Since CERA occupied Christchurch CBD for over two years in the NZDF-cordoned red-zoned-CBD with NZDF-checkpoints banning citizens, CERA did little rebuilding. CBD businesses relocated to suburbs, where more clubbing & nightlife happened in Addington, Merivale, Riccarton.
Friday night, cold wet, rainy: After dropping Luke off at Riccarton Mall, I was ambushed by light-flashing cops between bends on Kahu Rd near Christchurch Boys High School. A cop wearing powder blue shirt & navy blue, bullet-proof vest & longs checked my breath for alcohol. None. He checked my Toyota Corolla licence & WOF sticker on the windscreen. No problems.
Saturday night, Aikmans Rd, Merivale, cold, wet, rainy: After driving Jake from his Brewers Arms work, past Merivale Mall, I was stopped by a light-flashing cop. Constable S also wore a powder blue shirt, navy blue, bullet-proof vest & longs. Twas the night ABs thrashed Les Bleus 30-0. Pub boozers stood on the footpath near Aikmans Rd corner while watching the test on a big screen TV. Several taxis congested the road waiting for pissed patrons.
Twas the area where a Black Caps cricketer was recently mugged. After I passed that lot, constable S flashed his car lights, harassing me on a driveway. Never mind my parked car stopping owners leaving their home for about five minutes!
Constable S: "Have you got ID? Your licence? Your tail light isn't working." Constable S checked my breath for alcohol. None.
Me: "No my licence is at home." Leah gave constable S her licence.
Constable S took Leah's licence to his car in the rain, taking his time in his car sorting out a ticket: He handed me an INFRINGEMENT NOTICE. Offence: Operating Vehicle Not Up To Warrant Of Fitness Standard. Infringement Fee Payable $150.
15.06.13. NZ Police Infringement Notice, Toyota Corolla
Constable S was confused by L plates on my windscreens, as Luke had a learner's licence & I gave him driving lessons.
When I went for WOFs, light bulbs were often replaced, as Christchurch's quaked roads were potholed. I didn't check constable S's allegation, as it was raining!
I drove Jake to his Albemarle St apartment, where we found that all my car's lights worked!. I drove home to Burnside, looking for cops en route to verify that my car lights worked. Not a cop in sight when you need them.
Back home Leah phoned Central Police, St Asaph St, as we wanted a cop to verify my car lights worked, so I could appeal the ticket. A phone cop advised we couldn't go to nearby Papanui cop shop as it was closed on a Saturday night!
After midnight, I drove to Central Police, St Asaph St. The front door was locked! Leah didn't know Central Police had relocated from Hereford St to the temporary St Asaph St location. I passed it daily while driving Luke to work via Antigua St cop-shop's entrance.
At an after-hours office, Leah spoke to muscley sergeant H, who also wore powder blue shirt, navy blue bullet-proof vest & longs. Sergeant H spoke from behind a thick, bullet-proof glass-window while a CCTV camera above our heads watched us. We middle-aged citizens were so dangerous.
Sergeant H inspected my Toyota car lights, finding they all worked. He tried to contact constable S, but failed. Sergeant H said constable S was a "nice guy" & would contact us. (He never did). Sergeant H advised that we must contact Wellington office to appeal the ticket: Send a letter to NZ Police Wellington including: infringement notice; photos showing working lights; sergeant H's note; copy of my Toyota's WOF check. (WOFed two weeks before).
15.06.13. Toyota Corolla, working tail lights
15.06.13. Police note, Christchurch Central Police, St Asaph St
15.06.13. WOF Check Sheet, NZ Transport Authority
I was now guilty of a crime I hadn't committed & must prove my innocence to Wellington bureaucrats! Surely Christchurch cop-shop could've cancelled a ticket it issued? Sergeant H said the cop's job was done after issuing a ticket. Another department (faraway Wellington) received revenues & dealt with appeals. That allowed any malicious cop to issue revenue-harvesting tickets, leaving distant desk-cops to clean his mess. Thus Christchurch cops weren't permitted to resolve their harrassment. BIG BROTHER in Wellington would think for them!
Constable S was intercepting pissed drivers by the Aikmans Rd pub. Several cars passed while constable S harassed us. Were those drivers pissed while constable S fiddled? I kept our two old cars roadworthy, as we used them daily driving around quaked Christchurch. NZ registration plates easily showed old cars like ours to cops, enabling them to target old bombs, as registration lettering for old cars was double letters. Newer cars had three letters.
Constable S didn't roadside-check my Toyota's road-worthiness in the rain, things like tyres, windscreen wipers, hooter, flicker lights, headlights, brake lights, just a tail light while driving behind me. The moment I braked my car before him he would've seen my tail lights & brake lights worked. Constable S expected us to pay $150 fine for our roadworthy Toyota!
Since CERA's post-quake red-zoning of Avon River residential lands, cops used red-zone riverside areas like Horseshoe Lake & Avonhead as battlegrounds for cops & robbers games while disturbing stressed adults & terrifying kids. Never mind nearby green-zoners harassed by BIG BROTHER escapades. Cops justified their fascism as never having real housing in which to practise their cop-drills. And CERA deemed it OK for cops to disrespect its red-zone housing, but deemed it not OK for vagrants, taggers, thieves, arsonists to disrespect red-zone housing!
The Press 18.06.13 reported BIG BROTHER cops still playing war games: three loud explosions disturbed citizens late at night. Citizens endured 13 000 quakes over nearly three years so far, then cops harassed over the last week! No apology from cop minister Anne Tolley.
NZ Arms Act 1983, section 48:
"Discharging firearm, air gun, pistol, or restricted weapon in or near dwelling house or public place.
Every person commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 months or to a fine not exceeding $3 000 or to both who, without reasonable cause, discharges a firearm, air gun, pistol, or restricted weapon in or near -
(a) a dwelling house; or
(b) a public place -
so as to endanger property or endanger, annoy, or frighten any person."
Cop explosives certainly endangered CBD property & endangered, annoyed & frightened many citizens, still emotionally raw from quakes. Those who thought that was the way cops should treat law abiding citizens were idiots. If I wandered about Christchurch's ruined-CBD chucking thunder-flashes willy-nilly, I'd soon have Armed Offenders Squad taking pot-shots. Why were cops above the law in quaking Christchurch?
Post 22 February 2011 Quake, NZ National government had doomed Christchurch CBD to destroyers: NZDF-soldiers, cops, CERA who razed the CBD to wasteland. As NZDF-soldiers were leaving their red-zone-CBD checkpoints & as CERA & cops had turned the CBD into a glorified paintball- zone while cops played war games & artists painted junk-murals, CCDU's Blueprint & CERA's "recovery" was moot.
Kiwis who thought cops were doing roadblocks to test breath alcohol, think again. Cops could soon set up roadblocks to catch "terrorists", like at Urewera. With NZDF-soldiers' support too. Never mind future cop roadblocks during the 2020s Covid pandemic!
During Christchurch quakes, we'd experienced cops & mostly NZDF-soldiers at red-zone cordon-checkpoints for over two years!
Sunday 23.06.13. Mad Max weekend. CERA boasted about opening a third area of its occupied red-zone-CBD between Manchester St & Colombo St & between Hereford St & Tuam St on Friday 21 June. It rained, sleeted & snowed most of the week, so CERA workers didn't remove the SMF-cordons. The CBD area was still closed to the public!
NO VEHICLE ACCESS: All that was opened was a small section for cyclists & pedestrians along Cashel St near the Holiday Inn demolition-site & a big pile of concrete-rubble backside of abandoned All Seasons Hotel on the Hotel Grand Chancellor demolition-site. Across Cashel St, I saw Holiday Inn basement was flooded by rain water, just another basement demolition-site near Colombo St.
23.06.13. NO VEHICLE ACCESS. Orange / white, plastic bollards, yellow truck, orange, Hi-Vis vested workmen. Part reopened Cashel St by abandoned All Seasons Hotel right, Cashel St / Manchester St
23.06.13. Abandoned All seasons Hotel, Cashel St / Manchester St
23.06.13. Orange, Hi-Vis vested workmen, pedestrians, orange digger, yellow crane by a steel mesh fence cordoned rubble heap, Hotel Grand Chancellor demolition site, Cashel St
23.06.13. Flooded Holiday Inn basement, Holiday Inn demolition site, Cashel St / High St
Cashel St: In CERA's Blueprint East Frame, I saw six sots having a winter-solstice street-party between 1-2pm, after breaking & entering Galangal Thai Restaurant in abandoned Development House. The ground-floor glass-window & steel-door wasn't broken when I'd passed that way last weekend. A Maori sot entered the broken-window. About five minutes later he returned, carrying a pillaged cardboard box full of beers. When I took a pic, a fat Maori sot got aggressive. After I went into my pat-on-back, "I'm-deaf. Are-you-having-a-party?" routine they got friendly. I left them to it. Not a cop in sight that Sunday!
23.06.13. Sots boozing looted beer, Cashel St. The looter I witnessed stealing a carton of beer from Galangtal Thai Restaurant was off pic, behind me
Who were the biggest criminals or looters?
(1) Six sots breaking & entering, stealing beers from Galangal Thai Restaurant which was closed for two years in CERA's red-zone-CBD cordon?
(2) Me (or other smiling passersby) for not dobbing in those six sots to lazy cops who'd pissed me off last weekend with a petty harassment fine.
(3) Cops for not walking the beat doing preventative patrols in the week after CERA opened the Blueprint East Frame?
(4) Cops for disturbing the peace with explosions in the CBD last weekend? With CERA's permission of course.
(5) My SA expat, ex friend who told me on Facebook post 22 February 2011 Quake, that Christchurch looters should be shot!
(6) CERA for leaving abandoned buildings uncordoned: Development House with Galangal Thai Restaurant & Insignis House next door. (CERA had passed the buck to owners to protect their properties after CERA's cordon removal).
(7) Galangal Thai Restaurant owners for not cordoning the building, protecting their stock? (Probably already written off by insurers & cash settled).
(8) CERA for making the Blueprint East Frame & condemning buildings therein, including Development House & Insignis House, to low payouts by NZ National government, enabling Raora Park & nearby rebuilds of expensive apartments?
Given that most cordons were down, that NZDF-soldiers were departing CBD-checkpoints, that many people wandered CBD streets on that sunny Sunday, it was obvious that cops were slacking. Not a cop in sight!
Remembering threats from cops & Civil Defence, during States-of-Emergencies post 4 September 2010 Quake & post 22 February 2011 Quake, about arresting "looters" like Ari Voorkamp mugged by soldiers for stealing a light bulb, it was laughable there were no cops on duty in the CBD after cordons dropped. That was open-invitation for taggers, looters, sots & vagrants! Galangal Thai Restaurant wasn't the only abandoned restaurant I saw in the CBD with recently broken-windows. Despite cops & robbers games last week, I found robbers on Cashel St, but no cops!
Friday 28.06.13: It was last day NZDF-soldiers manned red-zone cordon-checkpoints around Christchurch CBD. NZDF-soldiers did cordon duties around Christchurch CBD during the 4 September 2010 Quake's State-of-Emergency. They also did cordon-checkpoint / military occupation duties for over two years post 22 February 2011 Quake. During those quake-times, NZDF-soldiers drove olive LAVs & beige Unimogs & olive troop-carriers around Christchurch's broken CBD to impressing gawping natives.
During June, CERA reduced the CBD cordon-fences & NZDF-checkpoints evaporated. CERA's idea: building-owners must be responsible again for their building's security. It also meant cops had pull-finger!.
Once CBD cordon-fences departed, more vandalism would happen in Christchurch CBD, like tagging, broken windows, looting, arson, vagrancy, as had happened in red-zone residential areas. Cops would be busy chasing vandals & thieves again.
*Trekked Cashel St. 9 images.
Coda:
I received a NZ Police form-letter dated 15.07.11:
Dear Sir / Madam,
INFRINGEMENT NOTICE...
I refer to your correspondence regarding the above infringement notice.
After careful consideration of your comments and the circumstances surrounding the issue of this notice, it has been decided in accordance with the Police Compliance Policy scheme to waive the following offence(s):
Operating Vehicle Not Up To Warrant Of Fitness Standard.
Accordingly, you are no longer required to pay the infringement fee(s).
Yours faithfully
...
Senior Sergeant
Adjudication Manager.
Content & pics Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.
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