Press Release - Unity for Liberty - 4 January 2008
Unity for Liberty leader, Craig Hill, is stunned with the behavior of an
opponent to the petition against the Sue Bradford anti-smacking law.
Mr Hill's 18 year old daughter was pushed to the ground by a woman who
was trying to destroy the petition forms that had been signed at a
shopping centre in Pukekohe this afternoon.
An assault complaint has been laid to the Police.
"It seems ironic that people who claim they are against abuse have no
problems assaulting a teenage girl," says Mr Hill. "They seem unable to
differentiate the difference between a smack and child abuse, and they
also have no problem using unreasonable force on other people."
Unity for Liberty has collectors throughout NZ collecting signatures
demanding a Referendum against Bradford's anti-smacking bill and
demanding that the politicians tackle the real causes of child abuse.
Over 250,000 signatures have been collected already, and Mr Hill's
daughter has been collecting signatures every weekend over the past 5
months and during the holiday period.
Click here for the News report on this case
Click here for comments from the nzconservative blog
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I hope the police take the case at least as seriously as the chap who threw a brick through the window of Helen Clark’s electorate office. It is doubtful if some vandalising of MP/MPs offices with have any effect on legislation. However, if those collecting signatures are allowed to be intimidated it is possible that we could not reach the required number in time.
This is an extremely serious matter. A number of women were reluctant to put down their address. They usually do so after being assured that these details will only be forwarded to the appropriate people. One does not know what the intent of this woman was. If is probable that she just intended to destroy the signatures. The fact remains that the names and addresses of the people who signed the petition should not have got into the wrong hands. Fortunately, they didn’t because of the quick thinking a brave young lady.
If the police not make a serious effect to apprehend this woman who attempted to steal the signed petitions and also assaulted this woman who resisted the attempted theft others will think they can do the same. Most people are quite supportive of those collecting signatures yet there are a few that can even become abusive.
There police know this woman. They have her name and vehicle registration number and know she is from the Hamilton area. If they had this much information about the person who threw the brick through Clark’s electorate office window I bet the person would be in custody now.
This is an attack on the democratic process. Opponents of the petition have done their best to obstruct this campaign. They have approached shop owners who have already given permission for a table to be set up in front of their shop to rescind this permission. We are on course to reach the required number of signatures. However, we have a number of elderly people collecting. The police should ensure these collectors are not intimidated by a speedy arrest. We have less than two months to collect the balance of the required signatures. It is not good enough for the police to give this matter a low priority and take weeks to find this alleged thief.
I view this as seriously as theft of mail. People have a right to privacy when they sign a petition as much as they have right to privacy on who they vote for of if they are a member of a political party.
I call on Helen Clark and Sue Bradford to condemn this attack on the democratic process. I will be following this up with the police and post their response to this blog.
Chuck Bird
Post a Comment