Pothole dispute ends in Nazi slur
A flyer calling for Anzacs to rise against a German born South Waikato District councillor has been condemned by the New Zealand Human Rights Commission.
It comes after Tı¯rau resident Richard Sivell sent several threatening text messages to Councillor Peter Schulte and distributed a ‘‘Warning Anzacs’’ flyer around the town labelling him a ‘‘Nazi immigrant’’ who must be deported.
It follows a dispute over who’s responsible for repairing potholes in the shared driveway where Sivell lives with his brother. Schulte, who was approached by Sivell about the issue, claims council staff have confirmed its private property and therefore not its responsibility, while Sivell maintains a Land Information Memorandum (LIM) confirms it is and has threatened to stop paying rates until it’s fixed.
After being told by Schulte that failure to pay rates could see the council getting a court order to on-sell the property, Sivell fired back claiming Schulte is ‘‘threatening an Anzac patriot, law-abiding, landowner with taking his land off him and selling it’’.
A text sent from Sivell to Schulte states ‘‘I’m coming for you Peter, this is not Nazi Germany, we are Anzacs, watch the wrath of God fall upon you’’.
Schulte, who fled the oppression of East Germany in the 1980s, has laid a formal complaint with police. He said the threats and distribution of the flyer were ‘‘sickening’’ and reeked of racism.
‘‘I feel racially vilified and this should not be tolerated in New Zealand. This is not what New Zealand stands for and I feel very, very sad that this sort of thing is still happening in 2020,’’ he said.
‘‘The worst bit for me about the flyer is him saying ‘when did Nazi immigrants have the right to threaten Anzacs?’
‘‘It’s absolutely disgusting because to me the Nazis started two wars and they are responsible for millions of deaths, they killed six million Jews’’.
Fighting back tears, Schulte said Sivell’s conduct was deeply disturbing.
‘‘Neither my grandfather nor my father fought in WWII but I did grow up under the communist system and when I think about how life was back then it still makes me really sad,’’ he said.
‘‘Out of 20 million people there were 2 million spies, you couldn’t trust anybody. I think Richard should read up on history and educate himself on the meaning of what he has actually said.’’
But when contacted by Sivell refused to acknowledge any wrongdoing.
‘‘When [Schulte] first got involved [with the council] I thought this German guy, this Kraut, he sounds all right and he might be a force for good on the local council... unfortunately that is not the case,’’ he said.
‘‘I told him I am going to come for you Peter and I have already done a little bit of a letterbox drop in Tı¯rau letting people know.
‘‘I said to him ‘who the **** are you mate, you are not even a New Zealander?’ I am going for him.’’
He laughed at the suggestion that his conduct was racism.
‘‘How can I be racist, he is white like me, how can I be racist to another white guy?’’ he said. ‘‘I can say what I want. I will go for these guys.’’
Mayor Jenny Shattock supported Schulte and said the council won’t tolerate racism or any kind of discrimination.
‘‘Elected members can find themselves in the firing line of disgruntled ratepayers by the very nature of the roles they hold. This does not give people the right to make personal attacks on our elected members,’’ she said. ‘‘The council stands with Councillor Schulte over this incident.’’
A spokesperson from the Human Rights Commission confirmed the conduct was in breach of the Human Rights Act.
‘‘The racial disharmony provisions of the Human Rights Act provide that it is unlawful for any person to distribute written matter which is threatening, abusive or insulting, racially harass and that is likely to excite hostility against or bring into contempt any group of persons on the grounds of their colour, race, ethnic or national origins,’’ they said.
‘‘The Act also provides that it is unlawful to racially harass another person by using written or spoken language that expresses hostility against them or is designed to bring them into contempt or ridicule on the grounds of their race, ethnic or national origin and that is offensive or hurtful to them and that causes them detriment in the areas of public life covered by the legislation’’.
Schulte was advised to contact the commission.
‘‘I feel racially vilified and this should not be tolerated in New Zealand’’ Councillor Peter Schulte