Please sign our petition to New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to stop vigilante roadblocks.
The ANZAC Day weekend is likely to have 20 “Covid-19” roadblocks in the North Island and two in the South Island staffed by local Maori with some gang members wearing patches.
These vigilantes are stopping fellow citizens going about their lawful business, such as going to the supermarket to buy supplies.
The law empowers police (Section 35 of the Policing Act 2008) to set up roadblocks in case of public disorder, danger, or if a serious offence has been committed.
The vigilante Covid-19 roadblocks are not set up by police, and don’t correspond to the requirements of the Policing Act 2008.
Yet the Prime Minister, the Police Minister, and the Commissioner of Police, are all turning a blind eye to vigilantes breaking the law by blocking roads and deciding who may or may not pass through.
Moreover, if isolation and social distancing are about health and safety, vigilante roadblocks are not simply about law enforcement, they are a public health issue.
No one knows whether those on the roadblocks and those they stop carry Covid-19, and whether the roadblocks are transmitting Covid-19.
The official blind eye to lawbreaking and potentially creating a health risk by vigilante iwi-gangster road-blockers looks like one law for Maori and another law for everyone else.
Such separate treatment erodes the unity of our nation at a time when we are being urged to unite against Covid-19.