Deeply politicised police a danger to democracy
News that the BFD blog and its customers and commenters are under police “surveillance” should not come as a surprise. Like most of our public institutions, Police in NZ have been politicized for some time, but especially so since “Cuddles” Coster became Commissioner.
As many have already pointed out, the issue here is not the BFD. The police documents released under an OIA request from Cameron Slater emphasize this point because his name is only one in a list of around ten other names that are redacted.
Who else is being “surveilled” by such Orwellian divisions of the Police Intelligence Unit as the “Scanning and Targeting Team” and the “Hate Crime Quality Assurance Team”?
Pic shows a request from the Intelligence Supervisor asking for a follow up on a list of people “posting on line.” Only Slater’s name is visible out of a list of ten or more. Is your name on the redacted list? (Full document available to download below)
The trail of emails in the OIA request was set off by the suggestion that Cameron Slater receive a visit from the STT because he was publishing “anti Govt” material that “denigrated Labour Party policies and individuals linked to them”.
PM Ardern (on right) marching with communist Valerie Morse, (carrying “smash fascist” sign), apprehended in the Police action against the Urewera Terrorists
This is a highly partisan political charge that also seems to reveal a change in the mission of the STT. It was initially set up to try and identify potential terrorists from their on line postings, but now seems to be veering wildly into monitoring for (what it calls) “misinformation”. Is this in accordance with legislation that underpinned its establishment? Who knew this was what it was for?
Articles and comments on The BFD (strongly moderated) do not in any way encourage terrorism. Are they “misinformation”? They often challenge the mainstream media narrative, and that is because such narratives are frequently wrong. (Jussie Smollet and Karl Rittenhouse cases being prime examples). There is no real reason for the BFD to be on any kind of Police watchlist.
The real issue here is the clear political bias of the STT, and their outrageous mission creep. We can be thankful that the bias at least has been picked up by senior management. The Director of National Intelligence wrote-
“I remain conscious of the need for objectivity and accuracy in all that we write. I had a sense of unease when I read paragraph 21 today where we wrote “Facebook disinformation site ‘The BFD’”. Are we absolutely certain of our statement that the BFD could be fairly characterised as a disinformation site?
….In tomorrow’s Intsum, we need to offer validation to support the claim that BFD is a “disinformation site” by expanding the issue, clarify/qualify what we meant, or correct the statement; all based on the weighting of evidence to support our analytic judgement one way or the other.”
But what about the mission creep? Since when do police in a democratic country monitor people’s communications for such a starkly subjective euphemism as “misinformation”. Its only done in police states.
More- through their stylized leftist language, the documents reveal a shocking degree of politically partisan reporting from the operatives involved. It appears that members of the STT are heavily invested in a political viewpoint that aligns exactly with that of our far left Prime Minister.
Just not good enough in our democratic society, and the partisan actors behind this push need to be at least demoted if not fired.
They won’t be though. Censorship and media control is today deeply embedded in NZ politics. Recently hundreds of critics of the PM and her govt had their accounts closed after liaison between the govt and Twitter, and in a move reminiscent of East Germany under the rule of the Stasi, the mainstream media has received millions of dollars from the govt to influence its reporting.
The PM admitted this in her recent address to Joe Biden’s farcical “Summit on Democracy”, where she appeared along with the leaders of such shining examples of freedom as Iraq, Angola, Pakistan, Kenya, China, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Ardern reveals that the primary purpose of her $55 million Public Interest Journalism Fund was to “combat online misinformation”. But who monitors the monitors?
So ironic. As New Zealand steadily drifts further into a typical police state socialist totalitarian enclave, who is Jacinda Ardern to be preaching on democracy to any other country?
THE REDBAITER on Gab 
The direct payments, from government to the msm, pale in comparison to the ‘advertising’ money that flows to them. Is the NZ government the single biggest spender for every single one of these organisations? Never bite the hand that feeds you..
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It is not advertising, it is blatant propaganda. Disgusting to see opposition parties sitting back watching this travesty going on daily.
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Everyone is asking me if I’m on it 🤣 love your work 🖤
>
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With your reputation you’d have to be. Right at the top. 🙂 Thanks so much for your support.
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I do wonder what dotsy Joe thought of comrade commissar Cindy’s sign-off? Perhaps he turned to one of his aides and asked? Perhaps the aide suggested:
Get my coat now;
Get my coat now;
And bring the car round.
Babbling gobbledegook in an International Forum? Can this political correctness get any wokester weirder?
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When the public can see the Police not turning up to burglaries, letting gang members get away with wanton lawbreaking in full public view, yet at the same time have resources for trawling (waste of space) social media platforms, this is one sure-fire way to undermine public trust in policing.
And I suspect with the recent reversal of 3-strikes legislation and brain fart attempt to try and ‘ban’ smoking this is going to incentivise criminal activity across the board. Be interesting to know if their ‘intelligence’ division has any such extensive documentation in respect of those outcomes that are basically guaranteed at this point.
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The irony is that if the people in this “intelligence” unit actually read a few of the articles on The BFD they would actually learn something about logic, science, and the principles which are essential to healthy societies.
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Dead right, and they might also realise the wide variety of opinion that gets expressed there, including from the likes of Dr Don Brash, Michael Basset, Chris Trotter, Bryce Edwards, Olivia Pierson, and so many other notable writers from all sides of the political spectrum.
If you do a search on Linkedin you can see the profiles of many of the people who work in the “Intelligence” Unit. Where they have been educated and where they have worked before. You can see exactly why they’d have such narrow perspectives.
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Was that truly a Police intelligence document or the playing board for ‘woke’ bingo?
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Today, “Massey educated” is an oxymoron.
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Ever been to an freezing works and watched the sheep quietly walk along until it’s to late. That’s what we are sleep walking into with most of the population. Obviously not here but I fear it will be to late before many will wake up from the coma they are in.
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It’s a ‘numbers game’ and the sane are losing – if not lost. What ‘push back’ there is is fragmented in a true be divided-and-conquered way.
Groundswell
Bish Tamaki’s fundies
Resistance.kiwi
Voices For Freedom
FreeNZ.org
. . . on and on the list goes. Throw in Muriel’s NZCPR for added measure.
The people who most need to see the realities those groups proffer, never will.
Until there is something significant that generates critical mass, the informed will be punished along with the splintered.
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I’m contemplating organizing a book burning event at the Otago University, I’m guessing I can apply for funding to the university which they would gladly cough up. I guess all we need is some petrol, a clear area for the books and some posters to advertise the event.
I can see no reason why the feet in the mud un-thinking university would object to such a fine event to rid us of impure thoughts. The government controlled police and sis will collect the stragglers and silence the last few decenting voices.
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