Mayor receives abuse, threats over statue
Hamilton Mayor Paula Southgate has been hit with abuse following the removal of the city’s Captain Hamilton statue – including a veiled threat of lynching.
Staff inside the mayor’s office have been fielding a wave of abusive phone calls and emails as debate intensifies over how the city acknowledges its colonial past.
On one occasion, Southgate had to be escorted to her car following a late-night meeting after an agitated posse arrived at the council’s offices demanding to see her.
The revelations come as elected members meet today to discuss what to do with the Captain Hamilton statue.
The bronze statue was hurriedly removed from Hamilton’s Civic Square on June 12 following threats by Huntly kauma¯ tua Taitimu Maipi to tear down the life-size monument during a weekend Black Lives Matter march.
Maipi attacked the statue in 2018, arguing the British navy commander was a murderer whose deeds shouldn’t be celebrated.
Southgate said it was time the city had a brave and honest discussion about its past but admits she has been sworn at more in the past week than during her entire 20-year-plus political career.
‘‘You’d have to be super human for it not to touch you at all, to cross your mind, but I refuse to be anxious or live in fear because I genuinely believe most people are good people,’’ she said.
Emails seen by Stuff reveal the vitriol aimed at Southgate following the statue’s removal.
In one email, the mayor is accused of endangering the safety of ‘‘white people’’ by appeasing Maipi, while another writer labels Southgate a ‘‘spineless joke’’ and calls on her to resign.
Among the more disturbing correspondence, a writer informs Southgate she is hell-bound and concludes: ‘‘Enjoy it when all cultures will give you rope around your neck.’’
‘‘It’s definitely a reference to lynching,’’ Southgate said.
Security would be available for today’s community committee meeting.
Southgate has also become more mindful of her own safety and no longer walks to late-night meetings.