Inquiry On Allegation By Gang Members

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32351, 17 July 1970, Page 5

Inquiry On Allegation By Gang Members

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, July 15. Police Inspector B. S. Mooney, who holds a diploma in criminology, will leave Wellington tomorrow for Auckland to investigate allegations against the police by members of several Auckland gangs.

Inspector Mooney was ordered to Auckland by the Police Commissioner (Mr W. H. A. Sharp) after an N.Z.B.C. “Gallery” programme in which some gang members claimed they had been beaten by police, taken to police stations for no apparent reason, and held at police stations without cause. Inspector Mooney, who has just returned to New Zealand after a tour of Europe and the United States under a United Nations fellowship in human rights, has no specific terms of reference, according to a police spokesman. He will report back to the commissioner.

Mr Sharp criticised the “Gallery” programme today and said: “It is obvious that the police are the only people trying to do anything at al! with these young people, who never know any discipline in their lives until they come up against the police and the courts. “Obviously they would be hostile to the police and receptive to ideas put into their minds.” He said there was obviously a problem in Auckland. “These gangs appear to have been formed allegedly to protect themselves against other gangs with the same racial composition,” he said.