Prominent protesters are accusing the Police of brutality. The protesters, which include John Minto and Joe Carolan, were protesting the eviction of state house tenants in Glen Innes. Apparently Minto was beaten and female protesters were handled violently with one woman entering a seizure as a result of the Police's heavy hands. Of course, this is exactly what the Police do with protest, especially the blue nappied babies they recruit for South Auckland. They're desperate for recruits so they, more often than not, recruit brain-dead males fresh from failing to gain university entrance or any meaningful academic qualification. I've always said, you become a cop if you're too dumb to do law and too soft to join the military. For more see this from TW.com and Socialist Aotearoa.
UPDATE: Hone Harawira will be helping lead the protest tonight.
sorry but its a harsh judgement about those that go into the police force and that kind of attitude solves absolutely nothing.I phoned from Tauranga Glen innes Police and spoke my mind....that is how my righteous anger is expressed.
ReplyDeleteKia ora Morgan, I agree with you that police are generally unjustifiably violent to protesters, but I disagree that it's because they are using new recruits or new recruiting methods (or that police are especially dumb or soft). That scapegoats the lowest ranking police for the violence, when clearly their bosses are training them and sending them to protests intending them to be violent (at the demand of the state). It's a great way to reinforce their training and solidarity with each other. It's not a new thing, it can't be about new recruiting methods--the state have always responded to protesters with violence (there are so many examples that stand out, from 1913, 1951 and other industrial actions, to 1981 anti-tour demos, even the 1990s student demos). It's a shitty, effective tool for maintaining their power and the status quo. Don't just blame the front-line police, the state is calling the shots (and there's a reason they put all the young brown ones out front).
DeleteCheck out the interviews with those involved...this is police bruatlity at its worst. Mainstream need to report this. We live in NZ, not Nazi Germany!
ReplyDeleteTo my young cousin,
ReplyDeleteSome of us up here in Auckland actually agree with the changes happening in GI. Those state houses were/are miserably cold, damp places whose tenants are stuck in miserable life outcomes. Also, up here, many 'blue nappied babies' are more than able to attend university, too smart to be a lawyer and not interested in leaving the country to fight other people's wars.
I'm with Stephen. It is fruitless to vent your anger at the Police. Most of them are decent people doing a thankless job. As agents of State authority, they are always going to be on the other side at political protests. Get used to it.
ReplyDeleteAnd as for all the intellectual snobbery - well - that says more about you, Morgan, than it does about the constabulary.
You guys are right. It's useless slurring the Police.
ReplyDeleteBased on the logic of your comments regarding lack to academic qualifications and intellectual capacity then as a law graduate who gained entry via the traditional selection process I could certainly extend that logic to Maori who used the quota system with its lowers academic requirements to gain entry to law school. But I won't since I'm better than that.
ReplyDeleteUse proper sentence structure. Your remarks are incoherent and the premise is flawed. Good for you, though, give it a try some other time.
DeleteMorgan, I was also really angry about how the police handled the Glen Innes protest but I still found the title and tone of your post unhelpful. My own position is somewhere between Chris and yourself. http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.co.nz/2012/04/police-image-tarnished-again.html
ReplyDeleteChris is largely correct in explaining that the police are agents of the state but the way they carry out the state's bidding is open to some leeway and discretion. The police largely managed the occupy protests in a manner that brought credit to them and there are many police who I have the utmost respect for. Sadly there are elements within the force that don't operate with the same integrity and they are more likely to behave badly when given an opportunity by the government to do so.
We are more likely to change the behaviour of the police involved by condemning specific actions rather than vilifying all police as you appear to do. We also need to condemn a government that treats the occupants of the Glen Innes state houses with such callous disdain. I would rather the real focus was on the Government and the actions of the police in this circumstance.
The fact of the matter is Mr Godfrey's comments more accurately reflects what a voiceless and digitally disenfranchised segment of predominantly brown New Zealanders actually think about the police than all the tut-tutting by liberal white folks in this thread does. If you don't like it, well fine but tough shit. The point is one mans friendly copper who lives next door and makes sure the incident of your stolen car is properly looked into is the one and the same cop who routinely harasses the "under class" and routinely uses casual brutality against those he deems "undeserving" and unlikely to have powerful friends and/or good lawyers. Different folks, different strokes ain't that the truth.
ReplyDeleteSo Mr. Godfrey is just saying it like it is. Good on him.
Thanks, Sanctuary. I accept my comments are unhelpful, but you're right my comments reflect what many Maori feel - especially young urban Maori.
ReplyDeleteOn the streets of South Auckland, on the streets of Rotorua, on the streets essentially, there is a palpable hate for the Police. Many non-Maori can write that off as a bunch of crims hating on the thin blue line, but it's more complex than that. Often the Police are heavy handed with Maori, verbal racism is common and - as I think everyone will acknowledge - racial profiling is common. I've been a victim of racial profiling for the record.
You said it yourself, very unhelpful, but I'll leave it at that. As for racial profiling, well that happens everywhere. Being stalked in the department store, or being observed when your kid's playing up (waiting for you to hit him or something), it's not just the police, I bet even the lefty white bloggers that troll your page tend to judge us without even realising it. Shit, thanks to this post I bet everyone now thinks that we all hate cops, I mean, it's so easy to write a blog and say "many Maori" or "most Maori". For real, how can you really say "most Maori"? Is that most of the Maori you know? As in, the little Maori you know?
ReplyDeleteSanctuary, the police operate in the manner you deplore because of a political culture that allows them to do so. There are high numbers of Maori in prison because our legal system operates in a way that discriminates against the poor and especially Maori. By focussing all frustration and anger at the police it will just deflect attention from the Government.
ReplyDelete"Apparently Minto was beaten.."
ReplyDeleteExcellent - although pointless, as the well earned beatings he's received over the years have done little for him or his retarded world view.
"We are more likely to change the behaviour of the police involved by condemning specific actions rather than vilifying all police as you appear to do."
ReplyDeleteThe police have been running the "It's just a few bad eggs" line basically forever. Do you not think the problem might be institutional and cultural? It seems to beggar belief the consistency with which these bad eggs keep coming to light.
Hugh, I'm sure you are right about institutionalized behaviour but changing the police culture would be far easier with a government that would genuinely support that. I'm sure there are many in the current government who would support Anonymous' view above and celebrated John Minto's beating. Imagine how different the police may have been if we had managed to get Keith Locke as Minister of Police ;-) (although it may have taken a few terms to get there).
DeleteRight-wing bloggers crack me up. "They're only just doing there job" line. Terrible. Just like the cop who shot the innocent driver down the Auckland Highway. Or the cops who busted a bloke who had Asberger's Syndrome just for changing a lightbulb in an abandoned house in Christchurch.
ReplyDeleteBUT to be fair it's insulting to use the word pigs or piglets about Police. I took offence to it and I'm a lefty.
Totally unfair to slag all police officers. Three of my mates are cops, all of them are smart, Maori men, family oriented, and love working with kids at risk.
ReplyDeleteI do think that the police training teaches them that they should DEMAND respect - and that attitude does not work with Maori. But slagging them all off as too dumb to do law is immature and self-important. There are plenty of law students (and, in my experience, graduates and practicing lawyers) that are thick too.
Overall, the debate about name calling has detracted from the point of your post - violence during a particular protest in GI. That is a real issue, that deserves attention and commentary.
This same kid rails against people who stereotype Maori, yet has no qualms in doing the exact same thing himself.
ReplyDeleteAt least show us all video's of this disgusting brutality that brought on this juvenile tantrum.