in a deeply ironic way considering that this is exactly the sort of Police they’ve wanted for years: no more Gideon Tait’s.
Who said they were not vaccinated they are mandate and freedom fighters
The protest is legal and legitimate. The parking is not.
The Govt will find it increasingly difficult marginalising the protest as more and more people join the protest not only in Wellington but around the country.
This mornings Horizon poll revealed 28% of Kiwis oppose the vaccine mandate and 30% support the protest..
https://www.horizonpoll.co.nz/page/635/68-support-covi?gtid=89E13CE8-8671-4F99-83C3-98F14F4D24DA
The protest is illegal. No one is allowed to camp on Parliament grounds
And he has been thrown under a bus by Cindy who has stated that it is an operational matter for the police. And the minister responsible for appointing the police is also shamefully quiet or is following orders to say nothing. The whole scenario beggars belief!
Bob,
May be being a bit pedantic, but the moniker widely known out there is ” Cuddles ” Coster.
For a senior Law Enforcement Officer to appear on nationwide TV to announce a plan, and then subsequently have to acknowledge that he had no vehicle towing capacity to implement such a plan revealed an astonishing naivety.
Steve Ellis
As I write this there are the grand total of – (wait for it) – “four” protesters, complete with homemade signs and deck chairs, protesting against mandates, Ardern, and supporting Canadian truck drivers, outside the District Council offices here in Ashburton. Everybody is walking past and ignoring them.
Ignoring is the best thing to do with these turkeys. But to arrest them would be wrong; would legitimize their stupidity and oddball opinions on vaccines.
Andrew Coster’s credibility is, indeed, shot to pieces – the other day he said that the police would commence removing illegally parked vehicles pretty much immediately. Nothing happened apart from a lot of talk about the logistical difficulty of towing 400 vehicles. I’d suggest that removing and seizing a dozen or so would quickly result in the majority of the remainder removing themselves.
I’m also tired of hearing Wellington’s mayor talking incessantly without actually saying anything.
First of all I’m tripled jabbed, so logically ‘sold’ on the merits of the jab to minimise sickness to me personally. But that’s where my compliance and agreement to this Wellington rabble ends (no I’m not referring to the protesters outside Parliament, I’m referring to the rabble inside Parliament).
So I support the protesters. Yes they have broken some car parking laws – but that’s a minor misdemeanour compared to the damage being caused daily by the rabble inside Parliament.
So apologising SIr Bob if the protesters are irritating – that’s just the penalty central Wellington has to bear for electing Robinson as their local MP.
To a degree. Ripping up bricks and throwing them cannot be supported. Ever.
If you look closely you’ll see a particular demographic was largely present in the violence at the end, including threatening journalists, setting the tent on fire, throwing gas bottles on that fire, and throwing 1kg missiles at people.
Almost as if that demographic believes they have special status.
So if I park and abandon my vehicle in the middle of main road in my town, so that it blocks traffic and businesses’ access for days, can I expect the same Police leniency? I think it was a Roman 2,000 years ago said: “Obey the Laws. If you don’t agree with a Law work to get it changed. But until it is changed, obey it.” If we all start disobeying any Law we disagree with, the result is anarchy; just what a lot of people seem to want.
Coster was known in the early days as ‘Lantern’ – very bright but has to be carried
While Sir Russell’s support for the right of assembly and protest is to be commended, his failure to round the first mark is surprising.
He addresses the protest issues – and most of us would agree with him on these, I certainly do – but he ignores the protestors’ wilful strategy of holding Wellingtonians to ransom in order to leverage their position.
Sir Russell, there are your rights as a protestor and there are my rights as a citizen to go about my daily life peaceably and without being inhibited and intimidated. I support yours and you should respect mine.
So, in the interests of balance and because you chose to ‘go public’, I hope you will now publicly urge the protesters to move their vehicles and structures from the surrounding streets so that Wellingtonians can again go about their daily lives. Anything less might suggest that the unfortunate ‘Rand Paul strain of libertarianism on steroids” (and I’m not suggesting you brought it back with you) is here and actually more dangerous that omicron.
Do this and Wellingtonians might even join your (legal) protest.
And by the way, I suggest you act before you leave. Otherwise, they may not let you in and we wouldn’t want your trip all the way from Auckland to be wasted, would we.
The protests are justified. The mandates are illegal and contravene international human rights law. Yesterday the Medical Director of the GPs’ association, Dr Bryan Betty, condemned the scaremongering over Omicron which he said for most people would effectively be little more than the common cold. He called on the government to focus instead .on the upcoming influenza season, when around 500 people usually die, and the potential for a major measles outbreak, after 2 years of being solely focused on COVID. But Ardern is a one-trick wonder and COVID is it, so I don’t expect any change there.
Coster is doing a good job. I’m appalled by the 2 dollar shop napoleons, many on the Left but some sadly on the Centre-Right too, calling on him to go in and crack heads. Pathetically gutless macho posturing.
Actually, that’s not the case.
Vaccine mandates can be justified if the vaccine is in the interests of pubic health – see Solomakhin v Ukraine
More to the point:
https://dailyexpose.uk/2022/02/15/australia-4-in-5-covid-deaths-fully-vaccinated/
80% of NSW Covid deaths are vaccinated, maybe 80% to 90% of that State are vaccinated……massive protection from vaccines there, eh Bob.
I scrolled to the bottom of the article and found that the expose ‘has been censored by Google, Facebook, Twitter and Paypal’, the intention of the writer being, I imagine, to outrage readers.
I was then invited to donate crypto or make a donation in cash to ‘The Expose’ via an account of which I have no record.
Pith, I hope you didn’t because the information contained in the supposed ‘newspaper article’ is disinformation (which is code for BS) and the whole thing’s clearly a scam
But I guess perhaps you shared the ‘article’ because you were not aware of this.
Must be following orders surely. No sane policeman would allow this to continue.
https://dailyexpose.uk/2022/02/16/pfizers-experiment-on-children-with-deadly-doses-covid-vaccine/
Read it all.
Then deny away.
https://www.logically.ai/articles/actors-behind-uk-misinformation-site-the-daily-expose
Fake news. Enough said.
Thanks Peter. it was obvious from the font and the layout but it’s amazing how many people are taken in by this rubbish.
Bob, when can we expect a reprise of your 1975 billboards…”OUT WITH THE FAILURE GOVERNMENT” ?
The disruption, overall, is actually quite trivial.
The government wants to protestors gone so they don’t have to talk to them, because the protestors will otherwise ask questions like:
“Under what conditions exactly can the government justify force-medicating people, via intolerable mandates?
A question that has no good answer – only an extremely politically dangerous answer.
You get my point? The problem is the protestors are RIGHT.
If the Protestors don’t like the government-they are free to vote against them at the election. That’s how it works. Best way to protest would be to start campaigning for the ACT party.
It gets worse for the certainties of Vaccination Bob.
Go to Table 13. All triple vaccinated age groups except 18 year olds have a far worse infection rate than the unvaccinated. Oh the perfidy.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1055620/Vaccine_surveillance_report_-_week_7.pdf
And the band played on…..
https://nationalfile.com/96-germans-omicron-fully-vaccinated-28-triple-vaxxed-4-unvaxxed-government-says/
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/10/70-percent-covid-19-deaths-sweden-uk-september-fully-vaccinated/
So 75% of Sweden is vaxed and they provide 70% of the deaths…. as near as damn to proving the vax is ineffective.
The far left social engineers of NYC are dropping mandates….
https://citizenfreepress.com/breaking/nyc-vaccine-mandate-finally-ends/
While the lack of efficacy of all vaccines seems to have escaped NZ’s attention.
Just one more reference for ‘Vaccine’ Bob….
https://citizenfreepress.com/breaking/dr-peter-mccullough-dont-let-your-children-get-the-vaccine/
There is always another fact for Vaccine Bob.
84% excess mortality….but nothing to see here.
https://citizenfreepress.com/breaking/matthew-dowd-on-war-room/