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Download AudioPolice Deputy Commissioner Wally Haumaha says police are losing patience over the parliament protest.
Yesterday three officers were sent to hospital after a stinging liquid was thrown at them, and a protester tried to drive a car towards a line of police.
There were also clashes as police moved concrete barriers to shrink the protest area and tried to move some of the more than 800 parked vehicles.
Mr Haumaha says while the police strategy had been to try to deescalate the protest and keep it peaceful by talking with leaders of the various factions, there are provocateurs in the crowd who seem set on conflict.
“We will continue to move on people whose actions against the police have been absolutely despicable given that our staff have been tolerant, they have been engaging, they have been patient up until now, but there comes a time when enough is enough,” he says.
Wally Haumaha says the protest has been extremely disrespectful to mana whenua, not only with the dumping of human waste into drains leading to the harbour but in its desecration of raukura, the Taranaki tradition of non-violent opposition.
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