pay for 'protesters

[SoylentGreen]

Mall campaign pays for 'protesters' | Stuff.co.nz

Students are being paid to protest against Manners Mall being ripped up for bus lanes. ......they are advertising for a "rent-a-crowd" of 30 students who will each be paid $25 ....... An advertisement was placed on Monday with Student Job Search.....You must stay throughout a public meeting regarding the 'revocation of the pedestrian status of Manners Mall'," the ad says. "However, nothing except for presence will be required from you. First in first served. Manners Mall lovers preferred." The only work experience listed as necessary for being a professional student protester is "light labour". Wellington Mayor Kerry Prendergast said hiring protesters showed that the campaign against buses in the mall did not have wide support. She said paying protesters was "outrageous" and showed that opponents of the council's $11.1 million plan "clearly don't have the support of large numbers of Wellingtonians". But Ms van der Meel said paying students to support her protest was not deceitful. "It is the same as GoWellington putting posters in their buses saying text 'yes' if you support the buses through Manners Mall.

is it a legitimate tactic to pay protesters?
i am also wondering if there is room for a conspiracy theory here. will people now look at students protesting over some cause with the thought that they're just being paid to be there thus making students protesting seem insincere and they being forced to waste time and effort to prove they are not being paid.

"So what is the problem? There is no difference. We have learnt from them."

[yukonmuffin]

this isn't new.
CBC did something on this, they also found that protests for different and unrelated causes had the same protesters, some of them couldn't even say what exactly they where upset about.
some people just like to fight I guess...

[SoylentGreen]

it's one thing to just attend a protest because it seems like a good thing to do, even if your not sure of the cause. but when they start paying for people to protest, that changes the dynamics a bit.
but then again for $25 an hour i would be tempted for something as trivial as bus lanes through a mall. but maybe not for something i would consider as important.

[grandpa]

Quote by: SoylentGreen it's one thing to just attend a protest because it seems like a good thing to do, even if your not sure of the cause. but when they start paying for people to protest, that changes the dynamics a bit.

It certainly does. I think it calls to question the cause involved, whatever it is.

Grandpa h.