"People who train in weapons and speak of hurting, terrorising and/or blowing other people up are a danger to society"

The thing is the police have not been able to discern the difference between perceived threats and real threats. Tuhoe sovereignty is not a movement set about to create terrorism in this country, never has and never will. It is the crown that has been the perpetrator of that on the Tuhoe and other iwi.

A few dark conversations do not equate to terrorism. Any half trained intelligence gathering organisation would know this.

This is why Dr Michael Bassett referred to you all in an article about Tuhoe in the SMH, as being severely lacking in intelligence, and he wasn't referring to information gathering either.

Sure there are gun laws in this country that have probably been broken by this lot, noone is disputing this and they will each do their turn in court for those charges and good luck to them all.

But this case is still not just about arms charges, the 16 were first accused of terrorism when no terrorist act had taken place, no plans for such a thing were discovered. This is the bit we are pointing out. The disgraceful actions of the state that set about to imprison citizens of this country for peace of mind in staged and managed media raids last year designed to terrorise the nation with this perception that activists were planning to kill innocent people all over the country with bombs and whatever.

Yet all their evidence of such a thing came down to a bunch of silly text messages and a couple of dark conversations discussing theoretical senarios.

Where in the history of this country has anyone ever been charged with terrorism and then had that reduced to some minor gun charges?

When in the history of this country has the entire police intelligence report been leaked to the media, distributed on websites making sure as many people as possible read the irrelevant gathered intelligence, before the accused see a day in court?

How the hell are these people supposed to get a fair trial with all that hanging over their heads.

The activist communities credibility is not what is on the line here, many of the public I have spoken to already recognise the states, and the ruling executives hand in all of this just as easily as they have seen the same with the recent medals heist and the executive stepping in to push the police to pay the ransom for the return of the medals and release a violent criminal out on bail.

It is the belief in justice, and the protection of the justice system from state interference that is on the line here.