A Star is Born

New Zealand’s Chantelle Baker - Reporter

[Edit at article’s end]
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By Olivia Pierson

Chantelle Baker is not a stranger to me.  During this insane time of Covid hysteria this bright young woman stepped up as a smart, grass roots, independent citizen-journalist worth her salt. 

After delivering us full livestream coverage of the NZ Convoy Protest outside our parliament which is into its fifth day, Chantelle is fast becoming a national treasure.  

Not only does she manage to cover the historic events happening in this country in real time, she does so in a manner which is highly true to herself; she’s thoughtful, curious, compassionate and finely focused - all in what comes across as a natural, sensible easy stride.  When her heart breaks for this country, she speaks in tears and says so.  When she’s horrified at the police brutality happening in front of her eyes, she cries out for them to stop.

Ms. Baker just gave New Zealand’s Facebook users a concrete lesson in how irrelevant our cabal of self-important media shows are  - because our politicians choose to ignore the NZ Convoy for Freedom 2022, they also give our media permission to treat a large population of this nation as second-class citizens by just belittling them.  They think they owe us nothing. 

But they do. They owe us transparency. They owe us representation.

​When We the People gather outside parliament and cry out for a redress of grievances, our government and fourth estate owe us the courtesy of actively hearing that sincere objection. 

Instead they mock us.  

Maybe we have lucked in. The more our countrymen & women are ignored in this hostile-to-democracy trend, the more Kiwis witness it  and true patriots such as Chantelle are called to sally forth. Folks like this will not lie down and be silent as the destruction of their beloved country takes place and neither will I.

This is the first live feed from this morning starting early when police surged in:

We all have a legal right to peacefully protest in the grounds of our parliament.  Police ought not to be arresting anybody for such a thing - and they know it.
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They used thuggish tactics which became brutal, as evidenced by this clip:
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Police making one of the many arrests at parliament. pic.twitter.com/8amBwlrMFc

— Barry Soper (@barrysoper) February 10, 2022

And this: 

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Since when is pulling people out by their hair ok? pic.twitter.com/g08SMf49K9

— □□□□UNFILTERED□□□□ (@LivnUndaATyrant) February 9, 2022

These disgusting acts of violence from the police toward peaceful citizens are now going around the world, and Chantelle mentions during the coverage that American super-star podcaster, Joe Rogan, made contact to ask for folks to send footage about what is happening in New Zealand.  Rogan is no fan of our current Prime minister and he’s highly aware that our MSM is nothing but a propaganda machine. 

Follow Chantelle’s afternoon coverage right through to the end where the police stand down and retreat (not that I’d trust it for a second given who they’re answerable to).

Our people held their ground all day in the face of hot weather and ghastly police tactics (government-orders). They were designed to incite aggression in order to provoke peaceful citizens, who have been denied access to ANY representation, to lash out.  That did not happen. The protesters remained peaceful and respectful, practising non-violent resistance.

Many folks are now on their way to Wellington in support of those holding the line up until now. Many others held vigils all over NZ in pop up protests outside police stations in their local communities in pure solidarity with those protesting for us in the Capital.

Thank whatever gods may be that we have an on-the-ground journalist with integrity and brains to show us the truth about momentous events shaping our country, like Chantelle Baker, who has proven she is worth her weight in gold. 

A toast to this wonderful young woman and fellow NZ patriot!


[*Edit 12/02/2022: for the sake of clarity Chantelle did not say that Joe Rogan had made contact *with her* but with the protest. I’ve asked @ConvoyNZ2022 for further information on this.]