Sunday
Star Times
February 8, 2004
Only drastic reform will banish public's fear of brute force
by Jonathan Milne
Don't you touch him
because we'll be watching for cuts and bruises," a young Maori woman
screamed at police outside Waitangi's Te Tii Marae.
And she maintained a barrage of abuse as her young friend, clad in a blue tino rangatiratanga T-shirt, was
flung face-first to the ground, handcuffed, and forced into an unmarked police
car for throwing dirt at National Party leader Don Brash.
That young woman is a reminder to mainstream
The force is aware it has a particular problem earning the trust of Maori, who
are more likely than Pakeha to be stopped by police, and many of whom remain
unhappy at the police shooting of Waitara man Steven
Wallace in 2000.
The refusal of police to prosecute Constable Keith Abbott for that shooting was
a factor in a government move to set in place a new, independent police
complaints authority, via a law to be passed in coming months.
And it hastened moves to improve police relations and liaison with iwi and other Maori groups - an initiative spearheaded,
until last week, by assistant commissioner Clint Rickards.
Rickards would likely have reached the heady heights of deputy commissioner in
2000 but for Prime Minister Helen Clark being warned of anonymous letters
alleging sexual offending.
This was a risk-averse Clark, who the same year sacked Maori Affairs Minister
Dover Samuels because, she said, he could not do his job with allegations of
sex with a young dependent "swirling around".
The way she last week described her handling of the Rickards case had a
familiar ring to it: "From the point of view of the government, if there
are any allegations of rot in the box of apples you deal with it, and
quickly."
She sacked Samuels without awaiting the result of a police investigation - an
investigation that cleared him. She refused Rickards the promotion without
demanding a proper inquiry - hardly due process either - but only time will
tell whether the man whose career she curtailed was a rapist,
or an innocent man as he strongly insists.
Rickards has been stood down as police reopen the criminal investigation into
allegations he took part in the pack rape of Louise Nicholas and the government
- thanks to Nicholas and the investigations of journalist Philip Kitchin - has
seemingly accepted that its tinkering with the police and Police Complaints
Authority may not go far enough.
The revamped authority, though bigger and better equipped to investigate
allegations against police, will remain secretive and largely toothless.
The law and order select committee reported back to parliament only a week before
Christmas, dismissing a Dunedin Community Law Centre submission that the
authority should make binding recommendations on police.
"We consider that police operations would be severely affected if an
outside body, such as the authority, were in a position to directly control the
practices and procedures that the police adopt," the government-chaired
committee said.
When
She has been accused of a knee-jerk reaction to one isolated case. But some
Kiwis - like the young Maori protesters at Waitangi - might suggest the Louise
Nicholas case was simply the wake-up call mainstream
Undoubtedly, most of our boys and girls in blue throw themselves wholeheartedly
into doing the best job they can.
But neither the police, nor the country as a whole, can afford to have an
entire section of the community in fear of the police.