Order any meal combination and upsize to a tax-payer funded Public Order Response Officer for free.

Yes, the comments are a joke, but the images are not. We seriously question why the streets around Tecoma were “littered” with Public Order Response Officers. Can a corporation simply pick up the phone and have your tax-payer assets deployed as an effective private security arm?

We understand that police are often deployed for safety, but the NMITDR crowd were well behaved, pleasant and above all respectful of other who were there. That being so the only other reason this “show of force” was used this morning was:

A deliberate attempt to demonise a successful, peaceful & legal protest……..or

Police where concerned about the anti-social “tourist trolls” who lined up to get in.

We need to raise this issue with our politicians. We still have a democratic right to protest, and the police need to protect us, not the corporations who are bleeding tax-payer funded assets.