Waihopai Ploughshares

I’d also like to add my voice to all those expressing bewildered delight that the Waihopai Three were acquitted. They were three nonviolent peace activists who broke into a secure base and deflated the canopy over one of the Echelon system‘s monitoring dishes.

I have no idea how the jury found them not guilty; the defence were running a pretty unlikely line. I can only conclude that the jury respected their actions and fudged the decision to avoid punishing them.

There might yet be an appeal. I feel the Crown might decide not to, though, as they probably know they’d be on a hiding to nothing pursuing the case – better to let it sink into history. One can only imagine what will be going on in the diplomatic backchannels about this, though.

Anyway. Crazy outcome.

7 thoughts on “Waihopai Ploughshares”

  1. Agreed, crazy decision. While notionally sympathetic, I am a little concerned about the precedent that has been set here.

  2. They were talking about the precedent on Morning Report, and said that as the decision was by a jury rather than a judge that it doesn’t matter. Not that I know anything

  3. I heard Mike Hosking this morning grilling one of their lawyers with the question “so this decision means it’d be okay for someone to blow up this installation with explosives, right?”

    It concerns me if a ‘journalist’ like Hosking can’t tell the difference between a sickle and a truck bomb.

  4. I was truly amazed! I felt like all the protesters of the last couple of generations have achieved a dent in the arm-linked cordon of status quo righteousness. It is a “for real?!” reaction to the decision, but maybe that jury is representative of all the people who didn’t know anything about the spy base and are quite perturbed to know we’re a link in the chain of aggression.

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