Remember all those top cops who flooded the media last year explaining why they couldn’t do anything in the Roastbuster case?
One would imagine after the Dame Margaret Bazley report into the sado-masochistic pack rape culture of the Police in the 1980s that modernity would have dawned on the NZ Police force.
Sadly it has not.
The alpha male arrogance of the Police is in evidence every single year when Greg O’Connor gets asked if Dame Margaret Bazley’s 2007 Commission of Inquiry recommendations have been adopted. In 2012, Greg had the audacity of describing Police being asked if they had implemented all the recommendations as a ‘ritualistic humiliation of the Police’.
You read that right, O’Connor describes being held to account for implementing recommendations regarding the Police culture of sado-masochistic pack rapes as ‘ritualistic humiliation of the Police’.
Is sexism so accepted that the Police spokesperson can seriously use that language in light of the case that brought about the report?
No Greg, I don’t think the report into the sado-maschistic pack rape culture of the NZ Police is a ‘ritual humiliation’, I think that’s called being held to account.
I think what happened to Louise Nicholas was ritual humiliation.
I think what happened to the woman raped by Brad Shipton, Bob Schollum and three other men at Mt Maunganui in 1989 was ritual humiliation.
I think Louise Nicholas taking her case to court three times only to be denied justice when Shipton and Schollum were already in prison for the same type of ritual humiliation pack sex attack was a ritual humiliation.
I think the Rotorua woman who claimed she was kidnapped and raped by the three of them in 1984 knows about ritual humiliation.
I think Detective John Dewar committed a ritual humiliation by covering up for his Police mates
And to top it off Greg, I think the 10 women who testified at a secret forum against the Police culture of sexual misconduct who had the hearings recommendations for compensation turned down by John Key and his Cabinet, know more about ritual humiliation than you can conceive…
Police sex witnesses denied compensation
The Government has rejected a secret forum’s recommendation that 10 women who alleged sexual misconduct by police officers get reparation. A letter obtained by The Dominion Post reveals the forum chairwoman, Wellington lawyer Rachael Brown, recommended that the Government pay “financial redress” for alleged misconduct by police officers. But the Cabinet has ignored the recommendation – angering women who spoke at the forum, including Donna Johnson, of Tauranga. Ms Johnson – who alleged convicted rapist and former Bay of Plenty detective Brad Shipton stalked her and forced her to perform oral sex – questioned why the Government bothered with the forum if its key recommendation was going to be ignored.
(Don’t you love Finlayson’s comment – “I know this decision will be disappointing. I hope that the opportunity to tell your story and be referred to additional services has been helpful,” – yeah Chris, I’m sure they loved having to recount their sexual abuse at the hands of Police only to get no acknowledgement and completely ignored).
…I’m pretty sure the 300 women Dame Margaret Bazley identified as suffering from Police sexual misconduct who weren’t able to take part in the secret forum feel they have suffered a ritual humiliation.
Not according to the Police Association dictionary.
According to Greg O’Connor, being held to account for those 300 women who were identified in Bazley’s report is a ritual humiliation for the Cops, not the women abused at the hands of Police.
When we consider the history of Police sexual offending in NZ, it is no surprise whatsoever that the Police investigation into the Roastbuster offenders (one whom was the son of a cop) has been found to be so woeful.
The horror of tens of thousands of historic rapes that go without justice every single year and the time it takes for even the pretence of justice to occur demands a long hard critical evaluation of how women are being treated in Aotearoa and it requires true leadership.
When David Cunliffe apologised for being a Man when he saw the domestic abuse statistics he was ridiculed and mocked…
…the fact that mockery happened at all shows the total rape culture denial so many women face as a daily reality.
NZ Women may have fought to be the first country in the world to gain universal suffrage, but we are still in the stone age when it comes to rape culture.
I find it ironic that a woman Police Minister refused to act on the ‘Roast Busters’. Collins and Tolley are just as misogynistic as the males in the National government. They have let Kiwi women down.
+100
I don’t know why someone doesn’t pick off a few current and former known dirty cops so that the rest of them will stop and think before they go over to the dark side.
Wow this is amazing isn’t it! What a sad mess, amazing work Martyn*.
Hard to believe that even a tragically useless pack of hosers like this government think they can just make sad noises and move on.
Clas stuff Martyn,
I guess this is the result of having our dear leader carry out a rape of our country and the legal community looks the other way so most are thinking if Planet Key can get away with rape of us and our country why cant we?
I am sure that when new recruits are hired and new MP’s as well they will have signed a “Pledge to not rock the boat” during their employment.
Key is toxic and is wrecking our once caring, kind, honest, crime free Country I grew up in during the 1950S’.
Yes, one murder a year, wasn’t it?
Cheers.
Great article!
The woman should be compensated and there needs to be a zero tolerance of any type of sexual violence in particular from police in this country.
Also the roast busters should still be prosecuted. The girls were underage and therefore any sexual activity to them is a crime. There is no excuse under the law to have sex with an underage girl. The fact that there were so many victims, it was within a gang rape situation and the boys boasted about it on social media, should make it even easier to prosecute.
Even if the girls do not want to lay charges the police should do it anyway as that is the law.
As a New Zealand citizen I feel ritually humiliated by the abject inaction of the police and their stonewalling comments in matters requiring the utmost responsibility.Policemen should be of the highest possible caliber in knowing the difference between right and wrong – and acting on it. I should count the ways that this isn’t so.Am I saddened by their continuing failure?
Yes.
The process of recruitment and training should be elevated to a new and much higher level.
In the US there is actually an IQ limit/cap on joining the police force.
(St. Louis County, MO) – Law enforcement officials in St. Louis County, Missouri have drastically lowered the max IQ-cap for all newly hired police officers. What that means for hopeful flat-foots is a limit on how intelligent they can be before receiving a gun and badge.
County officials cite the change in policy as a way to contend with new challenges in today’s ultra-violent society. Sheriff of St. Louis County, Barry Greere gave reporters the following statement during a press conference on Wednesday:
“We need officers who aren’t going to second-guess the orders given to them. Multiple Harvard studies have shown that individuals with higher levels of intelligence are more prone to corruption and violence towards innocent civilians. This is simply a risk we cannot afford to bring amongst our ranks. The less our officers question the experienced commands of their superiors, the safer we are all going to be as a community.”
Seems counter intuitive.
It IS the US, what else would expect from a nation that thinks that school teachers should be armed?
333;
Yes,that quote doesn’t seem to ring true,does it?
Seems like a bit of spin to justify their actions.
Then there is the angle that why would any intelligent person
want to become a cop nowdays with all the drug and alcohol
fueled violence and they have to lower standards because of
lack of recruits.
Like the military.
More good work,Martyn.
Cheers.
+100 Great Post Martyn…you have described this issue in context better than I have seen anywhere else..either in newspapers or on other blog sites.
Good article Martyn. The usual guff from Greg O’Connor who no longer bothers to wait for the release of reports anymore, before putting forward his apologist statements.
By the way, who are the two “sidebars” in your photo with John Key? Seen the photo before and think they are in the public arena, but don’t know personally who they are. (But don’t want to know if they are just John Key fan-groupies from the general public, just want to avoid their shows if they are not)
Just avoid any station owned by Media Works or whoever owns the ZM networks and you should be sweet. Think they’re the breakfast gonks from The RocK! but could be from the The Edge! clone show.
So we should compensate women who make claims about alleged police misconduct at a secret forum without question or investigating whether or not their claims are actually true.
And if the government doesn’t they are misogynistic woman haters.
So tell us, Jorge1 – would you front up to a meeting held by total strangers, in an unknown environment, and lie about being anally raped?
Is that the sort of thinking you do in your spare time?
Perhaps the word “confidential” or “closed to the public” would have been more appropriate. It was a process that allowed full disclosure and would have had procedures in place to get to the fullest truth.
It was closed to the public because otherwise who on earth would want to recount being raped?
That’s not the same as a secret forum.
So in your world these women are all lying until the policemen are proven guilty and charged in court are they?
And in your world I bet you reckon they’re just lying about it for money. Because silly women lie.
Rape is one of the least reported crimes. Precisely because we KNOW we won’t be believed, we will be told it’s our fault, so many things women are supposed to do to stop being sexually assaulted and if we don’t do any one of those things we get to take responsibility for crimes committed against us.
And when it’s our police raping women, not just the occasional woman but quite a few, that’s a REAL MAJOR problem. NZ women know we can’t trust police.
Really Lara, so how many woman have been raped by police officers in the last decade?
Mr Finlayson obviously believes that the allegations are true or why would he say –
“I hope that the opportunity to tell your story and * be referred to additional services* has been helpful.” They just didn’t want to pay any money.
I agree, but I think we need to acknowledge that neither the police nor NZ is alone in this at the moment. It can be found all the way from frivolous entertainment with the likes of Jeremy Clarkson all the way to IS and all points in between.
It explains the popularity of right wing politics around the globe, it explains degrading pornography on the internet. It explains anyone feeling like they have to apologize and go wash their mouths out with soap should they mention they might be a feminist. It explains the lack of women (behaving as mature women, not pseudo men) in top jobs. It explains what seems to be an inexplicable disregard for the environment. I could go on and on about it to illustrate this, but I have a feeling that most here do not need pictures drawn for them.
Tell me again why the police still can’t charge the Roastbusters after they admitted to a dereliction of duty that has let every body down?
Leftie – I’m guessing for the same reason that many in the Police force still consider Arthur Allan Thomas guilty of murdering the Crewes…
The Bain case is also a weird one..and did not David Bain’s sister Laniet , a prostitute, have police clients?…and who was the top policeman in Dunedin at the time?
I am not pointing the finger at all police …many of whom have a hard job and do very good professional and brave work….but when you have a few bad apples at the top, supported by bad female politicians, Collins and Tolley …it drags the whole force into disrepute
Simply a disgrace – by all the powers involved. Talk about a huge overhaul in attitude this country needs to make, again this won’t happen under the current government. NZ is in limbo with that lot.
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