Posts by Stephen Judd
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Which reminds me, where was the anti-terror hysteria two years ago? I mean the National Front have been committing acts of violence and intimidation, stockpiling explosives and openly boasting of forming a militia and training in the bush.
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Browns' Bay? Sounds like the National Front to me.
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Hmmm. For me the problem is the large number of different (though related) issues tangled up in this case. On the photographing and the damage to peoples houses and the surveillance, I feel no need to wait. On marching to protest the innocence of the detained, mebbe. On the problems with have with remand, for all remand prisoners, not just these ones - no waiting required.
I have promised myself that some time over the next few days I'm going to write down and review everything I think about this whole mess, just so I can get the Stephen Judd party line straight.
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An anti-bypass demo, I mean.
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Yes, on Capitalism Bad Tree Pretty Maia recounts one demo where the person with the megaphone said "We're here today in solidarity with the people of Iraq. Oh Shit... Oh Well it's all connected."
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"participation in terrorism"
Oh Tom, why are we wasting million on the criminal justice system when we could just engage your common sense?
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"Where's the alliance?"
Quite. This is begging the question. Speculation about why the anarcho-hippies and Tuhoe are allied only make sense if we already believe there is some sort of plot.
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Or "Cli-che Guevara" as I now think of it.
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Yes. that is my biggest concern.
Graeme, you're doing the body politic sterling service. Thank you very much.
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...the idea that those in power have secret information that Tame Iti was going to nuke Auckland...
I think that we can explain most of this by enthusiasm + cockup + groupthink. Enthusiasm to testdrive the whole anti-terror apparatus, cockup in assessing the meaning of the evidence gathered (eg whether a secretly-recorded statement should be read in jest or not) and groupthink in that once a bunch people think they have a terror plot, everything will be part of the plot.
If I'm right about that, then people like Helen Clark may well have been told scary stuff by police who sincerely believe it. And it will be wrong.
As to the sensible left label: tell me this.
I am:
- concerned about fishing expeditions
- concerned about chilling effects on free speech
- concerned about whether the law is being administered in a fair way
- sympathetic towards Tuhoe grievances about their land which strike me as more or less indisputable
- reasonably convinced on the basis of personal aquaintance that some, probably most, maybe even all of the people rounded up are guilty of nothing that could reasonably be called terrorism
- bloody annoyed about pending changes in the anti-terrorism legislation
- concerned that our sovereignty and traditional low-key approach to things is being rail-roaded by other countriesI am also:
- a believer that politics is about persuading people, and street theatre demos don't do that
- against armed struggle, at least for the kinds of problems we have in this country
- not prepared to man the barricades on behalf of people who want to shoot my fellow citizens
- wanting to let the justice system show one way or the other whether it's broken or not.I think that yeah, people are being arrested for their beliefs, but it's by a misguided police force, and not at the behest of a government that isn't really threatened by them at all. Are the Wellington anarchists a threat to the state? Give me a break.
I find it awfully hard to choose a course of action at this point beyond lobbying and funding lawyers. As more comes out, I may be more or less inclined to either man the barricades or review my choice of friends.
Does that make me "sensible left?"