The Herald reports:
During that time, Chambers took a lead role marshalling the troops during the Covid-19 pandemic, and was later put in charge of the operation to remove the vaccine mandate protesters occupying the Parliament precinct in early 2022.
The stand-off ended with a mass eviction on March 22, 2022, which descended into a remarkable scene in New Zealand: a riot with police officers being attacked with makeshift weapons like cobblestones, and returning fire with sponge rounds, while protesters set fire to the grounds.
“It was really, really tough,” Chambers said. “The whole issue around Covid mandates had divided the country. New Zealand Police reflects the community so within our own ranks we had different views on what we should and shouldn’t do,” Chambers said.
“But as police officers, we’ve got a job to do. Everyone put aside their personal views and got on with the job. I was so proud of everyone.”
In the fortnight leading up to that watershed moment, Chambers would leave the confines of Police National Headquarters and head down Molesworth St to walk around the occupied grounds of Parliament each day.
He spoke with staff to canvas their thoughts, but also to get a visceral sense of what it felt like on the ground.
“No doubt it was a tense environment. We hadn’t seen this kind of division since the Springbok Tour in 1981,” Chambers said.
“But the vast majority of the people at the protest were there for the right reasons. They were good people, it was only a small few that came with a different purpose in mind.
Nice to have the new Commissioner say this. As someone who visited it, and actually had my staff do a poll of participants who were there, I agree with the Commissioner. It’s a shame that Government Ministers called them scum, rather than acknowledging this.
Of course those who violently resisted eviction were not good people, but again they were a small minority.
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