Labour call for inquiry into heavy handed Police tactics in Opotiki
Labour’s Peeni Henare says an inquiry into the allegations that emerged following the police raids in Ōpōtiki is needed to establish exactly what happened during the operation.
Meanwhile, Police Minister Mark Mitchell has denied allegations young children were left alone during the raids, saying those with concerns can take them to the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) to be investigated.
The police operation in late October targeted homes in Ōpōtiki suspected to be connected to the Mongrel Mob following what police had described as an increase in occurrences of violent crime.
Allegations about police conduct during the raids have since emerged, including that young children were left alone and that a kuia and her daughter-in-law were subjected to strip searches.
Henare said there should “most definitely” be an inquiry into what happened during the police operations and to the allegations.
Local Iwi leaders are emphatic that the Police Minister is wrong…
Te Whakatōhea kaikōrero Paora Brosnan told RNZ he wondered which police officers the minister was speaking with.
“The day of the raids, 100 percent of the squads that came into Ōpōtiki weren’t from Ōpōtiki. They didn’t know this community from a bar of soap – that’s really concerning.
“I have spoken to people that were arrested and involved in the raids on the day, and they themselves have told me that their kids were left without them – the parents – being at home upon their return from school.”
Brosnan said calling people “liars” was not the best way to “cover up your mistakes”.
“Their reality is their reality, and calling them a liar just further victimises these parents who were just concerned about their children.”
…the Police gained new powers and immediately have used them in a. heavy handed manner that saw grandmothers and mothers strip searched and children left alone while their whanau were arrested.
It was an over the top, heavy handed fishing expedition using new search powers, what this does is generate righteous grievance from those being targeted.
If Mark Mitchell continues this heavy handed approach, there will be fire bombings of police Stations across the East Coast.
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While the income for these people is so poor drug dealing will be a way of earning cash .The average income in Opotiki is $58 k so the question needs to be asked what can be done to improve that .Take $500 a week out for rent and $180 for tax that leaves bugger all for food power and other essential stuff .
Once again poverty is the driving force of the decline in society in NZ .You can have as many police raids as you like but they will not solve the issue of poverty and may well make it worse as the income for those houses is taken away leaving the family living in a much worse situation .Sure Mitchell and his like will see a few gang patches as a victory but will fail to see the massive longer term damage being done to the next generation of potential gang members .Once these raids take place what support is put in place in that community ?I would suggest none hence the increasing numbers of gang members .
Labour are hypocrites. They never called for an inquiry into police condoning the violence against women at Albert Park 2023 and are letting Coster quit with what IMO looks like unfinished business here.
Why is Mark Mitchell still here?
He said he was going to bring crime down within 12 months. Where’s the ‘delivery’ Marky-boy? Does Luxo know he has a senior minister whose “relentless focus on delivery” is a bit fuzzy and indeterminate? Has nobody informed Luxo of this yet or has Hamish Rutherford not yet crafted some meaningless gibberish for Luxo to parrot repeatedly ad nauseam?
Truth is that Mitchell is clueless and nothing he ever does will have any effect on crime rates – either positive or negative. Crime has it’s own internal logic (what Gordon said above) and Mark Mitchell is as irrelevant to it as the weather. If Mitchell had a clue he would be in Willis’s ear telling her that he cannot combat crime if she deliberately impoverishes substantial swathes of the population by deepening a recession out of some crude misunderstanding of imaginary economic principles.
100% correct he should honor his promise and stand down as he has failed .Just the opposite as gang numbers are up and police numbers are down .The only area to have a change is Auckland central wher he trippled the number of cops and shifted all the homeless to other areas of the city
AB. To be fair to Mitchell, he’s had to contend with Coster as police commissioner, and theoretically the Minister can’t interfere with operational decisions, which for some incomprehensible reason there seems to be little accountability. Ardern said that the IPCA process would cover all the shenanigans at the parliamentary precinct process. Wrong, it didn’t. Grandmas, aunties, nieces, sisters, mothers, daughters and the No 18 bus driver still want to know what the hang was going on at Albert Park March 23, when women were terrorised and silenced under the watchful eye of police at a safe distance, and we still don’t. How good it would be if Mitchell could apologise to New Zealand women about our day of national shame.