One year ago today: I shot these videos and images when the police started getting pushy against peaceful protestors who only asked for their government to listen to their grievances. That never happened. What I and other citizen media providers reported and what we saw on the evening news were of two different worlds. One was what really happened, the other was what the corporate media wanted people to think. The NZ Police lost my respect that day, and the NZ/Globalist government behaved as expected, without regard for the citizenry. We were not few, we are many.
Is this a way to treat peaceful protestors? I think not. I later used this image as a banner icon on a Telegram channel.
The video interviews and images I posted on the Telegram channel I created to cover the protest, was later “remotely data wiped” by the New Zealand government minutes before I caught the ferry for the South Island. They also had the courtesy to remotely kill the charging ability of the phone, and then encrypted all of the images and videos. The only way to de-crypt the data was to re-charge the broken phone. Fortunately Fixit in Wanaka New Zealand, found and ordered used Samsung batteries with enough charger to resuscitate the phone enough to retrieve all my images and videos, three of which you see here.
“In 2022-22 the New Zealand government enacted emergency laws, mandates, and a medical passport system that caused thousands of New Zealanders to lose jobs, businesses, homes and health. When those people protested, they were ignored b their own government and media and demonized by their representatives as “a river of filth”. This is their story in their own words.” So reads the opening frame in a new documentary, We Came Here for Freedom, Part 1 released three weeks ago by Henna Gaijin Studio, in association with Chantelle Baker’s Operation People ..
The Convoy to Wellington was a spontaneous mass movement driven by the desire for truth fairness, freedom and to be heard by the NZ Government. This documentary puts you there, and gives you the reasons why we went to Wellington, pure and simple. Click on the image to below to watch now, or go to wecamehereforfreedom.com While I’m mentioning the website, if you’re taken by what you see below, and want to help fund Part 2, you can make a donation here.
A must-see important documentary to see what the mainstream media won’t tell you about the Wellington Protest addressing Government overreach.
Editor’s note: Watching this was an emotional trip back to February earlier this year, when my wife and 11 yr old son joined the convoy here on New Zealand’s South Island. We started with 8 cars from the Upper Clutha and joined the main convoy coming from Invercargill, New Zealand’s southernmost point. We met at Timaru and continued on, capturing footage all along the way. We spontaneously kept driving as the convoy grew. We got on the ferry in Picton, and made our way to the first day of the protest on Parliament Grounds in Wellington. I had been a photographer for United Press International in the states, and when I saw this was going to be an historic peaceful sit-in, I knew I had to report what I saw. For a brief moment I had the absurd thought to call UPI and see if they’d like me to cover this. Then, in the next moment, it dawned on me, they would never want what I was going to report. They had their narrative, and my reporting would disrupt that. So rather than having a raft of camera’s around my neck, I hauled out my mobile phone, gathered up what battery packs I had, and got to work. I covered much of what you seen in this documentary until the typhoon hit. On that day, we decided the best plan for the family was to leave and I’d possibly return alone. The hour we were leaving, the many images, interviews and other footage I had taken was strangely removed from my Telegram feed. At the same time my phone would no longer take a charge. I was interviewing people right up to the hour I left, but my phone finally died right then and there. Interesting timing. When I took the SD Card out of the phone to copy it onto my computer, I discovered all the files and data had been encrypted, (which I never do), and the only way to decrypt it was to fire up the phone, that now had no way to charge up. Fortunately, a local IT repair shop, here in Wanaka was able to track down enough used batteries, that we could not retrieve my material. I plan on re-posting all that was remotely date-wiped off my phone. I’m now convinced, from hearing similar stories, that the government nefariously zeroed in on my MAC address shortly before I left the Parliament Grounds and wiped my interviews and images. I’m in the process of re-posting my material, on more than one platform this time around. Please see my other posts, as they become available and the ones that are already on this and our other platforms.
Back to this film – It’s an important statement of what really happened. If you’re ready to handle the truth, and prepared to question the mainstream media, you will find this an eye-opener. I was playing a song I’d written on the guitar called Voices, today on Christmas Day, and got choked up, and had to start again. The reason was, I had seen this film last night, and it brought back all the memories of 10th February, 2022, of seeing how peaceful everyday people who just wanted the government to address their grievances, and how the media twisted, (and in some cases orchestrated) to the opposite of what really happened in Wellington. We’d see and experience one thing, and the media would report something completely opposite on the evening news. That alone is enough to condemn “the machine”, especially when the thousands who were there, go back and tell their friends and family their eye-witness accounts of what really happened. It’s game over.
By Randall Richards Mountain Spirit Media It’s one thing to read the newspaper, or watch the evening news, or listen to national radio (or NPR in the U.S.) and to think that this is “the news”, that “this is reality”. I’m here to say, – No it’s not. One learns to crack the hard shell of that paradigm once one considers, possibly, just maybe, that these sources are not “the whole truth” or, are not “All Things Considered” as they claim. You learn to break the trance once you realize that there’s much more that they’re actually omitting. Check out the Hegelian Dialectic, (or this link ): where public debate is confined to a range of issues between limits of right and left, but not beyond those defined boundaries. Here in New Zealand, (and worldwide) it’s becoming glaringly clear that the media establishment is panicking because its citizens, and even some of its reporters, are fed up with being told what to think and what to say on air. It’s also obvious that creators of the news cycle promote an agenda akin to selling an old used car. They roll out talking points and subjects like an old merchant selling wares that nobody wants. For example, take the recent rollout of the hit pieces regarding New Zealand’s alternative media, (which is a collection of citizen reporters), who did their best to cover what happened during the Wellington protest. They didn’t do a perfect job, but damn close. Were they unbiased? No, most of them were there because they cared about removing unjust mandates and restoring some common sense and freedom. But they were truthful in reporting of what they saw. How do I know? I was one of them, and I saw others doing good work. In the age of the internet, the truth will come out, eventually. The New Zealand official Mainstream media’s clumsy attempts at the protest, and these recent days to produce absurd hit pieces on those reporting accurately, do nothing more than erode their own credibility. Their actions are nothing more than temper tantrums from a cornered and wounded animal, – Oh sorry , a dinosaur. Take for example Marcus Lush’s comment on IHeart Radio. “The amount of traffic on Facebook misinformation pages even eclipsed that of pages operated my NZ MSM outlets combined – receiving 357,089 and 247,620 interactions respectfully on March 2, 2022” One of my fellow open-minded friends adds, “And that’s just comparing FB to FB, there are other platforms as well.” Eyewitness testimony is gold. Each day at the Parliament grounds in Wellington, thousands saw one thing, only to be shown a completely dishonest accounting on the evening news and other media. Not only that, but events were clearly staged, such as “The car squealing into a crowd” event, which was a set-up. The media were invited to be present for the show. More on that from personal interviews I’ve conducted with people that were right at the car, and saw the whole thing. Can’t argue with that one. More on these latest feeble attempts: “NZ’s “Disinformation Dozen” drove 3/4 of fake news chatter.” (Another friend in the alt media thinks it’s time we adopt “The Dirty Dozen” moniker) The video clip in this piece, of some official-looking talking head news anchors, makes me nauseous. Their featured pundit in the piece is Kate Hannah of The New Zealand Disinformation Project. I feel like contacting her and asking, “Do you actually believe what you’re saying, or are you being paid?” Well, part of the answer appears to be the latter, as Planet B Mediareports “The Project received $4 million from the Governments Tertiary Education Commission and $4.2 million funding from the Marsden Fund.” Sorry to repeat but, let me put it more simply, If you’re in MSM and doing this sort of reporting, you’re either being played or being paid.
And this lovely attempt at truth: “Alt-Right and Conspiracy Theories have ‘Grown in the Shadows'” Really? I’ve had unbelievable reactions from friends in the US that think we must all be Trump supporters and all right-wing racists. On a personal note, while I do agree, Trump has done some obviously good things, he’s still pushing the “vaccine” though. You you know a man by his enemies – so time will tell in the end. My point is, many of us who agree with what he has done don’t fit the stereotype imagined by my friends who have drunk the mainstream Kool-Aid. Again, anyone who was actually at Parliament grounds saw that there were good people there, a cross section of NZ humanity, fathers, mothers, whole families, young and old, farmers, Maori, and lawyers, hippies, and yes, there were even meditators (see image below), yoga practitioners and musicians. One thing they all had in common was, they simply wanted the government to come out and speak to them about the mandates, and they wanted it all to remain peaceful. The guy behind this article above actually has a title, “Disinformation Researcher.” And this just came out in yesterday’s The Press, from Christchurch, NZ:
Really, a guy in a tinfoil hat as evidence of our craziness? Don’t you think you might want to get some context to this image?
Back to the Disinformation Project: It turns out they have been watching us through foggy-colored glasses: This, from their home page: “The Disinformation Project is pleased to release a new working paper discussing the occupation of Parliament grounds from February 2022 – March 2022. Download it here. ” I can’t wait. The good news is there are critical thinking reports like this from The Looking Glass. Their title: Meet the new thought police: the ‘Orwellian’ researchers working to pathologise dissent. I like that. More from that report: “The propaganda war is heating up, and we need to respond with coherence by unravelling their disinformation with good argument and proof, even though the elites are not listening ….The public is. We need to treat the public with respect and as adults who can think for themselves, something the government and media is not doing. So just check the card is not belittling. Here are a couple of good responses to the Disinfo Elitist view that we should all share ONE narrative (their one) to wash your brain out.” And this recent piece by Ian Wishart entitled: Your right to be wrong: how far does it go?
I was a “stringer”, a photojournalist, for United Press International in New Hampshire, (US) where all the presidential candidates would rifle through on their whistle-stop tour on their hopeful way to the US Presidency. I had a fleeting thought on the first day of the protest when my family and I arrived by ferry from Picton on New Zealand’s South Island. It briefly occurred to me, I should contact UPI again, and see about reporting for them, what I knew would be an important event. Then it dawned on me of course, that they would never accept what I would report. So I started a Telegram channel instead. More on the take-down of my content on that channel in a later post. And why is eyewitness testimony gold? Because all those who were at Wellington, who saw what they saw, and then, saw “The News” report a completely unrealistic, (sorry, untrue) version of what happened, headed back to their homes throughout New Zealand, and told their friends and family what they actually saw. That is game over. They say it only takes a fraction of the populace to affect change for the good. Evidently US independence from the crown was started by only by a handful of the colonists before a shift in critical mass happened that changed history.
This is the Gadsden Flag, originally flown over The US’s first four naval ships in the war for US independence. It was first raised by John Paul Jones
A Chinese proverb states, “May you live in interesting times.” That we do. It’s time to walk your truth, in a peaceful way, and not care what others think of you. Good luck. Editor’s Note:
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