‘Pākehā party’ founder sentenced for Youtube video threat against Ardern

A man who claimed he had “the right to shoot the Prime Minister” for treason and treachery was sentenced last year.

It is one of at least eight such threats against Jacinda Ardern to have entered the court system amid a rise in violent rhetoric against politicians generally and Ardern in particular.

David Anthony Ruck, 45, of Christchurch, was sentenced in July last year on a charge of threatening to kill or do grievous bodily harm.

He was held on remand in Christchurch prison and released on community detention last week, a Corrections document shared by Ruck shows.

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In 2013, Ruck achieved brief notoriety as the founder of the so-called “Pākehā Party”, a Facebook page purporting to promote the rights of Pākehā.

The page received more than 50,000 likes in three days. It was never registered as a political party and has since lapsed into disuse.

It is understood Ruck’s recent conviction stemmed from a Youtube video in which he claimed to have seen documents, shared on Twitter, that proved the New Zealand Government was spying on Donald Trump’s election campaign.

Ruck, a US citizen, said in the video this gave him the right to shoot Ardern for treason. The video has since been deleted.

Ruck has acknowledged on social media that he sent aggressive” and “somewhat emotionally charged” emails to Ardern, expounding on his theories about the coronavirus pandemic and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the US.

When contacted by Stuff, Ruck acknowledged he had made the video, but said he had not expressed any desire or intent to shoot Ardern – simply that he had the right to, as an American citizen.

He said he wanted an investigation into who had produced the “fake Government documents” he saw on Twitter, which to him had looked real.

The media coverage around the Pākehā Party had caused him distress, he said, and came after he had been left “basically homeless” following the Canterbury earthquakes.

In another since-deleted video, Ruck claimed he was a CIA agent who had orchestrated the 2019 terrorist attacks in Christchurch at the direction of Hillary Clinton.

He appears to be behind an online store that sells US-themed goods. Online, he has expressed an interest in expanding that business to sell flags and guns.

At least eight people are known to have interacted with the legal system for messages containing threats against Ardern.

Michael Cruickshank was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment for a flurry of emails that contained threats to kill Ardern and her family.

His conviction was overturned on appeal. The court ruled the jury had not been made aware that Cruickshank’s drunkenness when sending the emails was relevant to his defence.

In April, Richard Sivell, an adherent of sovereign citizen beliefs, was charged with threatening to kill Ardern. He was released on bail and fled. A warrant for his arrest remains active.

Glen Dwyer, from Rotorua, was convicted in October for a Facebook comment that read “this is a death threat kill Jacinda”.

Earlier, a Wellington man appeared in court for an alleged threat against Ardern made in May 2021. A Christchurch man appeared in court for a threat made in 2019, when he lived in Australia.

Such cases have also come from overseas. Days after the Christchurch terrorist attacks, a Northern Ireland man sent a message to Ardern which included a photo of a gun and the words “You’re next”. An Australian man was jailed for various threatening posts, one of which said Ardern should be put down like an animal.

The atmosphere of violent threats against Ardern reportedly led to the cancellation of the annual barbecue breakfast at Waitangi, the Australian Associated Press reported.

In June, Newshub reported that threats against Ardern recorded by police nearly tripled between 2019 and 2021.