This story is dedicated to the undercover agents who took drugs for the NZ Police administration and to their families who witnessed the outcome.
…..quote adapted from the dedication of ‘Stoned on Duty’.
When I first heard the expression ‘the police are the biggest gang in the country’ I found it laughable. To believe the NZ Police operated above and beyond the law seemed impossible. Then, my sister and brother in law were accepted into the NZ Undercover Police programme. They had been cops for around 5 years and were only the second couple to be accepted to go undercover together. Neither of them had ever smoked marijuana before. People always scoff when I tell them they had never smoked dope before they joined, but they hadn’t. They were classic Kiwi boozers.
Their first ever experience was when they were taken away for a ‘training weekend’ in Rotorua and were introduced to smoking marijuana whilst under the guidance of their operaters and in complete knowledge, and attendance of senior Police officers. That always resonated with me. Seniors officers were on premises when they first smoked and got all paranoid and ‘first time kooky’.
This is when the officers were taught that it is impossible to ‘simulate’ smoking marijuana and they would be lying under oath when giving evidence. It is a bizarre situation for people to start using drugs for Police work. But even worse when they were also involved in a fraud to ensure convictions. Most of them continued using marijuana after the end of the undercover operations and a culture of going to any lengths to ensure convictions spread throught he force. And a culture of lying.
THE FULL TRANSCRIPT OF ‘STONED ON DUTY’ IS HERE. Everything is covered in this extensive history of the undercover programme. If you are not aware of this part of NZ history, I definitly recommend reading it.
When I finally was told all this, after having seen the effects of the undercover programme on my family, which still continue to this day, I have never trusted the Police since. To happily change, distort and sometimes break the officers personalities for the sake of small time ‘drug convictions’, the lack of any humanity broke something inside me. That piece of us that always believes everything is lawful and right in the world was broken forever. When someone you love can be used and dismissed with such little care, well, you can’t dismiss that and feel the Police are our (mythical) protectors.
But all of the lies and treatment of Police was revealed in the Press last century but no change to undercover programmes was ever publicly stated by Police as being actioned. In fact, the two recent cases are horrifying for what they show of the continued abuse of the undercover programme.
He sent images of underage girls to police ffs.
He is know seeking compensation after being allowed to mentally torture women.
And it led to this farce.
And the false conviction for an undecover policeman is quite literally breaking the law.
Now, we are all aware that at that time, we were the only country in the world that allowed our police to go on extended periods undercover, sometimes for up to a year. The operatives also totally immersed themselves in the lives of their targets.
They all learnt to lie well.
Unlike many other international undercover programmes, New Zealand’s controversial policy with agents’ drug taking has been their unmaking. Lawsuits, addicted agents, and allegations of perjured evidence have sullied the aims and achievements of the Undercover Programme.
There are many more trials like this one where the police purjured themselves. Why have none of them been re-examined?
Should we believe the recent report that undercover programmes will be examined? Soon, these programmes that have destroyed lives, shattered trust and yielded thousands of tainted convictions will have been operating with impunity within NZ for 50 years. Will they ever be stopped?
The police are the biggest gang in NZ. They lie, they cheat, they fabricate evidence, they investigate their own criminal activities, they manipulate people into breaking laws then charge them, they escalate the drug war against low socio economic people. They have developed a culture of them and us. There is a lowering of respect for them mostly through their undercover program that has been covered up for years. They bust cannabis outlets but supply P in the Hutt Valley. Traitors to their own country is what they are and highly paid by this corrupt corporate controlled government. This evil behaviour has been going on for years and sent many innocent people to prison. Here is a good website.
http://obrien.wordpress.com
The NZ Police is a business. And like all businesses the police need to find clients……victims, to prosecute/persecute.
One of the most frightening experiments ever conducted consisted of dividing a group of ordinary people into guards and prisoners: with a mater of hours the guards were abusing the prisoners.
Lies and manipulation are the norm for the police, especially in court. That’s why television has so many ‘cops’ programmes: trying to inculcate into the general populace the false notion that the police are the good guys. In reality, the police’s main function is to protect and promote the interests of the elites, who are ‘above the law’ and castigate anyone who challenges that agenda.
The police are just another part of a corrupt and despotic system that serves the interests of the haves, whilst denying the have-nots. It’s been that way for many, many centuries. All that changes are the names.
Expat. in Vancouver, Canada, Same here, same here. All kinds of trouble with our police but we’ve set up better national oversight, standards, new Chief, and we see improvement. It comes slowly but surely. Trouble is the gangs, swapping drugs for guns with the gun-obsessed Americans and 4,000 miles of border to watch. We can carry 1oz “weed” without being fined and it looks as though Washington State next door to us will legalise same soon as many other states have done: they realize that policing it is futile and exhorbitant . Why don’t we all take a look at Portugal where drugs were legalised some years ago and all the fears that people had about “things going wrong” didn’t eventuate…..Don’t like the sound of the undercover operations – a year is too long.
Afewknowthetruth makes a good point about Police programs on TV. In countries where no one trusts the Police and everyone knows they are corrupt and brutal, you don’t see these programs at all. They are straight out propaganda, and if you look at how they’ve developed over the years, you’ll see that lying, manufacturing evidence and brutalising suspects are now routinely shown. This just normalises these actions and allows the Police to push the limits even further.
The Police in any country can only do what society at large lets them. Why does Kiwi society allow the crap that goes on?
The reason Kiwi society “allow” this crap..( evil is a better word) to go on is because they are deluded & naively still believe there’s no corruption in NZ, and the reason for this is because there is no independent media,& no investigative journalism anymore = no public watchdog.
Haha try living in christchurch the cops will do you for anything and everything. Even if they have to make it up! POWER TRIP HARD!!!!!
I value the emergency service work the police do, yet their efforts regarding crime…found to be wanting.
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