Protest letter to Police Commissioner

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32560, 20 March 1971, Page 18

Protest letter to Police Commissioner

A growing nmber of people were coming to believe that members of the police force—either on instructions, their own accord, or latent prejudiceconsidered that the rights of demonstrators were not equal to the rights of nondemonstrators, the national chairman of the Halt All Racist Tours organisation (Mr T. Richards) said in an open letter sent to the Commissioner of Police (Mr W. H. A. Sharpe) this week.

Mr Richards wrote the letter to complain of what he called “unreasonable, unwarranted, and indefensible police inactivity” in dealing with those spectators at the New Zealand Surf Life-saving championships at Waimairi Beach on March 6 who showed their disapproval of a demonstration held there to protest against the inclusion of a South African team in the carnival. He said that in spite of a police assurance that the demonstrators would be protected at all times, provided they stayed within the area allotted to them, they became the targets for eggs, sand-bombs, pieces of wood, brandished fists, pies, and obscene and provocative i language. ' “At no stage were there j more than five policemen ini sight, and those that were present did little, if anything, to stop any of the abovementioned missiles being

thrown at us. The mood of the crowd was ugly. Several of the demonstrators were genuinely fearful as to their immediate safety,” he said. “I consider that the ‘protection’ given us by members of your police force was pitiful. Because your force at Waimairi beach was either incapable or undesirous of controlling the crowd, the democratic rights of dissent was severely curtailed,” he said.

The Waimairi beach incident “could only but give credibility to those elements which wish to paint your' police force as being comprised of a bunch of ‘fascist pigs’,” Mr Richards said. “Stripped of rhetoric, emotional connotations, and translated, this phrase simply means that “the police are with you if you are shorthaired, establishment, and unquestioning, but against you if you are long-haired, anti-government and establishment policies and beliefs, and questioning. Clearly Wai-, mairi could only but confirm the validity of such extremist cries,” he said. Mr Richards called on Commissioner Sharpe to explain the “non-performance” (of the police at Waimairi '.beach and said that silence t could only increase the credibility gap presently ‘existing between the police and certain sections of the (community.'