Image Credit: MARTY MELVILLE/AFP via Getty Images 
Tow truck drivers and the New Zealand Defense Force ignored pleas from the nation’s top law enforcement officer begging for someone to help move vehicles from an anti-vaccine mandate protest taking place outside Parliament.
NEW ZEALAND: The police commissioner made a plea for tow truck companies to move the convoy for freedom vehicles the tow companies did not respond to the plea nor did the military when asked. pic.twitter.com/f7Npz7HsK3
— Apex World News (@apexworldnews) February 15, 2022
On Tuesday, Police Commissioner Andrew Coster said he’d ensure tow truck drivers are protected by police if they were to help clear the area.
But speaking to RNZ.co.nz, the owner of one tow company, Greg Cox, said “towies” are refusing the order because they stand with protesters.
“There’s all different reasons being put forward, but the reason that the majority of my colleagues don’t want to put their tow trucks out there is because they are sympathetic to what’s going on in Parliament,” he said.
“From the people who’ve rung me, text me, the feeling’s pretty much mutual right through the country. There’s not a business that hasn’t been impacted by mandate, and everybody understands that.”
Cox said tow operators are coming up with inventive excuses not to help with police.
“One of the Wellington operators said how he can’t do it now – ‘We have to isolate,’” Cox described.
Meanwhile, after initially ignoring the police commissioner’s pleas, four Defense Force vehicles arrived in Wellington on Wednesday and are reportedly on standby for the moment, as no vehicles have yet been towed.