Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern meets with Canterbury District Commander John Price at Masjid Al Noor in Christchurch. Photo / Reuters
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern meets with Canterbury District Commander John Price at Masjid Al Noor in Christchurch. Photo / Reuters
His most recent Facebook posts claim gun ownership stops crime, suggest the Christchurch massacre was a Government-organised hoax and painted Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern as a communist tyrant trampling our rights. This is all the work of a Waiuku man who is one of those police have marked as a possible risk after the Christchurch terror attack.
He calls himself Napoleon Ardern online - a mocking of Ardern and an attempt to portray her as a masterful player in a wide conspiracy.
He's not alone in holding views most would find extreme and often disproved by facts. His Facebook connections, and those people's connections, link to dozens and hundreds and possibly thousands of people who share his posts, his views and frustrations.
The Herald wouldn't normally report such extreme views, but the events of March 15 appear to have entrenched such opinions in a sector of our community and led to an expansion of efforts to promote them through the internet.
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It's the voice of the disenfranchised, says one expert in psychology and conspiracy theories, and their search for big answers can be linked to the feeling their place in our world is slipping from beneath their feet.
Napoleon Ardern was tracked down by the Herald after he posted a video showing police visiting his home wanting to speak to him in connection to the mosque attacks which left 51 people dead.
When the Herald asked police about people being targeted based on social media posts, we were told officers would visit people showing "concerning behaviour" and it was necessary for "community safety".
Sources have told the Herald the visits to social media users, and others nominated through tip lines or whose firearms purchases have raised concern, are a scramble to fill the intelligence void through which the alleged killer may have passed.
For those who already believe the state is engaged in excessive scrutiny, such visits are confirmation the New Zealand they love is under attack - and that the terrorist is our democratically elected Government.
Police officer Angie Keen guarding the women's entry to Al Noor Mosque, Christchurch, last month. Photo / Janneth Gil
Napoleon Ardern is one of those. He is 49, Pākehā, with a marriage break-up in his recent past. He's a small business owner with health issues which forced a surgery and a recovery which began about the time the Christchurch attacks took place.
It wasn't the trigger for his views, though. "I've been paying attention to politics for 36-37 years," he says. "I've been paying attention."
Others aren't, he reckons, and that's why the general public don't see those issues which are so clear to him and others.
Terrorism, for example, starts at the top. Take the visit to New Zealand last year of Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux.
The pair are widely viewed as far-right speakers with a strong following among those opposing mixed cultures, immigration and promoting the disintegration of central governing systems. Their views are widely decried by the left, distant from centrist political views and often estranged from facts.
Their visit to New Zealand last year led to strong opposition and protests, with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern describing the country as "hostile" to their views. Molyneaux and Southern did not speak after the owner of the intended venue cancelled their booking.
Napoleon Ardern points to Jacinda Ardern's comments and links them to a bomb threat later made against the venue. "It led to civilians being intimidated - an evening of political views being cancelled.
"In my view, that was a terrorist act which stopped an event. She went on national television and she stated to the public she endorsed that kind of behaviour and emboldened those people."
Prince William visits victims of the Christchurch mosque shootings. Photo / Supplied
It's a view held by many others in his circle - the evidence is there on Facebook. His anger at Ardern is a constant, although it is not expressed angrily. Napoleon speaks calmly, ordering those markers he sees as facts to build a case against Ardern, what he believes her true politics to be and what the Government is doing to make it happen.
"I've expressed questions about what happened in Christchurch," he says. "People were killed - I'm not trying to minimise that at all. I'm so shocked and disgusted it was allowed to happen."
Allowed to happen? Napoleon insists, and describes how Ardern was on the select committee which didn't tighten firearms ownership. This was the select committee in 2017 when National was in Government and then-deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett adopted seven of 20 recommendations for change.
By his construction - and that of other people - this was Ardern creating a path which made firearms available and in doing so, laying the ground for the Christchurch attack. This lends itself to the "false flag" school of theories, in which the Government is said to be behind terror attacks so as to bring in widespread social change.
"You're probably going to say, 'this guy's a conspiracy theorist'. It's only a conspiracy theory until it's proved true."
Napoleon voted New Zealand First, having lost faith with Labour and National over the years his small business failed to grow the way he hoped. His vote for Winston Peters was a vote for someone who spoke for a minority which felt increasingly disempowered.
He talks of being assailed on all sides and successive Governments not providing the opportunities he had wanted in life. The 2009 job summit, initiated by then Prime Minister John Key, was a moment of hope with staffing in his business under pressure.
"I thought, 'maybe they'll come up with some ideas to keep these guys employed'. F***ing rail trail.
"National and Labour have had their chance."
Work has been difficult with back pain needing surgery, life difficult sorting out childcare and a visit from police after what he describes as a false report he threatened family violence, made by his in-laws.
Police officers who doorknocked a Waiuku man on a "persons of interest" list leave after not wanting to be filmed. Photo / Supplied
It's a fraught area which encourages intense emotions and was followed by his belief police misrepresented his views after the "family violence" visit.
So when police came to visit on May 5, at 10am on a Sunday, he started recording.
"I'm just aware how things can be manipulated. People want to be friendly to police officers because you respect police officers - well, I do - but I think people should keep a record."
Napoleon, who sees himself as a law-abiding and solid member of the community, went out to meet the two officers and asked how he could help.
One of the pair, who was armed with a pistol, said: "The reason we're here is down to the recent events in Christchurch with the shooting there. Based on that there are a number of people who have been identified that we have been tasked to go and speak to."
Let's have that conversation, said Napoleon. Not while you're recording, responds the officer. And so they left, and Napoleon returned indoors to upload the video of the visit to social media.
So far, more than 61,000 people have viewed the video. The comments below question why police would visit, and what they would have to say which can't be recorded.
The recording and refusal to speak appear to confirm views held by some that the police are engaged in untoward activity, from suppressing free speech to acting as overbearing agents of the state.
"Ideas are bulletproof," says Napoleon. "They don't want these ideas on camera and out on the internet where they spread.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at the Linwood Islamic Centre on this month in Christchurch. Photo / Getty Images
"Here I am commenting on a possible false flag and the hammer they have used to censor information."
Napoleon fights back online. He's created a couple of memes - an image of someone urinating on NZ First's grave while a symbolic New Zealand burns in the background.
There's another of Jacinda Ardern made to look like a monster. It's his "UN tax hag" meme, because the United Nations is wanting a world Government and Ardern is - he says - leading New Zealand unwittingly under its control.
Maybe, he says, that's why the police knocked on his door. "If you're able to brand a person like that and get some reach on social media, maybe that's what they don't like.
"Maybe if you say things they don't like against the 'anointed one' then you'll get a visit from armed police."
Police are uncompromising about the visits. A spokesman said: "These visits are carried out as a result of police receiving information about concerning behaviour.
"Some visits result in police being satisfied that there is no risk to the public, and that is the end of the matter. Some may require further interventions, such as seizing firearms or arrests. This is normal policing and what the public rightly expects."
A Victoria University of Wellington professor of psychology, Marc Wilson, said it was understandable police would be visiting people who put forward views most would consider extreme.
Wilson said research showed those espousing views which most would classify as "conspiracy theories" were people who felt disenfranchised from the rest of society.
They would be people who would see society "trending upwards" and away from a "halcyon past which they would like to revisit".
"A whole bunch of things happen which are outside of their control. That's an uncomfortable position to be in."
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern with members of the Muslim community following the mass shooting in Christchurch. Photo / SNPA
There's a feeling of loss, Wilson says, for which people need explanation. "We cast around to try and find things to try help us manage that kind of anxiety."
Bad things happen and we seek explanations.
"If it's a big thing, we don't want small causes. We want big, powerful causes."
So events such as the Christchurch attacks, or the September 11 attacks in the United States, have people reaching for extraordinary explanations.
Wilson says there is also an inherent human characteristic to form views - a bias - as part of functioning in any given day. When people go seeking answers, they tend to allow their views to be reinforced through "confirmation bias" - trusting information which supports beliefs they already believe to be true.
Also, says Wilson, conspiracies do actually happen. They don't always happen but there have been occurrences - US inaction despite foreknowledge there would be an attack on Pearl Harbour - which tell people such could happen again.
People want to feel comfortable, he says. We look in the mirror and want to feel at ease with the person who looks back.
"When there's a challenge, we try to resolve that challenge by filling the gap."
It's possible police visits could further entrench those views among those who are targeted. These people who feel disenfranchised and isolated from society will likely feel more so when police knock on their door.
Wilson: "People who are currently feeling like they are the target of inequity or unfairness are more likely to endorse conspiracy theories."
New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties chairman Thomas Beagle said questions around freedom of speech were shifting in a modern age in which mainstream media was set against the power of the internet and ability to self-publish.
He said it had led to a recognition of boundaries which stemmed from questioning the purpose of freedom of speech.
It did not mean unfettered speech but instead speech which would "enable a democratic society where people can live up to their potential".
Before the internet, speech which infringed on the ability of others to live their lives or reach their potential was moderated by the outlets available and the reach those had. Mainstream media tended to act as a ballast for speech in society, reflecting views which were broadly acceptable to most people living in it.
Outside that, discordant views were there but constrained by the reach of the publications through which they would be voiced.
Now, though, everyone is potentially a publisher. Extremist views can pick up considerable support on the internet. Those with such views can present them towards specific individuals and communities in ways which silence contrasting views.
"[The Christchurch shooter] was the outcome of one of those more extreme communities."
Beagle says the issue is far from resolved but it should include an acknowledgement of media as a public good.
