Three criminologists explain how a history of negative policing experiences will affect how some communities see the police – and it is crucial that the opinions of these communities are heard.
During the last day, a media frenzy exploded about the green party parliamentarian for comments by Wellington Central Tamatha Paul, criticizing the police. As criminologists from three of New Zealand’s leading universities, this furor seems somewhat ridiculous to us. Paul argued that police have overcome patrols, some people feel insecure, that the police have a history of discrimination and that there are several tasks for which police are not the appropriate respondents. This caused indignation from the government and the labor party, with several politicians claiming that it was “poorly informed“And in”La La LandThe only problem with all this is that, from a criminological perspective, Tamatha Paul is completely correct.
Paul’s criticism of policing was made at a university discussion panel, an event in which she was invited to share the prospects of her voters. Talking about communities and sharing their opinions on issues that are important to them is literally task of electoral parliamentarians. That’s why we have them. Paul commented That police patrols, as visible expressions of the coercive power of the state, mean a different thing from the community that it represents from what they can mean to others. A story of negative policing experiences will affect how communities see the police. Criminologists started collecting evidence that New Zealand police were involved in racist discrimination decades ago. Last year’s understanding of understanding, co-produced by the researchers and the police itself, stated that this discrimination continues in this. Maori are About seven times more likely than pākehā to be victims of police violence. This reality affects how the communities Paul represents perceive the police. They, and she, have the right to share this perception.
When politicians criticize Paul for sharing the opinions of their police voters, they are trying to make these opinions inexpressible. It is worth considering whose voices are heard in public and whose voices are categorically dismissed. Research conducted in West Auckland has shown that different communities had different opinions about policing. Pākehā communities were actually found to support the increase in police patrols, but Māori and Pacific People predominantly preferred other justice measures. When these populations are also those disproportionately directed by the police, it is crucial that their opinions are heard. The conversation about justice policy cannot be a monocultural monologue. The people Paul is talking about are also part of the public, and their opinions are at least as important as those of entrepreneurs and politicians who tried to exclude them.
It is also crucial to remember that the New Zealand police, as described in the 2007 policing bill, is “an instrument of the crown.” As instruments of the crown – armed instruments of the crown – the police must, at least, be maintained in high standards and challenged by the communities they intend to serve. They must also respond to historical and present injustices perpetrated by their strength. Just this week, RNZ reported That an 11 -year -old girl was handcuffed, taken to a mental health unit and injected with powerful antipsychotics after police identified her badly at the age of 20. Paul mentions this horrible event and states the need for non -police alternative protocols for mental health calls. Although police minister Mark Mitchell, discarding Paulo’s concerns as “laughable”, Mitchell He himself said in July 2024 The fact that the police were not trained to respond to mental health calls and the police response system “was not working properly” for those suffering from mental suffering. All parliamentary law seems to be united in Paul’s fierce conviction for positions that the police minister himself occupies.
Paul’s other concerns were triggered by community organizations that sought concerns with the police confiscating the few belongings of people without -Teto. The dismissal of this claim – Nevertheless, again, being completely – It is a reason for more concern about how the police and the government are treating and responding to our most vulnerable populations. POINT -PAUL CHAVE – one that she reiterated last day – This is “not even the interactions of all [with the police] they are the same. ”This statement is indisputable. The discipline of criminology is founded in this fact. Of the repressive policing of the Maori communities in Bastion Point, Rūātoki and Ihumātao, to RACIALIZED SURVEILLANCE OF YOUNG MAORI In 2022, for everyday violence of systemic racist discrimination, we see how policing maintains racist oppression and class exploration on which this country was founded. It never did anything else.
David Seymour asked if Tamatha Paul supported policing, or “Some other world, and how would it work?”The Criminologists, We Say Proudly That We Support Some World other Than this Ruled by Inequality, Exploitation and Injustice. The Safe, Healthy and Thriving Communities We All Say That We Want Can Only Be Achieved by Addressing The Root Causes of Insecurity. Ensure That Everyone’s Needs Are Provided for.
The fact that Paul’s observations, no matter how well and reasonable they are, were received with such a fervent opposition from four party leaders is deeply worrying and reflects a broader change towards right -wing populism. Four decades of neoliberal economic policy have made New Zealand a paradise for the rich and a nightmare for the poor – a place of tax incentives, benefit sanctions, vacation in Queenstown and sleeping in gutters. There are political options that we could do to keep people hot, fed, housed and connected. New Zealand would be a better place and a safer place if we did it. Tamatha Paul is being shouted not because she said anything ridiculous, but because she said something wise. This is not a misinformed dream of some impossible world, but a world that almost exists-a world so much as possible that we could choose to call it.
