"If a non-Maori MP accused the police of racism for arresting a white supremacist they would be rightly pilloried. Again, however, it seems different standards apply to Maori."
I think Mr Espiner is being disingenuous if he thinks that the police would ever be arresting any white supremacists just for being white supremacists anytime soon. Why would the police do that? While white supremacists seek to maintain and escalate the status quo of power relations in this country to an extreme, Maori seeking to reassert Tino rangatiratanga are rebelling against the status quo. I suggest that Mr Espiner should know the difference between racism and ordinary old racial prejudice. While everyone has prejudices about everyone else, not everyone has the poltical or economic or military / state power (ie the police) to uphold, perpetuate those prejudices. Neither Maori individuals nor organisations have the power to exercise and institutionalise their prejudices against people of other/different ethnicities in this society. Mr Espiner talks about more conservative Maori and want they may or not want in the light of the Maori Party "going too far." It's not about different standards - it's about different experiences and visions. Maori anger about the police didn't just evolve from nowhere - the police, as a racist institution, represent and enforce law and order for a racist society. Even in the South Island, law-abiding maori and pacific islanders who are going about ordinary life get constantly stopped in their vehicles for 'routine checks.' Contrast this with the many Pakeha people who are gob-smacked when told of this - as this has never, ever happened to them - and isn't likely to. So what different standards are being applied here?