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The tent people packed up to move to Victoria Park but they told me they would continue to hang out in Aotea during the day.
OCCUPY AUCKLAND: Moving on
today from Auckland Council:
Auckland Council will continue to progress its legal options for ending the occupation of Aotea Square.
The Auckland District Court issued an order that the protestors should cease residing in Aotea Square, and also remove the various illegal structures. The order was served on the occupiers at 2.30pm on Wednesday, and gave them 48 hours to comply.
If the occupiers fail to cease residing at Aotea Square, and to remove the camp, Auckland Council will return to the court to seek warrants for the arrest of the occupiers for contempt of court. Due to the holidays, it is likely this hearing will take place next week.
Auckland Council will continue to work with the police and the court to action the warrants some time after that. Council cannot comment further on this process at this stage.
Auckland Council has restated its desire that the occupiers take the lead of the Occupy protests in other cities and bring the protest action to an end, returning Auckland’s public spaces to the people of Auckland.
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Earlier
A scraggly bunch of people carried on down Queen St this afternoon on their way to court seeking a stay of judgement on the order the Occupy Auckland tent people leave Aotea Square.
Occupy Auckland protestors march to court
Thankfully the judge declined and they have until tomorrow afternoon to pack up.
Staying beyond that time means they will be in contempt of court and need the police to enforce it – although so far the police have been on the protestors’ side saying they have human rights.
Occupy Auckland protestors at this afternoon's assembly discussion
Before they headed for court, the group held one of their “assemblies” during which an American woman amusedly compared them to Nelson Mandela.
Give me a break.
Mandela spent 27 years in prison and then led negotiations which led to multi-racial democracy in South Africa.
Pretending they are the next Nelson Mandela
I’m highly amused by people sending vile emails to me saying my stand on the tent people is that of some extreme right-wing nutcase Fox news loving bigot.
Go talk to them. They have insulted the cause of those who quite rightly have challenged the businesses and political forces who have caused the financial crisis.
The ones I have spoken to have never heard of say Milton Friedman and think Freddie Mac is a hamburger.
They’re the same old protestors who have nothing better to do than come out on the streets for any cause.
They don’t think anyone else has any rights and are vandals ruining the newly created Aotea Square leaving ratepayers the big bill to clean up their mess and for what? They show no sympathy for us and don’t deserve any. They have made it difficult for people with genuine causes to protest.
TENT PEOPLE: Nothing to do with the US financial protest
Look at the state of the grass.
New grass for the Aotea Square revamp has been runied
19 Comments
Great post! It’s so true. these guys have no clue what they’re actually protesting for. The real American Occupy movement, the original, had a point … these guys are just squatters pushing their minority agenda.
Love how they claim to speak on behalf of the 99% when i see about 50 people marching down Queen st. Sorry, but 50, even 500, even 5,000 people still only account for a VERY small minority in this great country of ours!
Well done Auckland Council. Well done New Zealand courts. Now it’s up to you, the New Zealand Police Force to do your job and enforce the court order as you have been instructed.
Camping in a public space is not a right. You have the right to assemble, the right to free speech - but not the unconditional right to protest in any whimsical way you can imagine.
If these people don’t have a right to protest, then neither do you.
These people are actually defending YOUR right to protest without government-imposed limitation.
If the government can shut you down and tell you to stop protesting when they can no longer comfortably ignore you, then you don’t have a genuine right to protest after all.
Protests conducted with government permission are not real protests, they’re Potemkin Protests. Governments love Potemkin Protests. Absolutely love them. They make them look like they support democratic freedom, but they are carefully staged to avoid even the suggestion of unpleasantness.
Wake up! These protesters obviously understand things a lot more clearly than you do.
Stop saying “wake up”! It’s the most irritating phrase! No-one’s asleep. They rest of us actually have a good idea about what’s going on. We’ve all met people like you, some of us might have gone through an anti-establishment pinko stage ourselves. We know exactly what you’re like, so I’d wipe that arrogant tone of condescension from your inner voice.
Now Esther, I won’t tell you to wake up. But maybe you should start metabolising that crack you’ve been smoking a little faster.
The majority of the public hate these protesting thugs. They are destroying our land. They are a poison and a blight on society. New Zealand hates them and they hate their supporters.
They’ve done more to set back legitimate concerns regarding bank-boss bonuses than any politician-bribing by the banks could achieve. You think the bosses of Bernie Mac, Granny May, Handover and Old Hubbard Finance care about some ruined turf in Aotea Square? They’re busy drinking beer, having Viagra-sex with 40 year old thin but busty fake blondes who sort of look 30 but still sort of 40, and eating at expensive but rather trashy restaurants.
The only people these tenters affect is the little guy. You losers are hurting our little country. I was looking forward to the ACC finishing that underground carpark at Aotea for what seemed like years, now it’s complete, it’s been vandalised by a bunch of thugs and is going to have to be redone - and I’ll be paying for it!
I do not want people to have the right to destroy public property as a protest. Scungy sleazebags like those weirdos who took a scythe to that spy base by Blenheim have already cost us millions. Now we’ve got a few more million to pay after we finally eradicate this Occupy plague.
Tell me. Please tell me why you think it’s okay for these guys to destroy our land, land that we’ve paid for, to camp out feigning protest when all they’re doing is sulking about how useless their worthless lives are? Why should my parents pay to fix the land they’ve ruined in Wellington? Why?
Why is that okay?
Correction to the above comment: we do not have a right to free speech.
I admit its time for them to move on
There’s a difference between the right to free speech and the right to a free camp on public land in the middle of a city
Esther, if you like the protesters so much, feel free to let them camp on your lawn!
This was never about the right to protest - nobody is denying that they have a right to protest. Its how they are goining about it that is unlawful - camping in a public place, damaging public property and denying others the ability to use the grassy knoll in Aotea square.
These guys are not protesters, just unemployed hippies and losers who think they are owed a bigger dole cheque from the rest of us who have to work for a living. Bring on the water cannons!
Interesting that a bit of grass is apparently so important. Get your priorities right - any Christmas in the park does more damage to Council assets than this protest has. The cost of the grass is like a percent of a percent of the whole cost of the the area, and, tell you what: IT GROWS BACK.
Some mess is part of democracy. Where do you expect them to protest? In a Westfield Mall?
Of course these guys have no right to forever stay there. That’s what the courts, and eventually, the police are for. But it is depressing that apparently one has to have read Milton Friedman to be allowed to protest here. Or hold a 9-5 job to be considered worth of respect.
Typical reaction from those who still work hard in the system - to demonise those who have already been pushed out of the system, but aren’t happy with MacJobs and TV for the rest of their life. Us vs them. Good fun. Perfect basis for getting people to agree to “welfare reform”, limits on “public disturbances” etc… - after all, it’s only those “bums” who will be affected.
Also, why are you surprised that the only ones protesting the system are those w/o a job (or w/o steady jobs)? If you are working 9-5 in increasingly precarious situations, maybe with a family to take care of, you CANT take time off to protest capitalism. Quite possibly not even a day or a few hours a week.
That doesn’t mean that those working poor are well-served by the Occupy Protesters of Aotea Square. But it is the reason why those protesters are of a certain type - and not the guy working at the supermarket checkout, or the single mom.
Bashing them verbally in the media, rather than stepping back and letting the courts deal with it in a more rational fashion for what in the end is just a midemeanor - occupying a small park - well, that just plays into the hands of those who LOVE the system to stay as it is.
Because if the system stays what it is, then one day we will all be “hippies and losers”. Including those who currently scoff at the protesters while on the way to their hard work.
Blah blah blah, Ingolfson. Capitalism has its faults, no doubt about it. But history has shown communism and socialism don’t work any better (and are in fact worse). So what is the answer? The protestors sure as hell don’t know so what are they adding to the debate? Nothing. If the protesters had a coherent argument and purpose, they may have received more support from the working poor and others.
There is nothing preventing the protesters from turning up every day and continuing their pointless protesting - they just can’t camp and damage public property. Its not just about grass, there are security costs, fencing costs, they are stealing power, pointless expensive court hearings that are doomed to fail. All of this is costing the ratepayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.
You clearly exaggerate by saying that we will all be hippies and losers under the current system. Some people are beyond help I admit, but the majority can have a good life if they get educated, work hard and get their priorities right. The problem is that many people want a flash phone, flash TV, cool car etc etc and think it is their right to have as many kids as they like, even if they can’t support them.
tbird- What universe do you live in?
I’m pretty sure that laid back kiwis don’t HATE! the occupiers.
Please explain how the tenters/ thugs have destroyed the underground carpark? I’m 99% certain that happened when the Square was flooded for an arts festival many years ago…
Your post says so much about you but very little about the protesters.
Merry Christmas all!
Sounds like they are moving to Victoria Park, I hope the council has the eviction notices ready.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/6184138/Occupy-Auckland-protest-on-the-move
I didn’t think I hated anyone in this world until I saw tbird posting on this site. People like that make me scared to go outside
Geoff and San Luca.
You guys are deluded.
Become fanbois of the bludgers and whiners if you like, but outside your narrow little circles there’s the rest of us.
We don’t enjoy seeing our country ruined by those who don’t even try. It’s sad. How depressing for the rest of us that these Occupy thugs go around ruining our environment and leaving us to pick up the mess and the bill.
But San Luca, just go away and have a cry over the fact that everyone doesn’t agree with your point of view.
I have already stated that I think they should move on.I think it’s humourous that you summarise my arguments with ideas that do not reflect my thoughts at all. Anyway merry Christmas.
Not naming names but - I feel sorry for the hate you have inside.
I was wondering about those people camping at Victoria Park. I thought they were homeless people because the place smell like piss, it’s disgusting. I run there but I try not to get close to the area where they camp because it smells and I don’t feel comfortable the guys there eye me like a hawk.
That’s probably because you’re awesome..
The squatting bludgers have moved I see.