A screenshot from the video posted by Destiny Church after the event was disrupted. Photo: Screenshot / Facebook
Protesters linked to Destiny Church, who stormed a children's event being hosted by a drag king, crossed the line with aggressive and violent behaviour, say police.
The event on Saturday was part of Auckland's pride festival, but was cancelled after about 50 protesters pushed their way into Te Atatū library and refused to leave.
About 30 adults and young children were forced to lock themselves in a room. The family event featured a Drag King talking to the kids about the science of rainbows.
Acting District Commander for Waitemata Inspector Simon Walker told Checkpoint the actions of the protesters were unacceptable and it was not a peaceful protest.
"In my perspective, of course people have a right to protest, but no one has the right to intimidate and use violence against other people."
He said police have received several complaints of assault that they are actively investigating, and he expected there to be further complaints.
"We've been in contact with organisers and we understand that there are more people wanting to come forward to police which we very much encourage."
Children, their parents and staff were there to enjoy the day and were not in danger before the protesters arrived, he said.
"The behaviour was intimidating and unacceptable...(there were) children in that library and no parent would want their young child confronted like that. At the heart of this is the fundamental principle that everyone deserves to be safe and feel safe."
He said police responded to the incident quickly.
"Our front-line staff did a great job responding quickly to their incident and helped resolve the dynamic and emotive situation as safely and quickly as possible."
He said he would not want to speculate whether there were any protagonists who were not present on site but had encouraged the behaviour.
"We will investigate thoroughly this entire incident and what we find in the investigation will lead us to a conclusion."
Police will be working with complainants and gathering evidence during the investigation, he said.
"I would encourage any other people that believe they were subjected to warrant behaviour to make a report at the nearest police station or online."
He said police's focus was on peoples' safety.
"I know there will be some people in the community who are anxious after Saturdays events and that's understandable.
"We will continue working with organisers to ensure everyone's safety going forward. I'm aware that Pride month is an important event in the rainbow communities and we will be working hard to ensure everyone's safe."
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon condemned Destiny's behaviour, and said protestors had crossed a line.
"That's not the Kiwi way, when you're intimidating public officials and public facilities, that's not the way we expect things to be in this country."
A change.org petition calling on Destiny's charitable status was started last March and had reached nearly 60,000 signatures by Monday evening.
Luxon said the government was already looking at the broader issue of charities' tax statuses.
"There's a broader question at play, which we've said that we would look at in due course, around the register of charities and their charitable status, and therefore their tax treatment as a consequence, and that'll form part of that broader piece at work."
In December, the Finance Minister Nicola Willis said the "could be tweaks" to the charity tax regime announced at the Budget.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins said he was open to having conversations around the matter.
"Overall what I'd say is Brian Tamaki and his thugs need to back off. We have free speech in New Zealand, we have free association in New Zealand, people should be free to be who they are in New Zealand and I don't think they should have to put up with the thuggish behaviour we saw from Brian Tamaki and his mob over the weekend," he said.
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