Trains carrying coal were stopped from leaving the Dunedin Railway Station when Extinction Rebellion protesters gathered on train tracks on both Wednesday and Thursday mornings.
No formal action was taken against the activists, although police criticised them for putting themselves, and the train drivers, in danger.
One of the protesters who took to the tracks this week was 16-year-old Liam Scaife.
He said while protesters at other events, such as the School Strike 4 Climate marches, would work alongside police, Extinction Rebellion was more about non-violent direct action.
That meant it was supposed to be disruptive, and in many cases, illegal.
At past similar train track protests where more people were involved, someone would ring KiwiRail’s emergency number to alert them when protesters moved on to the tracks, he said.
That did not happen this week, but the assumption was always that the driver would see them, he said.
He took issue with police concerns about teenagers being encouraged to put themselves in danger, saying that insinuated a lack of autonomy.
A police spokeswoman said the role of police was to ensure safety and uphold the law, while also recognising the right to protest.
When police became aware of planned protests, it was common for them to make contact with the parties involved and identify their intentions, obtain information, and ensure protests were carried out in a peaceful manner to ensure the safety of all involved, she said.
Police were not told about the two protests this week.
"In both instances police spoke to the protesters and warned them that if they did not move off the tracks they would be legally trespassed and could face legal action.
"The protesters at that point moved off the tracks and no further action was deemed necessary," she said.
Police responded to behaviour that was a clear criminal offence, she said.
"Protest, even disruptive protest, is not in itself unlawful, but could be in a given circumstance."
Asked at what stage police would take further action against repeat offenders, she said they would have to assess responses if and when that happened.
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So what would have happened if the driver hadn't have seen them and run them over?, no doubt with the justice system as it is the driver would have been charged and nothing would have been done to the remaining 'protestors', besides, fancy using children for your own ends, the supposed 'adults' should be charged.
Why no arrests? They need to be held accountable for their disruption.
My grandparents fought a war and because of the sacrifices they and many others of their generation made I have so far lived a blessed and fortunate life. Our younger and future generations will not be so blessed. A headline today reads, "Climate crisis: our children face wars over food and water, EU deputy warns". The recent reports on the demise of our glaciers has led to warnings of a billion people in Asia being displaced by future water shortages. Many scientists also believe we have started the sixth mass extinction of the planet and with only 4% of all living animals left in the wild it is hard to argue otherwise.
It is easy to scoff at the young protestors on Dunedin train tracks but they believe they are fighting a war, they are fighting for the future of the planet so that they can live without wars in a predictable climate, without food and water shortages. They risk arrest, they risk future job prospects and according to Kiwirail they risk their lives. While the selfish declare that they risk our privileged way of life, economic wealth and national power. Just who do you think are the heros and villains in this story?
"The recent reports on the demise of our glaciers has led to warnings of a billion people in Asia being displaced by future water shortages" I very much doubt our glaciers would figure to those billions in Asia, unless you are talking of those same people we are supplying with bottled water at a pittance.
Our glaciers as in our planet.
"Just who do you think are the heros and villains in this story?"
If Liam and his mates had spent years providing for those they love, working to make our society a better, more peaceful place, I would say he has some social standing to have his concerns heard.
All I see is a young person primed by our education system, media and political types, to condemn the very society that raised him based on a fear of the future that may or may not ever eventuate.
Humanities ability to predict the future has always be fraught by anxiety and hopelessly inaccurate. "The end is nigh" has been a catch call throughout history by those that claim status without comprehending the complexities of existence.
Climate change is NOT fighting to free the world of tyranny, to make it freer for all. It is NOT protesting a senseless, brutal war as with Vietnam. It is NOT demanding the end to the segregation of a population by skin colour. It is NOT the demanding the end to an arms race that WOULD destroy the world many times over.
Liam and his mates need to be learning history, science or business because the solutions are out there; but it must done without destroying society in the process.
When the disruptive protests undertaken by Extinction Rebellion impact on the lives of others, it seems the climate issue takes a back seat. If as the result of climate protest businesses and services are affected, the public are directly inconvenienced, is the climate protestors message successful? Or does it simply compel the wider public to regard their behavior as anti-social, achieving little in the way of climate issue education? Do they in fact do themselves and their organisation more harm than good, looking to the external observer as selfish, anti-establishment anarchists. Do they come across as privileged, middle class antagonists, with a callous disregard for the rights and freedoms of their fellow citizens? What in the end other than public ridicule and media exposure have they actually achieved for the environment? Is the end game lost in the theatrics?
I do not decry protesting about climate change. But, not informing NZ Rail or Police was foolhardy. Trains cannot and do not stop easily; one slip by a protester could very easily have ended in a fatality that the driver would have to carry for the rest life. Luck was on their side, this time.
100% correct Al.