National leader Judith Collins has defended award-winning journalist Rachel Stewart after the NZ Police removed her firearms, licence and ammunition after receiving a complaint because of an allegedly “threatening tweet”.
police said they “consider threatening any form of violence against a person and exhibiting any form of hatred, as well as non-compliance with the Arms Act 1983, to be inconsistent with the criteria of a fit and proper person”.
[…] it wasn’t a death threat, it was an unwise comment, but there was no intention around it,” Collins said.
“I am actually really shocked to see people like Rachel Stewart being criminalised under the current regime and when I was Minister of Police I expected police to actually get on and deal with criminals instead of cuddling up to gangs and not taking out people like Rachel Stewart.”
Newshub
If the NZ police’s bar is low enough to include sarcastic or black humour like Stewart’s as hate speech, we should all be very worried.
Ardern’s government is intending to give the NZ Police the power to decide what is hate speech and what isn’t.
It is terrifying that they will have the power to “know it when they see it” without there being any objective or clearly measurable way for we plebs to know whether or not our free speech has crossed their completely subjective line.
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