Ryan Bridge: Should we worry about extremism in NZ?

Did you see the cops put out a handy warning for us all yesterday? Hide, tell, escape. The spooks in Wellington reckon extremist violence is a realistically possibility in this country.  Now, they’ve been saying this for some time.  Yesterday you may have got a news alert about this new campaign from police telling you what to do during an armed attack in a crowded place.  You could think, well, maybe they’re just being prepared, and better to know what to do than not. But isn’t there a part of you that also thinks, do they know something specific? Or are they following so many suspected terrorists that they’ve maxed capacity and feel now is the time to inform the last line of defence, or self-defence, us? It’s one of those things —I was thinking about it last night after watching the news— where you wonder if you’re being a bit paranoid or whether it’s so plain and obvious that everyone else assumes the same. On the news we had Luigi Mangione. A young guy who hated insurance companies and assassinated a CEO in cold blood, allegedly. Tyler Robinson was in there. Another young guy with strong views who allegedly took his granddad’s gun to university to shoot and kill a guest speaker. They reckon the risk here remains low but the threat is growing. The most likely scenario would involve a lone actor, radicalised online through dangerous ideology and grievances. The cops say all this is just one click away... Now, given all of this, think carefully about stuff that’s said on social media, about grievances and extreme language, and the need to ‘do something’ about it. A recent survey of business leaders found more were worried about extremism in NZ than interest rates. I think most reasonable Kiwis are, and if not, should be too. The cops' advice this week is an update on similar stuff released after the mosque shootings. You just hope like hell we can figure out a way to talk and reason with one another before something happens as bad, or worse, than that.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.