Oh dear, what a fizzer

Written By: - Date published: 2:25 pm, November 21st, 2009 - 57 comments
Categories: activism, child abuse - Tags:

hit my baby one more timeThe pro-child assault lobby spent $500,000 trying to manufacture the biggest march in New Zealand history up Queen St today.

The reports say fewer than 5,000 took part. Oh dear.

What does that work out at? More than $100 per marcher?

Gee, if you’d offered me that much I would have walked back down Queen St too.

Update: a couple of pics. Looks like the spike went ahead

violence equals love

Mixed messages from this guy – if he thinks the ‘anti-beating’ law is Nazi, and he is against it, why is he dressed like a Nazi? Love the Tui ad too – always the height of political satire

am i pro or anti nazi

57 comments on “Oh dear, what a fizzer ”

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  1. IrishBill 1
    21 November 2009 at 2:28 pm

    Some of the more unusual placards included ‘Bring Back Dancing with the Stars’ and one calling for a referendum on former TrueBliss singer Carly Binding.

    Heh.

  3. outofbed 3
    21 November 2009 at 2:50 pm

    those Nzpa pics say Thousands not Hundreds marched

  4. Tiger Mountain 4
    21 November 2009 at 2:52 pm

    It will be interesting to hear from some experienced non cop, non Herald crowd estimators, NZ Herald is claiming 4-5000 at this point. They undercalled the Super City hikoi with their 8000 count. An old rule of thumb is if you have full width of Queen St and crowd entering Aotea Sq as some are still leaving Custom St area then it is a biggie likely 10,000 or more.

    • gobsmacked 4.1
      21 November 2009 at 2:58 pm

      Meanwhile, the marchers show their class:

      “Protesters are bearing placards aimed at Prime Minister John Key, some reading “JK listen to me” and “JFK, John Fuhrer Key”.

      (Herald)

      • Pascal's bookie 4.1.1
        21 November 2009 at 3:40 pm

        “JFK, John Fuhrer Key’.

        And of course that’s totes not suggesting Key should be careful about riding in an open top car, oh no siree, wouldn’t never not want to suggest that sort of thing. Complete accident like and shame on me for inferring such a ting.

        Nutjobs.

      • Chris 4.1.2
        21 November 2009 at 4:03 pm

        The dry irony of the sign Joh Fuhrer Key is completely lost on the mob, as was the Nazi salute and the sieg heil I gave to some ‘marchers’.

        Wingnuts are so delicious.

    • Chris 4.2
      21 November 2009 at 4:01 pm

      Hundreds, not thousands.

  5. IrishBill 5
    21 November 2009 at 2:55 pm

    So does the NZPA story in the herald. It looks like hundreds to me but there doesn’t seem to be a decent picture of the full march.

    If they did get to 5,000 then they only spent $100 per person. What a bargain.

    • Lew 5.1
      21 November 2009 at 5:37 pm

      NatRad 1700 bulletin said turnout was 1,000. Given, say, 2 hours per marcher, I make that to be 18 times minimum wage. Who says rich people aren’t generous?

      L

  6. illuminatedtiger 6
    21 November 2009 at 2:56 pm

    Bahahahahahaa

  7. outofbed 7
    21 November 2009 at 3:01 pm

    Tiger Mountain. illuminatedtiger Different political stripes ?

  8. Marty G 8
    21 November 2009 at 3:02 pm

    if you look at the nzpa pics, http://www.nzpaimages.co.nz/preview.php?image_id=74325 they’re widely spaced and not filling the entire width of the road, just one side.

    maybe a thousand or so. even 5,000 is $100 per head. Hope they got some food too.

  9. outofbed 9
    21 November 2009 at 3:04 pm

    Lots of kids on the March
    Probably to frightened to object

  10. IrishBill 10
    21 November 2009 at 3:05 pm

    I can’t tell whether the guy in the Nazi uniform is a protester rather than a counter protester but to be honest this whole thing has got so weird I’m baffled.

  11. Olwyn 11
    21 November 2009 at 3:11 pm

    I was in Queen St just prior to the march beginning, and the group seemed largish but not huge – the Herald could well have over estimated its numbers. Furthermore, it included people who were opponents of the core group.

  12. outofbed 12
    21 November 2009 at 3:15 pm

    To put in perspective Seems to be about the same size as this recent one which cost about $100
    http://www.multisport.net.nz/photos/459-2009-10-16-dambusters-hurunui-protest.html

  13. gobsmacked 13
    21 November 2009 at 3:15 pm

    NZ Herald, Oct 28:

    Mr Craig said he hoped ordinary New Zealanders would turn out.

    “The reality is if we have the biggest protest march in the history of New Zealand, which I’d love to know how big it was … [we can’t be ignored],” he said.

    “The [2004] hikoi got more than 10,000. The [2005 Destiny Church] march for family values got close to 15,000. I’m absolutely hoping to get an awful lot more than that.”

    Oops.

  14. Steve 14
    21 November 2009 at 3:23 pm

    Why is he dressed like a Nazi? He probably is one.
    The march was a protest against the Government for having non-binding referenda, not about beating children.
    You could have a protest march against the number of broken biscuits in a pack, and the same rent- a – mob tossers would turn up in Nazi uniforms.
    Big tough Nazi guy got his picture taken and played on TV.
    ppfffttt, fucking tosser

  15. outofbed 15
    21 November 2009 at 3:29 pm

    I think we can see where TV3 stand he he
    http://www.3news.co.nz/

  16. Tom Semmens 16
    21 November 2009 at 3:44 pm

    We shouldn’t be surprised. The deceitful Christian right managed to prove Abraham Lincoln’s dictim of fooling all the people some of the time to put one over on the general population with it’s dishonest anti-Section 59 campaign.

    The referendum was always a Trojan horse for Larry Baldock to try and re-launch the fundamentalist political agenda. This march has shown that when New Zealanders are presented with the grab bag of usual suspects that makes up the coalition of the grumpy and deranged they reject it.

    • marco 16.1
      21 November 2009 at 4:08 pm

      Baldock is a kook. What worries me though, is the possiblity of a carismatic figure coming along preaching this inane hate speech. Someone with personality might be able to fool the benign masses into thinking that this sort of carry on is acceptable.
      At least Winston was essentially harmless.

      • stargazer 16.1.1
        21 November 2009 at 7:07 pm

        um, no. talk to asian new zealanders who had to live through the 1996 campaign. that rhetoric was far from harmless. thankfully we seem to have gotten away from that environment, mostly because the majority of political parties have figured out that minorities can vote too and under MMP their party vote is critical.

  17. felix 17
    21 November 2009 at 3:47 pm

    Best sign so far: “Hit my baby 1 more time”

    http://www.nzpaimages.co.nz/preview.php?image_id=74322

  18. outofbed 18
    21 November 2009 at 4:41 pm

    Does that say
    Winz defy democy ? what does that mean?

    WHAT DO WE WANT ? Winz defy democy
    WHEN DO WE WANT IT ? er em now I think

    Its behind the sign thats says stop overseas pension theft

    http://www.nzpaimages.co.nz/preview.php?image_id=74324

    • felix 18.1
      21 November 2009 at 5:34 pm

      Is the guy on the left of that pic holding a cricket bat??!!

      • Draco T Bastard 18.1.1
        21 November 2009 at 6:03 pm

        I’m still trying to determine what the Grey Power sign says. Looks like Stop Over Sexed Pensioners thieving but I could be wrong on that.

  19. George D 19
    21 November 2009 at 6:03 pm

    Why the hell are Garth McVicar’s mob there? They got their wishes.

  20. mickysavage 20
    21 November 2009 at 6:19 pm

    I was there. The counter protesters were very funny and very well organised. The protesters did not know how to handle them or what to do with therm.

    There were a few people there, I would actually think the Herald was close at 5,000 but for that sort of money it was a real fizzer. The intellectual understanding shown by the protesters (not the counter protesters) suggests that they still do not understand that the law pretty well says what they are insisting that it says, sort of.

  21. Connie Mist 21
    21 November 2009 at 7:31 pm

    I helped out today at a sausage sizzle fundraising for the local Women’s Refuge under the White Ribbon ‘umbrella’. I reckon we sold about 5000 sausages…

  22. Connie Mist 22
    21 November 2009 at 7:39 pm

    Ok, maybe it was just a couple of hundred.

  23. squirrel 23
    21 November 2009 at 9:38 pm

    Good on the counter demonstrators! Looks like they hit the nail on the head, didnt create an unnessecary confrontation and instead effectively highlighted how silly the whole march was.

    To be fair going by NZPA photos there appears to be at least 1500 people there, probably more. While this isnt a huge achievement given the funding and level of concern many people have it is still notable. I can’t think of a left wing march for quite a while that has had that many people on it.

  24. Tiger Mountain 24
    22 November 2009 at 9:13 am

    The Herald is still at it, claiming today that Queen St was “packed’ with marchers.

    • ghostwhowalksnz 24.1
      22 November 2009 at 9:54 am

      Did they have any big adverts in the Herald ?
      That usually swings it for a ‘kid gloves’ reporting

  25. Sam 25
    22 November 2009 at 10:54 am

    I was one of the chaps on the “Violence = Love” banner, we were also responsible for the “Hit my baby one more time” and a few others. Coincidentally another group of people had decided to do a similar thing so we joined up with them – they had the “Repeel S.51” (which apparently already has been repealed :P) and “Carly Binding Referendum” etc. We got a few comments but people didn’t really know what to do, I think the majority of them actually thought we were apart of the protest.

    The Nazi guy was a protester – his daughter was telling me that he was John Key. When I mentioned that, given his Jewish background, that could be quite distasteful and offensive she asked me “How come you know so much about John Key”. Sigh.

    We had some more idiots trying to tell us that no study had been done that proves that smacking your child affects them negatively. Totally missing the point, but I wasn’t all that surprised. One guy asked us to not use big words like “symmetrical” when we were discussing the issue. LOL.

    The rhetoric in the speeches was typical – saying 87% of New Zealanders rah blah blah, some women in front of me went off at me when I pointed out loudly that onl 54% of people eligible to vote actually voted. I guess I was kind of surprised that the Sensible Sentencing Idiots managed to so blatantly hijack the march to push their own “TOUGH ON CRIMSSSSS” agenda and nobody seemed to bat an eyelid – further proves that nobody there actually knew what they were doing or why.

    Was nice to have a tiny bit of MSM coverage, but last I looked it was all gone – I guess if you’re buying a protest you don’t want little bastard pranksters getting the coverage.

    Oh and there is no way there was 5000 people there. I’m not all that good at judging a crowd number, but if there was more than 1000 I’d be surprised. There was heaps of space, they even managed to go down to one lane at the end with enough room. Total bollocks from the Herald et al.

  26. Brett Dale 26
    22 November 2009 at 1:22 pm

    Violence = love???????

    Am I missing something with this guys banner??

  27. Brett Dale 27
    22 November 2009 at 1:26 pm

    No paper is worse than the Christchurch press though in estimating crowd numbers, a few years back, some pathetic little teen type girl band from Australia gave a free concert in Cathedral square, walking home from work, their must of been around 500-1000 people? mostly young kids there.

    The next day, the press said ten thousand people showed up.

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