By James Murray
There were objections and struggles today as Occupy Auckland protestors were evicted by the council from four sites.
A protestor at Aotea Square, named on the Occupy Auckland Facebook page as Malcolm, disputed the rights of council workers to evict him.
He said his tent was a vital symbol to his protest and asked council workers what gave them the right to enter his abode.
When told by council workers that they were mandated by Council Bylaw number 20 and Section 164 of the Local Government Act, he argued he had a right to freedom of expression according to the Bill of Rights. Council workers backed off when the protestor attempted to take paperwork relating to today's eviction.
He then read parts of the Human Rights Act to gathered media.
However, under the legislation quoted council workers had the power to seize and impound property if it was not removed.
Later on the same protestor struggled with council workers as they tried to confiscate his tent. Supporters shouted at council workers and police saying they should not use force and claiming he was being assaulted.
One man shouted: "How does it feel to be a class traitor. You're being streamed live on the internet right now to the whole world. How does it feel to be a violent thug."
A woman, named on the Facebook page as Sue, joined the initial protestor in the van and said: "You need to leave this property alone. You are thieves."
The pair remonstrated with the police saying they were not doing "a very good job, these people are stealing our property".
A scuffle then ensued and the protestors ended up in the back of the van council workers were using to hold confiscated tents.
Police eventually dragged the pair from the van and appeared to arrest; during the arrest police formed a wall between news cameras and the incident.
Once the initial protestor was removed from the van police held him to the floor and restrained him with black plastic hand ties. The protestor complained that he had not yet been arrested and supporters shouted: "Stop brutalising him" and "what's the charge?"
Three policemen grabbed the protestor by the limbs and carried him away as people continued to ask what he was being charged with. The woman involved was also led away by police in handcuff.
"We have an appeal in the High Court," shouted onlookers. Supporters took the numbers of the policemen involved.
According to Occupy Auckland's Facebook page Sue has now been released without charge.
The admin of the page left the following message at noon:
Lyn released WITHOUT charge - Inspector Danny Meade goes ON RECORD: he & his unit were NOT informed about the simultaneous evictions today - he heard about it on the radio!!! Despite having been officer in charge, successfully dealing with us for the last 3 months. Thanks to him, we were pumping out positive press about the NZ Police force, who we were truly being convinced were here for the people, not the corporations. Now thanks to George Wood - the Chairman of the "Community Safety Board" - who has been calling for violence against peaceful protesters on our Facebook page for months (along with his self-admitted personal friend "Bob Murphy").
A protestor from Spain, who goes by the name Goge, said proceedings had been peaceful in comparison to events overseas.
"It is unfair that these people have been fired after more than 100 days," he said.
"But it is quite peaceful - not like the rest of the world.
"In the rest of the World, the police use violence always. In Spain... they are removed so violently, just always hitting us with the sticks and [using cans of] gas."
Occupy protestor James Heramaia said the eviction was not legal.
"We have instructions from our lawyer and have spoken to council - who made an assurance that we have a court case pending," he said.
"What's happened here is the council has breached an agreement made in court. A judgement was to be made this month."
3 News