Riot signal of deeper problem, say police

Press, 10 December 1984, Page 1

Riot signal of deeper problem, say police

PA Wellington The Commissioner of Police, Mr Ken Thompson, said last evening that initial reports on the Auckland riot indicated that the problem was “drunken hooliganism.”

But, he said, there were deeper problems which needed the attention of people other than the police. The police had been

working with young people in central Auckland trying to prevent trouble for months, he said. “The background to what happened in Auckland, and the solution are a much wider social issue than can be left to the police to resolve,” he said. “Unfortunately some people would like to leave it to us,” he said. Mr Thompson said Friday night’s violence could not be blamed on the police or the system of policing used — “to say that centralised policing is the problem is absolute rubbish.” The Sale of Liquor Act was difficult to enforce. The police spent a lot of time patrolling hotels trying to stop minors from breaking the law. But it was a big task, Mr Thompson said. Sale of liquor from bottle stores was difficult to police, he said. Mr Thompson said the reintroduction of public drunkenness as an offence might be reconsidered. The taw had been changed to allow police to take habitual drunks to detoxification centres. The right of the police to arrest for drunkenness had previously allowed police to act before trouble occurred in some instances, he said. The secretary of the Police Association, Dr Bob Moodie, said Friday night’s riot was not a surprise. “The only thing that surprised me was that it happened in central Auckland and not somehwere

else,” he said. New Zealand had been moving towards a riot. It was a social problem — “not one that the police could have stopped but one of which we could have done more to minimise the difficulties. “There is an . enormous gulf between the young people and the police and that does not help. And, of course, the trouble-makers are able to take advantage of that.” Dr Moodie said there was no simple issue which could be said to have sparked the riot other than alcohol. Unemployment, the gang syndrome, racial conflict, drugs, and alcohol all played a part. “Unless we do something about it we might as well get used to it. It is a wider problem than a police one but there are contributing aspects in national police policy. “I really think that what is required to prevent a major catastrophe in this area is detailed analysis of policing policies generally. “There is a need to accelerate the decentralisation programme so that the links between the police and the community are strengthened.

“We need to disestablish the national bureaucracy that has been created,” Dr Moodie said. Some people had suggested that the police presence had inflamed the situation. It was true, he said; “I am not saying the

police are to blame but we need to look at why that is so. I think that if we did have an examination, the reasons would become quite clear,” Dr Moodie said. The Film Censor, Mr Arthur Everard, said young people might have been copying what they saw in films when they smashed windows in Queen Street. “We certainly recognise that children do copy films. We have heard of children trying to jump off buildings to emulate Superman,” he said. The Steven Spielberg film, “Gremlins,” now showing in Queen Street, includes a scene in which a boy picks up an instrument and smashes the plate-glass window of a shop to get at a gremlin. The film has a GY certificate (approved for general exhibition, but recommended for persons aged 13 and over), with a warning that “some scenes may startle young children.” But Mr Everard said the rioters were more likely to have been influenced by “mob behaviour.” The general secretary of the Temperance Alliance, Mr Tom Quayle, said those responsible for selling alcohol to young people attending the Aotea Square concert should be traced and prosecuted without delay. Hotel or sports clubs making handsome profits. from illegal liquor sales to minors evaded prosecution all too frequently, he said. Further reports, Page 4