Thomas Mair's Kiwi supporters

When I joined an Auckland group formed to protest George Bush's wars in the Middle East back at the end of 2001, I quickly found myself in the company of police officers. A uniformed cop came to the inaugural meeting of the Anti-Imperialist Coalition; plains clothes cops turned up regularly to protest marches and pickets. We could spot the chaps in plain clothes easily: their hastily acquired op shop jackets and pants were betrayed by black polished boots.

The police were taking an interest in the anti-war protests in other cities, too: in Christchurch, for instance, they paid a fantasist named Rob Gilchrist to act as a full-time spy and incompetent agent provocateur inside the movement.

I thought then, and still think now, that the police should be far more interested in the far right of the political spectrum than in left-wingers who protest against bombing the Third World. Like Anders Breivik rampage five years ago, the murder of British MP Jo Cox shows that neo-Nazis pose a real and present danger to the West. Cox's killer Thomas Mair had links with British and American fascist organisations, and he has won support from some New Zealand fascists.

As Pete George shows, the Crusader Rabbit website has hosted numerous comments praising the assassination of Cox, as well as calls for the slaying of New Zealand politicians. Crusader Rabbit's denizens were also big fans of Anders Breivik in 2011.

Are the Kiwi police paying attention?

[Posted by Scott Hamilton]