Skinheads also ‘abused’

Press, 2 August 1989, Page 9

Skinheads also ‘abused’

By

DAVE WILSON

A Christchurch skinhead couple say they are suffering a backlash from the community because of radial incidents involving a skinhead group in Timaru.

The couple said last evening that they abhorred the racial harassment of a Fijian Indian family by a group in Timaru, but had themselves been abused after news media reports of the Timaru incident.

The married couple declined to be named, fearing reprisals from Christchurch supporters of the Timaru skinheads. “True skinheads are not racist. The movement began as a way to support minorities. What’s happened in Timaru is disgusting. The people involved in that, who call themselves skinheads, are just thugs with boots and short hair.”

The woman said a Christchurch taxi driver refused to accept her as a passenger yesterday. “He wouldn’t let me get in the taxi. He said I was a Nazi and should be exterminated.”

Her husband said the couple were reluctant to venture from their home, fearing reprisals by ethnic groups seeking revenge for the Timaru incidents.

“If we go outdoors we wear hats and different clothes — it’s not safe to be seen as a skinhead right now.” The man, who said he had served time in prison, added that the Timaru group had supporters in Christchurch and Dunedin and although the members resembled skinheads, they pursued a racist Nazi philosophy. “My wife and I are not part of any group, we are just us, we believe in the original skinhead philosophy which is to stand up for the rights of minorities, including racial minorities.” Both said they had suffered verbal abuse from the community and allegations that they were linked to the Ku Klux Klan-style operations of the Timaru gang. “The crowd in Timaru are a gang, the same crowd that was going around a few years ago calling itself the K.K.K. and abusing Maoris.” The couple said it was unfair that they should be abused for the actions of a group which disgusted them.