Christchurch

[101Walterton]

It is a sad day when the Bangladesh cricket team want to go home because they don’t feel safe in New Zealand.

[101Walterton]

forty dead and counting

[Dr. Medulla]

Utterly insane evil. Not a clue how we suffocate the normalization of extremism on all sides.

[101Walterton]

Up to 49 dead and expected to rise.
I was in Christchurch on the weekend staying just across the park from the Mosque I went past it several times 50.5W spent the week in an Air bnb just down the road.

[coffeepotman]

Terrible news to wake up to, and I thought all the racist psychos were in the US

[Low Down Low]

Feel numb watching the coverage, don’t know what to say, it’s just terrible but words never felt more inadequate.

I just watched a bbc panel with George Monbiot, a journalist i particularly admire for his integrity. His take was that maybe we should dial down the coverage rather than ramp it up at times like these. That was all, don’t give them the oxygen of publicity they crave. Never going to happen, of course, but think he does have a point.

[JennyB]

It's so awful. It's incomprehensible. White nationalism is a scourge that needs to be stomped out. Immediately. I'm so sorry your country is going through this, Wally. What makes it even so much sadder is I heard many of the victims were evidently refugees from Syria.

[Flex]

Such a horrible thing. Nowhere is safe from this kind of extremism, sadly.

[Mimi]

Oh my hell, this is awful.

[WestwayKid]

It's sickening.

Several years ago some far-right nut job (as if there is any other kind) shot up a Sikh temple down the road from my office. We're talking about a very quiet suburb of Milwaukee. He killed 6 people before the police took him out.

Waking up to the news from New Zealand today was a shock - despite the fact that this crap seemingly now happens every other week. I'm glad it felt like a shock because I never want it to feel like nothing.

I don't know what it will take - but the world needs to push back against these clowns. They need to be driven out of their homes and out of their communities. We need to drive them back into the sea. There can be no excuses made for this kind of behavior or this kind of thinking.

[101Walterton]

It's so awful. It's incomprehensible. White nationalism is a scourge that needs to be stomped out. Immediately. I'm so sorry your country is going through this, Wally. What makes it even so much sadder is I heard many of the victims were evidently refugees from Syria.

Thanks Jenny and yes many of those murdered were refugees and migrants and came here to be safe.
Yesterday the annual murder rate in New Zealand was achieved in 20 minutes which shows the severity of the devastation in a small country.

[101Walterton]

We were watching the very people we should have been protecting.
There is an in joke in New Zealand about Christchurch being the home of white supremacists due to its predominantly Pakeha population compared to the rest of NZ. Not so funny now.

[JohnS]

Good to hear from you 101w, and I hope you and yours are going ok.
Terrible to learn of this, and to see the story developing and updating....

[101Walterton]

Good to hear from you 101w, and I hope you and yours are going ok.
Terrible to learn of this, and to see the story developing and updating....

Thanks John yes my family is safe sadly not so for many though.
It unfolded late Friday afternoon so no idea yet about all friend’s work colleagues etc..My wife was with a friend from work who knew her cousin and his son would be st the Mosque and she couldn’t get in touch with him. She text late last night he was in C’ch hospital with gunshot wounds to his arm. Thankfully the son wasn’t there.

[Dr. Medulla]

She told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age that these lobbyists typically directed massive amounts of material that appeared to be sourced directly from the US National Rifle Association to her office and those of other MPs.

"They talked about how we were trying to take away their Second Amendment rights to own guns. We don’t have a right to bear arms. To own a gun in New Zealand is absolutely a privilege and not a right," she said.

Wait, New Zealand isn't subject to the US Constitution?

https://www.smh.com.au/world/oceania/bu ... 516hw.html