Two complaints I made on behalf of Global Peace and Justice Auckland about police misconduct at a protest at the GCSB’s Waihopai spybase in January this year have been upheld.
The annual protest near Blenheim is organised by the Anti-Bases Campaign and this year involved a group climbing over the gate and walking down the road with a letter to deliver to the base commander.
Four police (two wearing tasers) intervened and aggressively manhandled the group off the property knocking people over. In the midst of this the letter for delivery was seized by the sergeant in charge, screwed into a ball and tossed over his shoulder. All in a day’s work.
Our complaints were that the wearing of tasers when policing demonstrations is expressly prohibited by policy operating instructions and the sergeant’s behaviour was provocative, childish and pathetic.
When we first complained to the (so-called) Independent Police Conduct Authority they didn’t investigate but replied dismissing the complaint about the letter by saying they had spoken to the officer involved and took his word that he may have brushed it aside and it fell on the ground. We objected at the lack of investigation and the IPCA then sent it to the police to investigate.
The result is this letter we received attached with this blog.
As far as I can recall in 35 or so years it’s the first ever police complaint I’ve been involved in which has been upheld.
Important Note:
The annual protest takes place early next year on 24-26 January – for more information you can email abc@chch.planet.org.nz and they will send you a notice…
“the wearing of tasers when policing demonstrations is expressly prohibited by policy operating instructions”
Pleased to hear it. Just having TAZERs on display is an implicit threat to the demonstrators, and a reminder that in a police state, it is the police officers present who decide if and when a protest has become an illegal assembly.
When a public gathering has an explicitly political purpose, police should have more constraints than normal, not less. Dunedin police voluntarily observed this, when they refused to evict Occupiers from the Octagon, after being asked to by the Council.
Well, the cops “down south”, Blenheim and so, they have “different” rules they follow. That is not Auckland or Wellington turf, that is the Hillbilly territory cops there, and they do not give a damn about laws, rules, regulations and such.
Minto and Co in town would to them have been like a gigantic red rag in front of a steaming angry bull.
And why did this complaint succeed? Simple, the protestors were smart and had enough “sober” witnesses. I know of too many IPCA complaints that were thrown out, due to insufficient evidence and whatever, so the cops then always conducted themselves “professionally”, even when beating the shits out of a half drunk protestor in the cells of Auckland Central a few years back.
That guys problem was, he was left on his own, and he had no support. Also due to court proceedings to defend a trumped up silly charge taking a year or more, once the IPCA complaint was lodged, all “video footage” was no longer kept, as they only keep this for up to 3 months.
Fuck the Police, I say, liars in too many cases, and getting off too bloody often, but in this case, they were caught out with enough witnesses proving they were breaching rules.
Good on ya, John Minto and supporters!
“When we first complained to the (so-called) Independent Police Conduct Authority they didn’t investigate but replied dismissing the complaint about the letter by saying they had spoken to the officer involved and took his word that he may have brushed it aside and it fell on the ground.”
Strange this, this kind of response that was initially given, is also what the Health and Disability Commissioner and so many other “Commissioners” and office holders repeat like parrots, when complaints are made.
There is a shambles going on in NZ, as “justice” is just frowned upon, people making honest complaints are constantly fobbed off and treated like “frivolous” “trouble makers”.
Too many institutions like the IPCA were established to only serve as a “buffer” or “judder bar”, to stop complaints going to the courts, where actually a fair few should go.
But that is what we have, and it gets even worse, as legal aid is so damned hard to get now, while few lawyers even bother with it, if you get treated unfairly, you are done, really shat on, nothing else.
Welcome to “justice” in Aotearoa, supposedly one of the “least corrupt” places on earth.
But who cares, most roll over and shut their eyes, ears and put up with too damned much!
The only Mayoral candidate to have a Police complaint upheld.
Is it actually illegal to deliver by hand a letter is it? I reckon a complaint could have been made by against the police for interfering with a person or persons who are about their lawful occasions. The presence of police officers at the event would have been reasonable in order to preserve the peace, very well. But your sergeant himself acted in a manner, I believe, that had the potential to cause or provoke a breach of the peace. That officers were wearing TAZERs could equally be held to be prejudicial to public peace and good order.
But we all know this was a deliberate effort by the Government and its agents to provoke the public into any sort of dissent that they can deem violent and therefore liable to be put down with extreme prejudice.
I’ve been on a few demos myself over the years, and had other contacts with the police, and have seen them at their best (and a very fine ‘best’ it is too), and at their worst (not so pretty). That was with a (largely, though not entirely) non-politicised force. What might we expect once, as it has in the United States, the Police Force at large becomes politicised? How far along is that process, now?
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