Fine for rainbow crossing vandal
Tamaki says act is ‘political protest’ but police say it’s a ‘hate crime’
Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki has described the vandalising of the Karangahape Road rainbow crossing as “a political protest against the excessive rainbow-washing that is occurring across New Zealand”.
On Monday, 31-year-old Auckland man Ford O’Connor pleaded guilty in the Auckland District Court to vandalising the crossing.
O’Connor, who is married to Tamaki’s granddaughter, has agreed to pay $16,093 for the costs of repairing the crossing.
O’Connor was convicted and discharged. Community Magistrate Jan Holmes said she had taken into account O’Connor’s early guilty plea, his significant reparation costs and his clean record.
His lawyer, Steven Lack, had argued that a conviction would have a significant effect on the father of four, who was in fulltime work.
Before O’Connor’s court appearance, Tamaki voiced his “unwavering support” for him.
“As I stated before, Mr O’Connor undertook a political protest against the excessive rainbow-washing that is occurring across New Zealand right now, at the expense of our taxpayers and our ratepayers.
“This rainbow-washing has gone too far. The over-promotion and protection of this perversion is not right.
“The R18 plus content in sexual education in our Relationships and Sex Education [RSE] curriculum in schools has still not been removed, despite election promises from parties like New Zealand First.”
Tamaki also called for the removal of what he called “the rainbow movement’s branding and paraphernalia . . . trying to rainbow-wash our kids”.
“We want officials to defund and remove drag queens’ story times from our schools and our libraries,” he said.
“Ban puberty blockers, remove RSE curriculum in our schools, defund InsideOUT, the organisation targeting our young with rainbow paraphernalia.”
O’Connor made a brief statement outside court: “I’m a father of four children so for me it was about standing up for them, making a stand to protect their innocence.”
Tamaki said his sentencing was a “great outcome” and a “great judgment” by the court.
The Destiny Church head also promised to keep taking action.
“Until officials take notice and put an end to this madness, we will keep protesting in multiple places, in multiple ways across this nation.”
A police statement after the overnight incident on March 28 said they were treating the vandalism as a “hate crime”.
Police said they were aware of the “hurt and confusion” from the community at what occurred and reassured the public they were committed to holding those involved to account.
“Police have no tolerance for reports of this nature, which appear to directly target a particular sector of our diverse community, and we are treating this as a hate crime,” Auckland City Central area commander Inspector Grant Tetzlaff said.
Tamaki earlier said he didn’t know if his members were involved.
The vandalism to the Karangahape Rd crossing came days after members of Destiny Church painted over the rainbow crossing on Gisborne’s main street. The group were protesting a Rainbow Storytime event at the local library, where drag queens read stories to children.
The Gisborne crossing had been repainted, with police expected to bill Destiny Church members for the work. That led several protesters to return to the site, with Tamaki expressing his displeasure at the rainbow’s restoration.
Five protesters were arrested after attempts were made to paint slogans on to the repainted crossing.
Green Party co-leader Chlo¨ e Swarbrick earlier said it was important to “find out what drives an allegedly grown man to get so upset about a rainbow flag”.
“The drive behind this sad and bizarre waste of energy that saw someone paint over a simple symbol of our rainbow community didn’t come from nowhere. This anger and bigotry wasn’t born on our shores, and it doesn’t belong here.”