OPINION
As I predicted on Tuesday the IPCA report into Police actions at the Parliament Protest has essentially been a whitewash, liberally sprinkled with justification for their actions and a grab for more power by way of enhanced trespass laws.
The police watchdog has found, despite a number of police failings during the Parliament protest, officers served the public well in the face of at times “extreme provocation”.
Radio NZ
There was no provocation until the Police goons marched in, intent on violence, in the early hours of the morning. Then they set about destroying people’s belongings and bashing people as they cleared the grounds. Had the Police not done that, then that day would have ended as peacefully as every other day the Police didn’t attack people. Yet this report blames the victims of Police brutality for “provoking” them.
The Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) has released its more than 200-page report into police actions during the three-week long illegal occupation of the Beehive precinct and surrounding areas in February and March last year.
It found almost all officers exercised professionalism and restraint dealing with a “level of public disorder rarely seen in New Zealand”.
The occupation culminated in a riot where officers faced “violent behaviour” from some protesters, who pelted them with bricks and other objects.
The IPCA said all police defensive measures that day – including shields, pepper spray and batons – were justified.
But it also found a number of faults by police. It said some officers were not given enough protective gear on that final day, resulting in a number of staff injuries.
The IPCA concluded there were some isolated incidents of potentially excessive force by officers, which were being investigated separately.
Nearly 2000 complaints about officers were made to the IPCA. It is investigating 19 incidents, with provisional findings showing police actions were unjustified on six occasions.
The IPCA also said police broke legal protections for the treatment of some of those arrested during the first attempt to break up the occupation.
Other problems pointed out included deploying trainee and recent graduate officers with little training. It also said issues collecting evidence during the two mass arrests meant many charges had to be dropped.
“This was a wide-ranging review,” Judge Colin Doherty said when addressing media on Thursday. “The findings… demonstrate there were some deficiencies in the policing of the occupation, which will provide police with valuable lessons in terms of planning for any such event in the future.
“This report should not be interpreted that police failed in their policing of the protest occupation, we have written it not only to review what police did but to make a constructive contribution to the ongoing work within police to improve public order policing.”
Radio NZ
Professionalism and restraint? Like this?
Or this type of professionalism and restraint?
They faced riot-like behaviour? What on earth did Police expect after rousing everyone at dawn, with jackboots, batons, pepper spray and violence? After destroying people’s belongings what else could these people do in the face of such violence from Police?
If the Police hadn’t turned up ready for violence, no violence would have ensued.
The report concluded the law for mass public disorder situations like that was not fit for purpose in a number of areas.
The IPCA made a number of recommendations, including that police should ask the government to review legislation.
All in all, IPCA chair Judge Colin Doherty said police did a good job. He said it was commendable they were able to end the occupation “with as few injuries and as little damage to property as they did”.
Radio NZ
How typical. Police break the law, find that their arrests and charges failed as a result of them breaking the law and, instead of prosecuting Police for breaking the law, these clowns are demanding the law change so they can crack heads in a much easier way.
No one is being held accountable for Police breaking the law.
As for claiming there was little property damage: clearly, the IPCA doesn’t care about the property and possessions of the protestors, which the Police destroyed and bulldozed into trucks.
Police failed to tell all protesters that they must leave the Parliament grounds in the manner required by the Trespass Act. The report said the trespass laws were ill-equipped to deal with a large-scale event like the protest.
Poor evidence recording meant many charges had to be withdrawn, with the IPCA concluding the majority of charges should not have been laid.
Radio NZ
If the Police can’t even follow the law, for which inability there are no consequences, then why on earth should we follow the law too? The disconnect here is immense.
The lack of preparation, and the sheer number of arrests, meant police broke both legal protections – and their own internal rules – for the treatment of those in custody (although the watchdog concludes the use of force was “generally reasonable”).
Not enough notice was given to staff tasked with processing those arrested, so there was no time to bring on more staff to help. It meant staff at the custody unit were unable to comply with the legal requirement to advise all detainees of their rights and facilitate access to a lawyer.
The IPCA concluded the operation was hurriedly executed by an under-resourced unit and was always “unlikely to succeed”.
But “that does not mean it was unjustified”.
Radio NZ
Oh, righto, it’s the ‘ends justifies the means’ argument, which never works as a defence in court but is used by the IPCA to justify Police BREAKING THE LAW!
Don’t you love the nice weasel words for describing how the Police BROKE THE LAW?
Despite identifying problems during the 10 February operation, issues with evidence collection again meant some charges had to be withdrawn.
“We have found that the current law governing arrest was not fit for purpose for the mass public disorder situation that confronted police on 2 March,” the report concludes.
Radio NZ
Please Sir, can we have the law changed so we can crack heads more efficiently? Watch as the National Party aids and abets the Government in doing precisely that.
The IPCA got nearly 2000 complaints, most from people who were not physically at the protest.
It said the vast majority of issues raised are addressed in their report.
Nineteen complaints required specific investigation and further inquiries, with the outcome to be released separately.
These complaints were about specific incidents where the issues raised were unlikely to be sufficiently addressed during its broader investigation and/or the actions of police staff appeared to be excessive in the circumstances and warranted further examination by the IPCA.
Its preliminary findings are that police actions were unjustified in eight of the 19 complaints investigated.
Radio NZ
Prosecute them then. We can only have confidence in Police when those police officers who break the law are prosecuted and punished for it. Until that happens the reputation of the Police belongs in the sewer where their own actions sent them.
This whole episode could have been avoided had Members of Parliament found some courage and actually gone to speak to the protestors and understand how their policies, rules and laws had dramatically affected large segments of New Zealand society.
Instead, they hid in Parliament and sent in armed goons to remove the “river of filth” after subjecting them to illegal torture over days and days and days.
If the Police had not turned up looking for a confrontation, then no confrontation would have occurred. The actions of the Police and the Police alone caused the violence, and this report doesn’t even mention that.
Millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money have been wasted on a whitewash report.
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