Good cause, but what of rules?

You can buy doormats bearing the printed words Bend the Knee. Clearly some manufacturer saw an opportunity to invoke the imperious instruction issued in the Game of Thrones series. The words demand a gesture of submission and fealty. But intended meanings can easily be lost, nowadays especially. The very image of a bent knee had earlier gained a different sort of notoriety or glamour, depending on your viewpoint, when some US football players chose to take a knee rather than stand to attention during the national anthem. Their message was far from subservient. It was one of protest to call attention to issues of racial inequality and police brutality.

Now we have a new, ghastly, association for the bent-knee imagery.

The death in the US of George Floyd, whose repeated pleas that he couldn’t breathe drew no reaction from the policeman kneeling on his throat, and were caught in piteous, sickening footage, has led to demonstrations in the US, the core validity of which has been at least partially subverted by destructiveness and scenes of violent conflict.

In that respect, those who demonstrated in New Zealand got a lot right – our events were essentially free from vandalism and force, resonant with empathy, and legitimately challenged the wider population to look squarely at how diligent we have been to ensure our own law enforcement practices are more disciplined.

But here we have yet another knee problem – the way authorities genuflected to the protests even though the Auckland one, in particular, flouted alert level 2 rules for mass gatherings and social distancing. And did so without correction or consequence. Why did that happen? Perhaps it reflected a sanctification of the sentiments and acceptance of a spurious view that there was no alternative to protests of this scale. Unlike, say, Anzac Day 2020.

Or perhaps for reasons of perceived practicality involving something less than rock-solid confidence in the legal enforceability of the level 2 rules. Or an acute reluctance to generate ugly protest-confronting footage on our own shores. In any case, the upshot was that some pretty important rules were studiously disregarded in ways that will rightly strike the wider population as a massive double standard.

We shouldn’t kid ourselves that it was only protesters who have been flouting the rules of late. Good luck spotting social distancing in our tourist hotspots or weekend markets. If anything, face masks were more reliably evident at the protests than elsewhere at the weekend. Their benefits are limited in any case, and Kiwi microbiologist Dr Siouxsie Wiles is right to point out that crowds shouting and singing are the perfect combination for allowing Covid-19 to spread.

The public will understandably balance this truth with the ever-improving figures from the Covid-tracking national updates. Roll on the day that we come down to alert level 1. But it needs to be for the right reasons, and that requires an alloy of practical health and economic thinking, infused by an awareness of how high the stakes remain. As distinct from authorities joining the public in, at best, an on-again, off-again diligence in sticking to the rules that are in place.

Right now, failing a really strong message from our politicians and police, it seems likely wider public adherence to the level 2 rules will not improve, and only the likes of indoor facilities such as bars and restaurants will abide by them. That would be ridiculous.

We shouldn’t kid ourselves that it was only protesters who have been flouting the rules of late.