The latest news out of New Zealand is bad for Greenpeace. After their campaigners vandalized Ellerslie, a quiet suburb of Auckland, the town is now considering banning Greenpeace from fundraising there. Residents blasted the group in the media saying:

• “They haven’t shown the community any respect.”
• “They’re an organisation that promotes protecting the environment – I think it’s ironic they turn around and vandalise the streetscape.”
• “Greenpeace has demonstrated it is more in tune with tuna than with people.”

Incidents like this one ought to demonstrate just how far outside the mainstream Greenpeace is. How tone deaf and unplugged from civic life does a group have to be to vandalize a town less than 24 hours after their own neighbors put such incredible effort into sprucing up the place?

Here’s hoping the civic-minded residents of Ellerslie follow through on their threat. In the end, that’s the only kind of action that Greenpeace really understands.