“Our most basic freedoms are threatened by an outrageous attempt to shut down peaceful activist magazine NORML News,” declares Libertarianz Drugs Spokesman Luke Howison. Three issues of the popular cannabis activism magazine NORML News have been submitted to the Office of Film & Literature Classification for ‘classification’ – which is potentially a precursor for a [...]

Catastrophes, Culture, Free Speech, Freedom, Libertarianz, New Zealand, Police, Politics | 1 Comment »

I’ve noticed something weird going on in Karori recently.  Check out this sign from the window of the Karori Post Office (click for big): That’s right.  It’s a serious-looking Big Brother poster warning Karori residents that surveillance and recording of their physical whereabouts, conversations, phone calls, text messages and internet use “may” be operating, for [...]

Culture, Freedom, New Zealand, Photos, Police, Politics, Wellington | 4 Comments »

On Saturday April 24th 2010, Phil and I went along to the Wellington protest against the Search and Surveillance Bill, which proposes: Sweeping powers to spy, bug conversations and hack into private computers could be given to a web of state agencies as diverse as Inland Revenue and the Meat Board. The Human Rights Commission [...]

Free Speech, Freedom, Libertarianz, New Zealand, Personal, Photos, Police, Politics, Wellington | 1 Comment »

An Australian man – to be precise, a petrol-sniffing Aboriginal man who was already known to police – is in hospital in a critical condition with third-degree burns after petrol on his face and chest was allegedly ignited by a police officer firing his taser. The facts of the case are under dispute, and regular [...]

New Zealand, Police, Technology | No Comments »

The 17 Tuhoe Terrorists ‘Alleged’ Terrorists (well, the seventeen that the police have evidence against) have been committed to trial. They are, as usual, making outlandish claims of their complete innocence. Bailey, as the only individual who had all charges against him thrown out, says his sister and brother are still going to trial. “It’s [...]

Culture, Firearms, Freedom, New Zealand, Non-state actors, Police, Terrorism | No Comments »

The police officers killed by Stan Graham in 1941, in the deadliest incident in the history of the New Zealand Police Force. Last week Sergeant Don Wilkinson, of a secret police unit involved in surveillance of drug manufacturers, was shot dead on a South Auckland street. This was an awful tragedy for the New Zealand [...]

Domestic Violence, Firearms, New Zealand, Police, Suicide | 2 Comments »

Following the alleged murder of a tagger in South Auckland in January, the government announced a crackdown on tagging. Now after the fatal shooting of a liqour store owner in South Auckland last week, the Prime Minister is planning a crackdown on liquor outlets – surely a knee-jerk, blame-the-victim response. Helen Clark said yesterday police [...]

Labour, New Zealand, Police, Politics | 4 Comments »

The big news in New Zealand today was the attempted hijacking of a small Air NZ flight from Blenheim to Christchurch, allegedly by a 33-year old Somali refugee who claimed she had a bomb and demanded to be taken to Australia before attacking the pilots with a knife, causing minor injuries. The taxi driver who [...]

Infrastructure, New Zealand, Police, Terrorism | No Comments »

This article originally appeared in SOLO. On the 15th of October 2007, several hundred armed police officers executed search warrants around New Zealand. They cordoned off Ruatoki, a small Maori village south of Whakatane, seized a number of firearms, and arrested 17 people. The police claimed that the raids, carried out under post 9/11 anti-terror [...]

4GW, Black globalization, Infrastructure, New Zealand, Non-state actors, Police, Terrorism | 7 Comments »

“Cafe fined for allowing smoking,” 6th December 2007, NZ Herald Popular Wellington cafe Fidel’s has been fined $600 for allowing smoking on-site… The cafe’s smoking area at the rear of the cafe did not comply with new smoking laws because it was not open, the Health Ministry said. Co-owner Roger Young said the rules were [...]

Culture, Police, Wellington | 8 Comments »