Building on Wellington Bypass route occupied: 11 arrested

Great action everyone, awesome work!

What was particularly amused me was approaching a police officer and asking him to get a key out of the pocket of one the arrested people. He kindly obliged (and was most polite about it). What he didn't know was that the key was to the D lock around the necks of the two activists locked on to the roof.

It took the police about 20 minutes, 2 different bolt cutters and a whole lot of strain to get the D locks off, while the key was safely back in my pocket :)

Big thanks to the people of San Marino apartment building for their aroha, support and tolerance. Sorry, there goes your community arts centre.

Awesome work! more people released now- to great cheers and hugs- only minor scratches and sore arms apparent (so far)- and plenty of plotting going on outside the cop shop- haha HA!

13 more buildings are planned to come down over the next 6 weeks... let's see the action stepped up. Fulton Hogan needs a wake up call and so does Chubb Security... (letting a trained security dog loose amongst protestors playing soccer, nice one Pete). Actually Shell and the WCC would make good targets too.
Come on Wellington, we can stop this even if all the buildings come down!!

A successful action indeed. However, we are concerned by the violent arrest of three supporters who were rallying in Oak Park Ave at about 8am. If anyone is prepared to make a witness statement please contact aba(at)enzyme.org.nz with your name, address and the circumstances that you saw leading to the arrest of the three men who were sitting down on Oak Park Ave. this will be much appreciated for the pending court case.

The fight has just begun!

fuck the bypass!!

you guys rock so much, awsome action you all looked really good from the coverage i saw!!

now it must also be time to hit up a few out of welly sites i guess :)

see you on this site one day soon..........

Hey thanks for your support and aroha everyone! Lots of people have been tresspassed from Tranzit properties so we need more people to get together with their friends and put themselves between Te Aro and the bypass monster.

Even if you're not in Wellington, Fulton Hogan has sites all around the country, and it's prohibitively expensive for them to organise security on all of them. Lets all make our opposition to the 'bypass' heard!

hey people who took photos should post them up....

I'd like to know what you define as "progress" and " non-contribution to a healthy thriving metropolis". These arrested non-contributing persons, included artists, musicians, event organisers, academics, small business owners and corporate profesionals who bring much to the diversity and health of Wellington. I don't see how incresed air pollution is healthy at all, in relation to both human health and atmospheric pollution.

Anti Bypass Demo Coverage from Dominino Post
15 Jan 2005
Ten arrested in bypass protest

By ANNA SAUNDERS

Ten people were arrested after Wellington anti-bypass protesters, including a pregnant woman, chained themselves to a building due to be demolished.

It was the third clash between protesters and police in a month.

Six protesters crept into the former Correspondence School building in Oak Park Ave about 5am yesterday and chained themselves to the steps, the roof and an inside storage room.

Though the protesters had enough food and water for five days, as well as knitting, and buckets for toilets, most of them were removed by police by 10am.

It took police another three hours to free the remaining two women, one of whom, Lenka Rochford, is 2-1/2 months pregnant. The pair had locked themselves to a door with a bicycle D-Lock, and if the door had been forced open their necks would have been snapped.

Police enlisted demolition workers to drill a hole in a wall to reach them.

"There was one or two parts when it was quite scary," said Ms Rochford, who was showered in sparks and dust as police broke through the wall. "But it was worth it."

About 25 supporters carrying banners and loudspeakers gathered on the road outside while police removed protesters.

One man harnessed himself to the top of a tripod, which was draped with anti-bypass flags. About eight police officers dismantled the tripod to bring him down and arrest him.

Anti-bypass protester Kate Lowe said the group aimed to use the entire $2 million put aside for security to show their opposition.

Protester Tim Bailey, who was arrested, wanted the demonstration to motivate more people to protest. He still hoped to stop the $40 million bypass.

Senior Sergeant Jason Ross described the protest as "fairly amicable".

It was frustrating that protesters did not cooperate and took up so much police time, he said. Police would be seeking reparation for using demolition workers to help remove the protesters.

Fulton Hogan project manager Nick Miller said the protests had not delayed demolition, and workers stripped the inside of the building after protesters were removed.

A neighbouring building, which had been deemed unsafe, was demolished yesterday. Security personal had focused on the unsafe building, which was why protesters had been able to occupy the former Correspondence School building, he said.

Well done to all the anti-bypass activists. I was down in Welly for the weekend, didn't make it to any protests :( but I was especially impressed by the anti-bypass murals I saw painted around the city.

Most people I talked to seemed pretty pissed off about the bypass. Kerry Prendergast the corporate mayor has not listened to the people!

Big thumbs up from Auckland!

good work!

The redevelopment of a stagnant rotting section of the city can only be seen as development. The majority of the Te Aro area has been laid waste for 10 years as Transit fight a very small number of misguided individuals whose ethics and morals are put into serious doubt by their criminal actions. If you actually put some thought into the by-pass design, you would realise that shifting the (inevatable) traffic south, the Ghuznee/Cuba area will be far more open to pedestrians/cyclist acssess and be the subject to much lower vehicle volumes.

Your description of those arrested could not be further from the truth.

Well all I can say is criminal actions by the protesters does not make the rest of the rate paying citizens have much sympathy with you.

All you do is look like a bunch of whining students who don’t have enough to do.

You are not old enough to care about the most run down part of the city and it will be good to clean it out. Its full of druggies and all sorts of other unpleasant types and is the one area of town I will not go near at night and I don’t like even going there in the day.

Please take a good strong look at your actions. They are criminal. Trying to use up a security budget is not only stupid its really irritating the rest of the public.

Grow up.

mark obviously has not ventured to this area of town, if there is one place i would walk at night and feel comfortable it is the Te Aro area. Full of druggies.....nah, some maybe but name a place that is drug free, go on..... just as i thought you cant. The fact of it is that this bypass is going to destroy a wounderful community befor you suggest that we grow up take a long look at yourself. I may be young(ish) but I am taking on a fight that has gone for decades so ......are sod it i have better things to do.

STOP THE BYPASS!!

May I also add that the *Bypass* will not improve access to the hospital like Kerry Prendergast has claimed...it will simply move the congestion point to the Basin Reserve.

What are you so afraid of? the only reason there are "druggies" is becuase te aro is full of people who accept people and they dont get made to feel like dirt like they would in the more capitalist thinking communities...
fuck your concrete jungle

Interesting to see there is no mention that the building was a run down piece of junk that was covered in badly scripted graffiti !
A photo would have been good so as not to give a false impression to people from around the world who view this site.
lets not mention how the protestors inconvenienced the people who actually live in this area by blocking footpaths making it dangerous to pass with a baby in Pram via the road as even with an 'excuse me' they where so wrapped up in getting some press that they didn't give a fuck about "Residents" or their innocent little children??? why do they refer to themselves as the community when they are actually a very small proportion of the community and most of them don't even live in this area? or try to involve the people who do.
Then there is the harrasment of construction workers who are just doing a job so they can feed their families take the protest to the burecrats! you bunch of donkeys stop harrasing the people who are not decision makers!

way to go complete bastard bout time someone said that I hate how these white pricks try to identify with my people don't get me wrong the bypass sucks but as that dude etoile sais stick it too the decision makers not the workers

Big Support for all of you who're out there protesting the bypass. We're watching the updates via Indymedia.
Big Aroha to you all!!!