Police ‘will not back down’
PA Masterton “The woman basher” was the new title for the Minister of Police, Mr M. B. Couch told a public meeting at Gladstone, Wairarapa, on Friday. Mr Couch, who is Minister of Police, said he had been called many things by many people but after the batoning incident in Wellington’s Molesworth Street he had been branded this by those opposed to police use of batons. However, he indicated that the police had no intention of backing down in the face of protest action. “Violence has crept into protests whether HART and C.A.R.E. will accept it or not," said Mr Couch. “Protesters are being influenced by extremists who want to see our country capitulate to anarchy. “We are now into an issue not of the Springbok tour, not apartheid, but of law and order,” he said. “It is imperative that we not back down on this issue.”
Mr Couch said a “paper police force” comprising returned policemen, service group members, and Territorials would now be avail-
able to counter what he saw as a threat to law and order. The Auckland Council for Civil Liberties has called for independent judicial tribunals to be set up to deal with complaints against the police, at least until the Springbok tour is over. The council’s president, Dr Rodney Harrison, said: “It is clear that a very small minority among both the police and demonstrators is progressively using more and more force during demonstrations.”
At present the police could arrest and lay criminal charges against any demonstrator using force, but similar complaints by individuals against the police, which were now being made in increasing numbers, were investigated by the police themselves without individual scrutiny. “The police lack the necessary detachment, and indeed at present the necessary manpower to investigate such complaints effectively,” Dr Harrison said. “We believe it to be a matter of the utmost importance that there is some public assessment of whether such allegations are well founded.”
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Press, 10 August 1981, Page 2
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330Police ‘will not back down’ Press, 10 August 1981, Page 2
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