Barry Soper: The days when people knew how to protest

About a dozen anti-TPP protesters greeted Minister Paula Bennett as she arrived for a meeting in Whanganui this morning in March last year. Photo / NZME.

Those were the days when people knew how to protest. Impeding the progress of ministerial limousines was common practice in anti Government rallies.

The most celebrated case was back in 1991 when today's prominent barrister, who continues to fight the establishment, Felix Geiringer laid down in front of the then Finance Minister Bill Birch's limmo at a protest in Dunedin and was dragged from beneath the car by the heavy police contingent.

Geiringer suffered a few cracked ribs and bruising and was charged with disorderly behaviour. He unsuccessfully appealed to the High Court against his conviction, pleading his right to freedom of expression.

Wind the clock forward to around this time last year and the pathetic protest in Wanganui against the Trans Pacific Partnership when a couple of middle aged women got in front of local MP Chester Borrows car. Parliament's deputy Speaker was behind the wheel himself and sitting alongside him was the now Police Minister Paula Bennett.

They were leaving a breakfast engagement at a motor inn and the handful of protesters hurled abuse, saying they looked like monkeys. A video, which has been posted online, shows clearly what unfolded. A few of them got in front of Borrows' car and were escorted out of the way by the constabulary.

A couple who lingered were nudged by the car travelling at a snail's pace and one claims her foot was run over and her knee was damaged, even though she managed to walk away.

The episode incredibly has its sequel in a Wanganui Court today. No the women haven't been charged, like Geiringer was. The charge, which will be heard by a Judge alone, is careless driving causing injury and has been laid against, former policeman Borrows.

It's difficult to fathom why the police have wasted time and considerable taxpayers' money in laying and prosecuting the charge, given the pressures on policing these days.

Surely that's what will be running through the mind of their new political boss and Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as she takes the stand tomorrow, that's providing the case isn't thrown out before then, as it should be.