Four people were arrested in Wellington; three of those were friends of mine – people I loved. They didn’t get bail; they went into the prison industrial complex. ((Being remanded in custody is much rarer NZ than America, and there is no such thing as money bail, so you never have to put up a bond)) Suddenly prisons stopped being an abstract concept to me, and became a reality that I attempted to navigate while trying to visit the prisoners and get them books and money.<\/p>\n
But we didn’t, couldn’t, just do prisoner support, we also needed to stand in solidarity of people who had been attacked, particularly T\u016bhoe, the iwi ((tribe)) that had been targeted in these raids. The four weeks that followed was prisons and driving and meetings and court and protests and meetings and supporting each other and meetings and prisons and court and driving and hugs and tears and and anger and love.<\/p>\n
At 4pm, Thursday 8 November almost four weeks after people had been arrested, the Solicitor General announced that no-one would be charged under the terrorism suppression act (these were the first charges ever attempted by the police under the Terrorism Suppression Act). The following day all my friends got bail, and all 16 defendents are now free<\/p>\n
I don’t think I could describe the sustained joy that started at 4.01 and continued for a week. They were released eleven days ago and I’m smiling right now, because they’re out and I can see them whenever I want.<\/p>\n
It’s joy and a respite, but we’ve got so much work to do. All 16 are still facing charges under the Arms Act. The Terrorism Suppression Act – which allowed extensive bugging, has just been strengthened. While our friends are out of prisons, those vile instituations still stand, with far too many trapped inside. ((Please hold the inevitable ‘what about the rapists and murderers’ comments until I write a proper post about this and have time to reply)) I still live in a colonised country, where demands for Tino Rangatiratanga and Mana Motuhake ((I’m not going to try and translate – but I think land and freedom best conveys the meaning)) are ignored.<\/p>\n
I couldn’t write much. I was in too much of a whirlwind to know what to say. I’m looking forward to writing more regularly, but what’s happened over the last 6 weeks has affected me, and will affect what I write.<\/p>\n I’ve been promising to write more about feminism in prisons for a while now. While my analysis hasn’t changed much, your understanding changes as issues stop being abstract and distanced and become part of your reality, and the reality of those you love. So I imagine those posts will take a slightly different form than they might have two months ago, but will probably be stronger because of it. Most importantly, in the next few days (or weeks) I hope to write an introductory post that’ll cover some of the very basic history of colonialism in NZ, and Maori resistance, that I can use a reference point if I want to write more on Alas. I’ve generally avoided cross-posting what little I do write on Alas, but I think writing about colonialism where I live has resonances beyond, so that I should do the background work to make what I write intelligible.<\/p>\n I can answer questions if people have any, it can be hard to write about what’s going on here for another audience, but I think it’s worth doing.<\/p>\n Updated<\/b> I realised I didn’t do any sort of explanation of the charges under the Arms Act. 16 of those arrested were charged under the Arms Act. These charges related to events that the police claim happened in the Urewera Mountains. Almost all the charges are joint charges – so 16 people are charged with co-possessing a rifle, or whatever. ((I’m the worst person in the world to try and explain this, because my knowledge of guns is so supremely limited that )) Most defendents are facing several charges under the arms act – the weapons they were alleged to possess were not found on their property during the raids. Just two people have additional charges – in relation to four guns the police claim to have found during the raids.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On October 15 the police raided over 60 houses throughout New Zealand. They arrested 16 people on jointly possessing a number of firearms, and one person on drugs charges. From the very first day the police were talking about charges … Continue reading 
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