Maori support for police

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 6, Issue 309, 17 October 1989, Page 1

Maori support for police

Waimarino police do not harass and intimidate the local Maori community and one Raetihi woman has been working to prove it. Mrs Pauline Mowat called the Bulletin last week after spending hours on the telephone talking to local Maori people about the formal complaint that has been made to the Police Complaints Authority, that local police have been carrying out a policy of general intimidation and harassment of Ohakune and Raetihi Maori. Mrs Mowat said she is offended at the claim, saying the Maori community supports the police and that most appreciate the police.

"We get on with them alright, we're very happy to have the police working here" she said. Her objection is not that the complaint has been made but that it includes the whole Maori community. "If people want to make a complaint against the police about their treatment from the police they should go for it, but it is unfair to include the whole Maori community," she said. Mrs Mowat said she has contacted nearly 100 members representing a large number of Maori families to ask if they or any of their family have been harassed and that almost all had said they had not. "The reports make it sound like all the Maoris are up in arms about the police, but they're not," she said.