This article was first published by RNZ. On 19 November, participants gathered at Parliament. A sea of red, white, and black, the crowd filled the forecourt and surrounding streets. But exactly how big became a topic of debate that day, and for days afterwards. Police estimated more than 42, people took part. Why the discrepancy? Large crowds are difficult to count, and the numbers are often politicised, according to experts.
Moses said the footage was shot by a friend in Wellington and he noted the flight complied with Civil Aviation rules. Using Google Maps, Moses drew boundaries around the crowd. After trying machine-learning approaches, he found counting people by hand was more accurate.
The footage provided multiple perspectives of the crowd, from both Waitangi Park and Parliament. The most effective way to count a protest, in his opinion, is to measure its density and how long it takes to pass a certain point. Remember, police estimated a density of 1.
The usual safe crowd density is 2, Cocking told RNZ. The maximum is 4. Protest organisers will always overestimate attendance, and people on the political right or left - whatever ideology is in opposition to the protesters - will underestimate it, he said.
In contrast to the anti-mandate protest at Parliament , where hundreds of people were arrested, just one person was arrested on 19 November. And these words almost never match up with the behaviour on the ground. Historically, these myths have guided policing tactics that sought to tightly control large groups of people for fear of violence. And it just unites people against police. Disorder escalates on both sides.
