Anti-1080 protest leads to arrests in Auckland

Police blocked an offer of anti-1080 protesters to walk through Auckland Harbor Bridge after a confrontation in which two people were arrested.

A "Hikoi from a poisoned nation", whose members say they are traveling all over the country to protest the use of the 1080 pesticide, tried to cross the bridge around noon Saturday.

The leader of the protest, Emile Leaf, drove several hundred people from Takapuna on the North Shore of Auckland.

However, a wall of police thwarted any attempt to cross the bridge, and it is understood that Leaf was one of two people arrested.

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The group is expected to cross the bridge around noon and gather at Onepoto Domain in Northcote, before leaving

At least 40 police blocked the group's exit.

"You refuse our right to protest!" said a protester at a police line.

Inspector Alisse Robertson said the police had to stop the protest because it was dangerous for themselves and the public, they had to cross the bridge

"Their cause does not pose us any problem," Robertson said. "We offered them several options, as did NZTA."

"They walked very well from Takapuna Strand to here without a problem, we gave him the option of walking on the Greenhithe Bridge because it's safer," he said. She said

Robertson stated that the New Zealand transport agency had not received an official request from the group to cross the bridge.

"The group chose to". Ignore this advice and despite numerous attempts by police personnel to consider other options, they refused to negotiate. "

She confirmed that two people had been arrested

Protesters eventually crossed the bridge into cars and vans, although the police stopped some of the vehicles, apparently asking them to remove the signs and flags

– Stuff