Post by Mikaela Bossley

I live a few hundred metres from Parliament, and work even closer. Here’s my perspective of the ongoing protest/occupation in Wellington which is now in its 13th day. As you can see from the map, a significant part of this end of the city is now partly or fully taken over by protesters. My house and my younger son’s school are in yellow areas, and my office and my older son’s school bus stop are very much in the red bits - except the bus interchange has been closed due to the protesters. Usually we’d all walk through the red areas to get to work/school/bus. The protest itself likes to bill itself as peaceful and like a festival, but today I walked past ‘pure blood’ signs, MAGA signs, people in camo hunting gear and fake military uniforms, many self-styled “security guards” (one demanded to know why I was taking photos of the area, another grilled me on why I wanted to walk into the parliament grounds), and a man urinating on the footpath who tried to make eye contact with me as I walked on the other side of the street. Today I wasn’t yelled at for wearing a mask, but I have been repeatedly in previous days. Friends’ teenage daughters have been spat on and verbally abused. I wouldn’t let my sons leave the house without me at the moment. Our local supermarket is full of unmasked, mostly barefoot protesters wearing flags around their shoulders. I asked the young checkout operator if they’ve had much trouble and she actually teared up (obviously they have). This is not a peaceful protest, and even after 13 days it’s growing by the hour. It needs to be shut down. Apart from the map, these are all photos I’ve personally taken. #protest #safety #parliament