New Zealand tries old earworm hits to flush out protesters & More News Here

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Some international locations may ship in a riot squad to disperse trespassing protesters. In New Zealand, authorities turned on the sprinklers and Barry Manilow.

Initial strikes to try to flush out a number of hundred protesters who’ve been camped on Parliament’s grassy grounds since Tuesday had little impact.

The protesters, who’ve been voicing their opposition to coronavirus vaccine mandates, responded to the soaking from the sprinklers by digging trenches and putting in makeshift drainpipes to divert the water.

When a downpour hit Saturday, their numbers solely grew. Protesters introduced in bales of straw, which they scattered on the more and more sodden grounds at Parliament. Some shouted, others danced and one group carried out an Indigenous Maori haka.

By night, Parliament Speaker Trevor Mallard had give you a brand new plan to make the protesters uncomfortable: utilizing a sound system to blast out vaccine messages, decades-old Barry Manilow songs and the Nineties earworm hit “Macarena” on a repeat loop.

Protesters responded by enjoying their very own tunes, together with Twister Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It.”

The protest started when a convoy of vans and vehicles drove to Parliament from across the nation, impressed by protests in Canada. At first there have been greater than 1,000 protesters however that quantity dwindled because the week wore on earlier than rising once more on Saturday.

Police have been taking a extra hands-off method since Thursday, after they arrested 122 individuals and charged a lot of them with trespassing or obstruction. Police, who’ve been carrying protecting vests however haven’t been utilizing riot gear or carrying weapons, had tried to slowly advance on the protesters.

But that resulted in a variety of bodily confrontations. A video of two feminine officers briefly dragging a unadorned girl by her hair from amid a scuffle went viral.

In a response to questions from The Associated Press, New Zealand police stated they didn’t take away the lady’s clothes as some individuals had claimed on-line, and that she had been bare for “some time” earlier than her arrest. Police additionally stated the pictures and movies didn’t present the complete context of the protest exercise or the scenario that police confronted.

Still, the scuffles appeared to immediate a strategic rethink by police, who appeared extra content material to wait it out because the week wore on. But by Friday, Mallard, the Parliament speaker, had seen sufficient, and informed workers to activate the sprinklers in a single day.

“I ordered them on,” he confirmed to the AP.

“No one who is here is here legally, and if they’re getting wet from below as well as above, they’re likely to be a little bit less comfortable and more likely to go home,” Mallard stated, in accordance to information group Stuff.

“Some people have suggested we add the vaccine in the water, but I don’t think it works that way,” he joked.

Mallard informed media he was liable for the sound system loop as properly.

Some of the protesters’ automobiles have remained parked in the midst of streets round Parliament, forcing some road closures. The National Library and plenty of cafes and bars within the space have closed their doorways whereas the protest performs out. Police stated one protester had a medical occasion on Friday night and an ambulance was unable to attain him due to the automobiles blocking the streets, leading to a delay earlier than he was handled.

Among the protesters’ grievances is the requirement in New Zealand that sure staff get vaccinated in opposition to COVID-19, together with academics, medical doctors, nurses, police and navy personnel. Many protesters additionally oppose masks mandates — comparable to these in shops and amongst kids over about age 8 in lecture rooms — and champion the best of extra “freedom.”

Parliament’s grounds have usually been the location of peaceable protests, though mass campouts are uncommon. Typically no less than some politicians will come out to pay attention to the issues of protesters, however politicians reconvening at Parliament after a summer season break had been in uncommon unison by not acknowledging the protesters.

New Zealand was spared the worst of the pandemic after it closed its borders and carried out strict lockdowns, limiting the unfold of the virus. The nation has reported simply 53 virus deaths amongst its inhabitants of 5 million.

But some have grown weary of the restrictions. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern final week stated the nation would finish its quarantine necessities for incoming vacationers in levels because it reopened its borders. With about 77% of New Zealanders vaccinated, Ardern has additionally promised she gained’t impose extra lockdowns.

An outbreak of the omicron variant has been rising, with New Zealand reporting a report 454 new neighborhood instances Saturday. But not one of the 27 individuals hospitalized from the outbreak wanted to be in intensive care beds.

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