Pamphlet seizing ‘lawful’

Press, 6 September 1984, Page 8

Pamphlet seizing ‘lawful’

PA Auckland The police yesterday rejected a charge by a civil liberties group that the seizing of Nationalist Workers’ party pamphlets was unlawful.

Dr Rodney Harrison, of the Auckland Council for Civil Liberties, said yesterday that the police raid on the home of a party organiser, Mr Owen Bree, “set a dangerous precedent” for freedom of speech. Chief Inspector Darrell Shields said, however, that the group was “just flying a kite.”

“The warrant was legally

issued out of the Auckland District Court. They (the council) can say .what they like, but they are not in full possession of the facts,” he said.

The warrant to search Mr Bree’s house was obtained under section 198 (i)c of the Summary Proceedings Act, which allowed the police to search for material they believed was about to be used to commit a crime, he said.

Mr Shields said that the police in seeking the warrant must provide details of the crimes they believed were about to be commit-

ted, although the details were not usually publicised. Several crimes were listed in the application for the warrant, including disorderly behaviour, offensive behaviour, and offences against the Race Relations Act, he said. The incoming president of the Auckland Council for Civil Liberties, Mr Bill Hodge, criticised the police for “assuming the role of censor.” “New Zealanders should be able to make their own decisions about what is rubbish and what is not,” he said.