20 March 2005

Rob Robinson
Commissioner of Police
Police National Headquarters
PO Box 3017
Wellington

Fax (04) 498 7400


Dear Mr Robinson,


re: Police Tactics in Auckland Anti-War Protest on Saturday 19th March 2005

I am writing to register a formal complaint concerning the police handling of a protest demonstration group held In Auckland city against the on-going illegal occupation of Iraq by foreign troops.
Specifically this complaint addresses the violent police action taken on the corner of Victoria street and Queen street on Saturday afternoon, with specific regard to the behaviour and actions of a police officer with the badge number 6711.

The protest began peacefully, beginning outside the United States consulate at 11 am. After initial briefing and unescorted by police the protesters headed up Queen street at approximately 11:20am. The protest was peaceful people were chanting etc. At approximately 11:30 the protesters headed into the ANZ bank on the corner of Queen st and Victoria street. While inside the building the protesters stood peacefully holding placards while listening to organisers speeches addressing the ANZ involvement with financial dealings with companies that finance the atrocities in Iraq. The Head staff of the ANZ acted rationally and politely called the police... no fuss was made. At approximately 12:00 Noon, members of Central Auckland police force entered the ANZ premises. The protesters let the police through and in no way blocked their entry to the building, after hearing a few more speeches, the protesters then left the ANZ onto the street where they then headed onto the Queen street/Victoria street intersection.

The protesters entered the street blocking a lane while the lights were on red, thus preventing further traffic flow. As the lights turned green, sensible drivers indicated and manoeuvred themselves onto the other available lanes, in a reasonable calm methodical way. However one young man, not much older than 20 years old accompanied by his partner in a green ute, insisted on driving at approximately 15k/ph into the crowd. The protesters at risk of being knocked over or injured (some of them have bruises on their shins) reacted by hitting the bonnet of the vehicle. The young man, now enraged exited the ute and was cautioned by an officer to get back into his vehicle. Instead of redirecting the vehicle the police chose to escort the ute through the crowd. I believe this to be a deliberate act of provocation from the Auckland police force as a means of provoking anger from an already volatile crowd, any body of rational thought can see that the most sensible responsible action to take would be to redirect the vehicle and take charge of the rally by then escorting it officially to it’s destination, thus preventing injury and potential accidents. Unfortunately a very deliberate strategical choice was made to direct the ute through the protesters as a means of insighting anger.

A young boy of 15 years ran up to the ute only to be thrown violently aside by a plain clothes senior sergeant (perhaps detective sergeant) who refused to give me his badge number but clearly carried a name tag that read ‘GJ.Powell’. From here on in things (like they said on the 6 o’clock news) got ugly. Police responding like a swarm began selectively arresting people, logically taking people they identified as ‘ring leaders’ as the protesters anger rose, the police began engaging in force that was in many cases life threatening, with officer 6711 brutally punching young women in the face and (as depicted on channel 3 news Sunday the 19th of March and aired across New Zealand) grabbing a teenage boys windpipe and throttling him, in full view of 3 News’s camera. When asked how he could do that in front of a news camera, when told he would be on TV he responded with a salacious smile...
“I don’t care. I don’t care.”

Personally It was this incident that had me the most disturbed. here as accompanying images confirm, is a man that clearly enjoys responding violently, and exercising his power as a New Zealand police officer in a way, in full view of the public, that is life threatening. I assume this officer has not been trained to respond with strangulation, yet I am wondering if this is in fact a common practise. If this is police practice it should be immediately abolished before somebody dies and yet another police scandal rocks our nation.

During this violent outburst of which 4 protesters were arrested, a camera was seized by a detective Lamont . The owner was told he could have his camera back after the protest, if he went and collected it from the police station. I believe this act is illegal and paramount to theft. I always thought the police defend law, not break it. So far I have described, assault, attempted murder and theft.

One would think that in the current political climate surrounding police behaviour, why the Auckland police force chose to reinforce it’s already negative public relations image as a brutal, torturous and socially irresponsible force.

Something needs to be done about this. Good people work inside the New Zealand police force, men and women that want to honour and protect their communities, yet more and more police officers are showing up the NZ police force as a petri-dish of a violent and despicable culture.

I trust you will respond with appropriate action and keep me informed upon reading this letter. I have also contacted the minister of police, several MP’s, the prime minister, and varying media outlets.