New Zealand police line, narrowly avoiding officers, while other protesters sprayed officers with a stinging substance, police said Tuesday, as they tightened a cordon around a convoy that has been camped outside Parliament for two weeks.The clashes in the capital of Wellington came a day after police reported that some of the protesters had thrown human feces at them.
Faced with sprinklers, New Zealand anti-vaccine mandate protesters dig trenches Police Assistant Commissioner Richard Chambers told reporters the actions of some of the protesters, who oppose coronavirus vaccine mandates, were unacceptable and would be dealt with assertively.“Our focus remains on opening the roads up to Wellingtonians and doing our absolute best to restore peaceful protest,” Chambers said. “The behavior of a certain group within the protest community is absolutely disgraceful.”Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said protesters had taken things too far and needed to return home.“What’s happening in Wellington is wrong,” she said.The latest clashes began after about 250 officers and staff arrived at dawn and used forklifts to move concrete barriers into a tighter cordon around the encampment, where hundreds of cars and trucks remain blocking city streets.
Police have used the barriers this week to allow protest cars to leave but none to enter.Video posted online shows a white car driving the wrong way down a one-way street toward a group of officers who quickly get out of the way while people shout.
The vehicle comes to a stop at the police line and several officers climb inside and pull out the driver. ‘Snowball effect’: Canada’s trucker convoy sparks anti-mandate protests globally Police said the officers had been lucky to escape injury.