Despite revulsion at the Auckland attacker, New Zealanders have the capacity to recognise that we all have a complex identity
I took some old, blunt kitchen knives to a second-hand shop a few months ago while decluttering. They politely declined the items, citing their policy against selling anything that could be used as a weapon.
This shop’s policy now seems prescient. On a sunny spring afternoon, while West Auckland shoppers took pains to protect themselves against the coronavirus in a locked-down city, a terribly visible threat grabbed some sharp steel from the shelves, ran screaming down the aisles, and started stabbing random shoppers in the name of an invisible cloud of hate, alienation, radicalisation, distrust, anger, violence.
