Kia ora and a huge thank you to Accompany Collective for this video on our Fuck Pride rally and protest!
“No Pride in Prisons took the actions it did at the 2016 Auckland Pride Parade in order to send a message to the Pride Board and to the queer community more broadly. That message is that there are some of us who will not sit back and allow violent institutions like police and prisons to be represented as beacons of queer rights and queer struggle.
Rather, we will sit down in the middle of your parade and bring it to a grinding halt.
The Pride Board should not be proud to support institutions which always have been and always will be the enemy in the battle for queer liberation.
No Pride in Prisons conveyed this message at the parade by shutting the event down for an hour and a half, and then conducting rolling blockades.
Our message was clear: the Pride Board has chosen to side with the oppressors. It is up to you to decide which side you are on.”
*This is the second part of a two-part series of speeches delivered at No Pride in Prisons FUCK PRIDE rally on February 20, 2016.
The prison system in Aotearoa is a tool of the racist settler colonial state. This is demonstrated by the extremely disproportionate rates of incarceration of Māori. Māori are only 15% of the general population but approximately 51% of the prison population. For Māori women, this marginalisation is even starker. Māori women are 58% of the women’s prison population and I have heard, at least anecdotally, that sometimes in Christchurch women’s prison up to 90% of the prisoners are Māori.
A 2009 Ministry of Justice report found that Māori are more likely to be apprehended, prosecuted, convicted and imprisoned than non-Māori for the same crimes. At every stage in the criminal injustice system, Māori are structurally discriminated against.
In terms of the rates of incarceration of trans women, international studies have shown that trans women, particularly trans women of colour, are similarly disproportionately criminalised. Although there are no comparable studies in Aotearoa, we can assume that there are similar rates of incarceration, given higher rates of homelessness, unemployment, victimisation and social marginalisation experienced by trans people here.
I am briefly going to outline three areas which either directly lead to violence or are violent in and of themselves. First, as you would have seen in the news, New Zealand recently hit a record for the number of people it locks away in cages. According to the International Centre for Prison Studies, New Zealand prisons are at 106.1% of official capacity. This is a crisis and should very much concern you. Beyond the fact that New Zealand is choosing to criminalise more and more people, overcrowding for incarcerated people leads to increased rates of suicide, violent attacks, murder, physical and mental illnesses as well as disciplinary infractions. The most vulnerable subset of the prison population is also most likely to bear the brunt of this crisis.
One of the specific ways that Corrections has tried to address the overcrowding crisis is by introducing a policy of double-bunking. Whereas before 2009, prisoners were almost always housed in single cells overnight, a surge in the prison population in 2011 meant that prisoners, in many prisons, can now be kept overnight, two to a cell. Of course, prison officers are not constantly surveilling these cells overnight, providing potential for someone to assault a cellmate.
Last year, No Pride in Prisons got word of a trans woman who had been raped at Wiri prison, south of Auckland. The woman had been taken from protective segregation, against her will, and placed in the general population. Within minutes, she was severely assaulted and needed medical treatment. Instead of leaving her overnight in a hospital or medical bay, the officers decided to place her in a ‘double-bunked’ cell. She was then allegedly raped overnight by her cellmate. Instances like these are not possible without the overcrowding crisis in NZ prisons and the National Government’s policy of double-bunking. This government and the Department of Corrections is directly responsible for the rape of this woman.
Second, international studies have shown that transgender women are thirteen times more likely to be sexually assaulted in a men’s prison than the general population. However, I’m about to demonstrate that every single prisoner in the NZ prison system has been, by law, required to be sexually assaulted upon entering prison. This assault is in the form of a strip search.
As required by law, a strip search in NZ can include opening the mouth of the prisoner, lifting and “rubbing” their hair, forcing the person to spread their legs and squat naked. The officer also has full authority to “lift or raise”, or more accurately fondle, “fat, genitalia, and breasts”. By default, male guards conduct strip searches in men’s prisons, and women guards in women’s prisons. For trans women in men’s prisons, this means they are usually searched by male guards.
Under the Act, every prisoner undergoes a strip search when they enter and leave the prison. There are a wide set of other instances in which they can be searched too. Assuming that very few of these people would have given consent to have their body invaded by someone in a position of authority if they weren’t incarcerated, this is a clear instance of sexual assault, and something which needs to be ended immediately. Today. Because there are people in the Pride Parade who have sexually assaulted prisoners.
I’d just like to make one further comment before I conclude. Sexual and other violence occurs against criminalised populations at every stage of the criminal injustice system. We have received information that a Māori trans woman, was raped on two occasions in a police holding cells, once in Hamilton when she was a minor and later in Whangarei. There were cameras in the cells and the police could have intervened at any stage. After the first time in Hamilton, the woman said and I quote “I wanted to complain but they weren‘t interested”.
And so I say to all of you here today who defied the homonormative outcries of disgust that anyone would protest a Pride parade: Thank you. Thank you for you have sent a message to the queer community that this kind of violence is not acceptable. Your actions today will send a message that we as a community of marginalised peoples demand a new world, a world beyond the structures of racist imperialist cisheteropatriarchal capitalism and a world beyond prisons.
Pride reaction to Queers Against Israeli Apartheid 2014 Protest
*This is the first part of a two-part series of speeches delivered at No Pride in Prisons FUCK PRIDE rally on February 20, 2016.
At Auckland Pride 2014, the Embassy of Israel announced 3 days before the Pride Parade that they would be marching in the Auckland Pride Parade. They said in their press release: “Whilst BDS campaigners have fled in their minivan to Wellington to protest against the performance of the world renowned Dance Company Batsheva… the Embassy of Israel will be participating in Auckland’s annual Gay Parade.” It was clear to both the Embassy of Israel and BDS campaigners that their presence in the march was inherently political and contested. Many of us were enraged by this news and decided to do something about it. A group of us queers who recognised this as an attempt at pinkwashing quickly got together to organise as Queers Against Israeli Apartheid, which is a global movement of queer-powered resistance against Israeli apartheid and pinkwashing.
Israeli pinkwashing is a cynical strategy to mask the colonial settler violence, genocide and apartheid against Palestinians by showcasing an image of the State of Israel as gay-friendly, progressive and caring about LGBT human rights. By allowing the Embassy of Israel to march in the Pride Parade, Auckland Pride Festival organisers were complicit in this violence.
As queers we could not allow this to happen without demonstrating our dissent. We decided to directly draw attention to their pinkwashing by jumping the barriers and marching in front of them with a banner saying “No rainbow big enough to cover the shame of Israeli apartheid” and a “Pinkwasher” performed satirical street theatre telling people to “Just think pink” to distract people from the 50 + laws that discriminate against Arabs and the illegal occupation of Palestine. We explained our intentions in a flyer that we distributed to the crowd. We had a mixture of cheers and boos from the people on the sidelines. One person jumped the barrier to join us and gave us hugs.
Security guards were on the scene quickly and herded us to leave. But as far as we were concerned, as queers we had every right to be there and challenge this shit. Pride security guards assaulted and carried people out. They tried to ram some of us through the barriers and were threatening to break people’s arms. Legally security guards are not allowed to touch you, it’s assault. So last year wasn’t the first time Auckland Pride security guards assaulted queer protestors at the pride parade.
Members of Queers Against Israeli Apartheid were eventually physically removed from the parade, but the disappointing thing was the reaction afterwards where members of the “rainbow community” thought pride should just be a celebration and not to mix it with global politics. But you know what, fuck that, we shouldn’t let our oppression get used to prop up other forms of injustice and it is never going to be apolitical.
We made a statement to GayNZ after the protest to explain our motivations:
It’s out of a desire to support Palestinian queers, and in the tradition of intersectional queer politics, that we decided to take a public stand against the Israeli Embassy’s float at Auckland Pride. We know that some of our fellow queers think that Pride is not the appropriate time or place to make a political statement about Middle East politics. The argument that we shouldn’t mix pride parades with global politics sounds an awful lot like the 1980s argument that anti-apartheid protesters shouldn’t mix rugby with politics. We were not the ones who chose to use Pride as a platform for discussing Israel. The Israeli Embassy are the ones who decided to hijack a gay pride event and exploit to uphold a progressive image of a state that subjects its Indigenous inhabitants to apartheid.
Our queer politics are rooted in the principle of ‘no one left behind’. We do not accept the advancement of gay men at the expense of lesbians, or of cis queers at the expense of trans people. We also cannot accept the advancement of any queers at the expense of Palestinians.
Since we took this action in 2014, the Israeli Embassy has not marched in another Auckland Pride Parade. Let’s keep it that way! Instead of giving the Israeli a platform for pinkwashing, the queer community should be answering Palestinian (including queer Palestinian organisations’) calls for Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions on Israel until it recognises the right of return for Palestinian refugees, until Israel ends its occupation of Palestine lands and until Israel grants full equality to Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel.
As queer people, we should give a fuck about global and local politics because governments, and oppressive arms of the state are using our struggles and oppression to become more effective agents of social control and violence. The Israeli state, the Police, the military and Corrections officers can now “pink out” the violence they perpetrate and represent. These people as representatives of oppressive institutions have no fucking place in a Pride Parade.
Written by members of Queers Against Israeli Apartheid Aotearoa
There was only one Auckland Pride 2016 and it started on Karangahape Road
On Saturday February 20, hundreds of members of the Auckland queer and trans community erupted onto Ponsonby Road to disrupt an event celebrating institutional and corporate pinkwashing. These dissenting members of the queer and trans community embodied the meaning of Pride. Their rallying, marching, chanting, shouting, and barricading was the only true Pride that night. The other event was co-opted by exploitative corporations and institutions as an advertising opportunity and a public relations stunt.
Auckland Pride 2016 began on Karangahape Road with a cry of “Fuck Pride!”. Those in attendance were proud to reject the corporations and institutions shimmering with glitter on the adjacent street. Pride disrupted traffic as it moved along Karangahape Road towards the gentrified centre of Ponsonby. It flowed towards the barricades protecting banks, universities, and other institutions as they marched with rainbows integrated into their logos and slogans. It broke those barricades with what Pride was always supposed to be and, for some, continues to be: queer anger, from struggling queers. It was spontaneous, uncontrollable, loud, and fundamentally political.
Those hundreds of community members brought the officially endorsed pinkwashing event to a grinding halt for at least an hour. Once that event started back up again with a diverted route, the protesters conducted rolling blockades with the intent of shutting it down. They were the ones displaying pride: enough pride to reject corporatisation and institutional violence.
Those attending the corporate event, like the queer community more generally, were divided. On the one hand, there were those who, realising the purpose of the protest, supported the protesters and cheered them on. The vast majority of attendees, on the other hand, hurled verbal abuse, juice bottles, and sometimes fists at the protesters. They loudly informed the blockaders that they were a disgrace to the community. But the blockaders were not part of the same community as those who booed them from the sidelines. Whereas the blockaders were from a community of marginalised peoples, the booers represented a community that condones institutional violence.
And so there was an event that unquestioningly accepted the oppressive behaviours of police, prisons and corporate pinkwashers, and there was an event that demanded something more of the queer and trans community. But there was only one Pride. It was in the spirit of Pride’s legacy: the spirit of queer struggle, passion, and the rejection of oppressive power. Pride clashed with the officially endorsed corporate event flowing through a wealthy, gentrified suburb. It clashed with exploitative corporations and institutions bedazzled in their superficial support for ‘gay rights.’
So how exactly are these violent institutions and exploitative corporations attempting to pinkwash their behaviour? First, let’s take the example of ANZ, who introduced ‘GayTMs’ for the first time during last year’s Pride. Prior to and during the rollout of the GayTMs, ANZ workers were conducting ongoing strikes against their employer’s attempt to enforce casualised contracts and unlivable wages. Similarly, the University of Auckland marched in this year’s corporate event, hoping we would forget that it does not pay a living wage to all its employees, or guarantee secure contracts. Just like police and Corrections, they tried to excuse their behaviour by co-opting a queer cause without taking on queer issues. These queer issues include the fact that there are queer and transgender workers who are not being paid a living wage by ANZ or UoA. They include the fact that queer and transgender people are being abused by police and corrections officers.
The Auckland Pride Board, which organised the corporate event, is prepared to excuse this behaviour. No Pride in Prisons is not. If we stay silent, we are effectively condoning the actions of institutions like Corrections who would attempt to use a queer event to invite us to forget their consistent human rights abuses. If we accept things as they are, or ask nicely for things to change, nothing will change. Nothing will change as long as privileged members of the community cosy up to those who would use them as a shield from necessary attack. Silence is the enemy of emancipation.
As we now know, there are members of the queer and trans community who are no longer willing to stay silent. No Pride in Prisons activists were willing to put their bodies on the line in order to send a message: “Violence wrapped in a rainbow flag is still violence. Racism covered in glitter is still racism.” They were not willing to accept that those who, on a daily basis, sexually assault prisoners in the form of intrusive and unnecessary strip searches should be allowed to march in the corporate event, while trans women stuck cages are hidden from view.
This rejection of the status quo maintains the spirit of Pride and continues the work of those rioting trans women of colour who demanded freedom of gender identity and sexuality, and an end to sexual violence. However, No Pride in Prisons’ actions do not only re-call a not-too-distant past; they also call-forth a future. The future called-forth is a future in which the indigenous people of this country aren’t being incarcerated at a rate five times that of the colonisers. It is a future in which incarceration is no longer the solution to social issues, and it is a future in which the violent forces of cisheteronormativity do not reign supreme. And so the real Pride event was put on by those calling forth a future without the violence of police and prisons. Theirs was the only Pride 2016.
Here’s some footage of the second round of blockades at the 2016 Auckland Pride Parade. What had happened by this point was that No Pride in Prisons activists had been on the road and pushing against police lines for one and a half hours. Seeing the cops marching towards them, another two groups then stormed onto Ponsonby road.
Just a reminder: Violence wrapped in a rainbow flag is still violence. Racism covered in glitter is still racism.
For more information about the protest and why the protest happened, click here
The queer community in Aotearoa is at a turning point. It is fundamentally divided. Some of us are happy with the status quo and some of us demand more. On the one side, there are those who are complacent with the astounding rates of incarceration of Māori, with the violence of police officers and with the rape of incarcerated trans women. On the other side, there are those who stand in solidarity with all the queer and trans people who have been left behind by a community more concerned with rainbow-coloured flags at Pride parades than the suffering of their people.
Pride started with a moment of rupture, where our predecessors stepped out of the shadows and rioted against police brutality. At its emergence, Pride was nothing if not political. Those proud rioters demanded an end to violently policed norms of gender and sexuality. They fought in the street against anyone who thought they had the right to tell them not to.
Shamefully, Pride has become something else. It has become a corporatised pinkwashed event where institutions like the police and corrections, which do untold violence to the most vulnerable members of the queer community, can show themselves off as so-called beacons of gay rights. Organisations like ANZ and the University of Auckland, both of which impose unfair pay and conditions on their workers, appropriate pride in a lolly scramble for pink dollars. Theirs is a hollow beacon of progress built from the co-option of our struggle.
There are some comfortable queers who say “things have really changed” and that police and prisons are better now, that the police is not the same institution that used to round up suspected homosexuals in nightclubs and throw them in jail. Unfortunately, the police and prisons are still racist, homophobic, transphobic and misogynistic institutions. According to their own 2015 report, which is likely to under-report rates of violence, New Zealand Police used force against Māori at a rate nearly eight times that of Pākehā. The New Zealand Police also used tasers against Māori and Pasifika at a rate higher than it used tasers against Pākehā.
In the last four months alone, No Pride in Prisons has been in touch with two of our incarcerated trans sisters who have been raped in custody. Corrections hasn’t done a thing to end this sexual violence. It continues to place two people in a single cell overnight, putting those incarcerated people at extraordinary risk of sexual and other violence. In fact, it plans on exposing more prisoners to violence by expanding this practice of double-bunking. Why should we pretend that Corrections is anything but a racist and rape-facilitating arm of the state? We see through the pinkwashing, we acknowledge the suffering these institutions cause - do you?
Queers in Aotearoa have a legacy of insurgency. It is our responsibility to continue this struggle and perpetuate it - to destroy those things which are destroying the lives of the most marginalised members of our community. In Aotearoa, in 2016, the prison system is destructive. Police are destructive. We bear responsibilities, as those who carry on the work begun by those radical queers who came before us and who are with us still, not to be fooled. Violence wrapped in a rainbow flag is still violence. Racism covered in glitter is still racism.
Some say that Pride is just a celebration, that it’s supposed to celebrate how far ‘we’ have come. We ask, who is this ‘we’? When we celebrate, who are we leaving behind? When we invite these institutions to the party, we are siding with the forces who have wanted us in the closet, in a cell, or dead. How ever far we may have come, it has been in spite of police and prisons. These institutions always have been and always will be the enemies of queer liberation and universal liberation.
We look around and see soaring rates of homelessness and unemployment among young trans and queer people. We see daily acts of discrimination and violence against those who do not fit into a colonial gender model. We hear of rape and other violence done to incarcerated queer and non-queer people. This is not a time to celebrate. This is a time to demand action.
Our argument is simple: you can choose to side with corrections and the police or with the marginalised; with the oppressors or the oppressed; with the status quo or with change; with the institutions that hurt people or with the people they are hurting. The Auckland Pride Board has chosen its side, so what about you?
Over the past couple of weeks, No Pride in Prisons has placed increasing pressure on the Pride Board, and the Auckland queer community more generally, to ban uniformed police officers from the pride parade. As we now know, the Pride Board chose to disregard legitimate concerns with that institution being included. A common response to these concerns, from uncritical members of the community, has been: “What about the gay cops? Aren’t they a part of our community? Who are you to ban members of the community?”
To that, we ask: What is the queer community? The decision as to whether police can march in a pride parade is the kind of decision which determines what kind of community we are. Are we a community of marginalised peoples? Are we a community which cares about other marginalised peoples? Or, are we more concerned with consolidating the privileges of the most privileged within our ‘community’?
Cops have no place in any queer community made up of marginalised peoples. This is because it is the role of the police to uphold the privileges of the powerful, and maintain the marginalisation of the oppressed. How do they do this? As an institution, the New Zealand Police has admitted that it has an ‘unconscious bias’ against Māori. This is played out in the New Zealand Police apprehending and charging Māori at a rate that far surpasses that of Pākehā for the same crimes.
Police target and oppress other and overlapping marginalised peoples as well. You may have seen police harassing homeless people or people they suspect of being sex workers. No Pride in Prisons has received reports from trans women who have been violently assaulted by police and arrested for the supposed crime of “walking while trans”. The police’s targeting and criminalisation of certain groups is part of what makes and maintains their marginalisation. Community is required so that those on the margins can continue to survive. In other words, the police’s actions make the community necessary. As a result, cops are not and never will be part of a community of marginalised peoples.
You may be thinking: “not all cops are bad! I’m sure the vast majority of them aren’t racists!” We are sure that not all cops think that they are actively racist as individuals. All cops, however, work for an institution which has been proven time and time again to be racist and oppressive. Cops put on a uniform every day. That uniform is a symbol of the side that they have chosen, and that side engages in racist and oppressive violence on a mass scale. An individual cop may not think that their actions are discriminatory in any way (‘they are just doing their jobs!’), however, when you add up all the individual actions of individual cops, they amount to an institution that maintains racist colonial cisheteropatriarchal capitalism.
It is for this reason that it is offensive and complicitly oppressive to allow uniformed police to march in any pride parade. In doing so, the queer community becomes a group of historically marginalised peoples taking the side of an oppressive institution which targets marginalised peoples. Those ‘other’ marginalised peoples are also a part of our community: Māori queers, homeless queers, queer sex workers, only to name a few. In allowing the police to march with us, we are siding with an institution which oppresses our people.
“But you’re banning gay cops, who are part of the community!”. To this, we say: if banning representation of police and Corrections is to be understood as unfairly excluding members of our community, what of the queers suffering in custody right now? What of the trans women who have been beaten or raped by uniformed members of these organisations? What of the Māori who are targeted at every stage of the criminal justice system, which includes Māori queers? Is Pride not for them?
So, which side are you on? You can either stand with the marginalised, or with the oppressors; those subject to violence, or the violent. Gay cops, although they are gay, are still cops. If you stand with them, you’re standing with the oppressors.
Written by S Morgan, T Lamusse, and E Rākete
No Pride in Prisons is holding a “Fuck Pride” rally in protest to the inclusion of uniformed police and corrections officers in the 2016 pride parade. For more information, click here.
PRESS RELEASE: Pride Board’s Decision to Allow Police and Corrections in 2016 Pride Parade “Shameful”
Queer and trans group No Pride in Prisons is condemning the Auckland Pride Board for choosing to allow Police and Corrections Officers to march in this year’s parade.
The Auckland Pride Board announced their decision yesterday, reasoning that the Department of Corrections will be taking steps over the coming year to improve its treatment of transgender prisoners.
No Pride in Prisons’ spokesperson, Sophie Morgan, says that this is not nearly enough. “To this date, the Department of Corrections has shown a blatant disregard for the treatment of all incarcerated people, especially queer and trans prisoners.”
“This year alone, No Pride in Prisons has heard from multiple transgender inmates who have been either raped or brutally attacked while in Corrections’ custody.”
The group points to an incident late last year where a trans woman was raped after being placed in a cell overnight with a man.
“Corrections has introduced policies such as double-bunking, where two or more inmates are housed overnight in a single cell. These policies have directly led to the rape of trans women and other prisoners,” says Morgan.
“Corrections has proven, time and time again, that it has no regard for the safety or bodily autonomy of inmates.”
No Pride in Prisons is concerned that the Pride Board may be getting ahead of itself in making this controversial decision.
“Corrections is being rewarded for making vague promises to improve the safety of trans prisoners. It is not enough to reward the Department for making promises it has yet to fulfil. Ultimately, the Department is unlikely to make good on these promises, as up until now it has denied that it has a problem.”
No Pride in Prisons says the problems with prisons and police go much deeper than the Pride Board is willing to address.
“The fact of the matter is that prisons and police are violent, racist institutions that have no place in any pride parade.”
“Māori are more likely to be apprehended, charged, convicted and sentenced to incarceration than Pākeha. This is because Māori are targeted and discriminated against by police and the criminal justice system more generally.”
“In a report of its own making, New Zealand Police found that it uses force against Māori at 8 times the rate it does Pākehā. Māori make up 15% of the general population of Aotearoa, and roughly 50% of the prison population.”
“These are not unusual statistics. The prisons and police of a colonising government will always be used to repress the indigenous population. These institutions are designed for the social control of marginalised peoples.”
“The Auckland Pride Board may want to believe that there are no Māori queer people or that there are no queer or trans prisoners. That’s just not the case. As marginalised people, we have an obligation to stand with those who are being oppressed.”
“However, the Board and the Auckland queer community are actively choosing to side with institutions that have inflicted untold violence on Aotearoa’s most vulnerable populations.”
“The Auckland queer community should be ashamed that it is being represented by those who choose to stand with inherently violent institutions. It is shameful that the community is turning its back on the marginalised groups most targeted by police and the prison system.”
In 2015, No Pride in Prisons disrupted the parade in protest of police and corrections’ inclusion. This year, the group plans to hold a counter-rally at the same time as the parade.
“We are encouraging those in the queer community who are ashamed of what Pride has become to boycott the parade and stand in solidarity with Aotearoa’s most marginalised people.”
Violent Police Officers are ‘just doing their job’, and that’s why they should be banned from Pride
On Thursday 4th February 2016, tens of thousands of people from across Aotearoa marched, chanted, sang, rallied, and blockaded, putting their bodies on the line in opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA). It was, hands down, one of the biggest and most successful days of civil disobedience in this country for decades. Auckland was on lockdown. The people’s message was clear: TPPA? No way.
The protesters’ agenda for the day was also clear: non-violent civil disobedience in a display of unforgiving opposition to the trade deal. It seems that the New Zealand Police did not get the memo. As protesters have explained to media outlets, and on social media, the only violence they experienced that day was at the hands of the police.
That police violence included pulling protesters by their hair, throwing them on the ground, and beating them with batons and fists. It involved twisting arms and, in one instance, pushing a protester’s neck at such an angle that it seemed they were trying to break it. Police have also been pictured choking protesters with illegal holds.
While this violence is significant, it should in no way detract from the organised and impressive work of the protesters who unapologetically conveyed their message. That violence should also not be taken to be exceptional: police violence is commonplace at peaceful demonstrations. This instance wasn’t as bad as the extremely brutal crackdown on students protesting the 2012 budget, for example.
Those brave (or perhaps foolish) enough to read the comments on news websites, Facebook, and other social media about the TPPA protests were pummeled with misogynistic, racist, homophobic, and generally bigoted comments. Amongst these was one recurring comment that is particularly important to the Auckland queer community as it decides whether to include police in the 2016 Pride Parade. As many noted, the police were ‘just doing their job’.
The commenters are correct: this is the police doing their job. It is the job of the police to serve the state, no matter how corrupt or undemocratic the practices of that state. This protection is carried out with whatever aggression deemed necessary. On Thursday, it was the job of the police to deal violence to those protesting the absolute evasion of the democratic process in signing the TPPA. This is because it is the police’s job to unconditionally protect and serve the state.
The majority of police violence, however, does not occur when the people stand up in organised public demonstration. It occurs out of a lot of people’s sight. Police violence is ever-present and concentrated in brown and black communities, indigenous communities, and poor communities. For the people in these communities, police violence is never out of sight. It is no mistake or coincidence that these constant instances of violence go largely unreported. They reveal the true function of the police in a colonial, capitalist society: to repress the oppressed.
If we accept that the police’s role in this society is to maintain public order, then the maintenance of that order is inherently violent. In the current order of things, there is a small elite who benefit largely from an economic and social system that structurally privileges the few at the expense of the many. Actions against the dominant order, such as the demand for tino rangatiratanga, require a fundamental re-ordering of Aotearoa. As such, the maintenance of the current order is achieved partly through the incarceration of Māori at a rate almost five times greater than the colonisers.
If the world we live in is racist, misogynistic, transphobic, and homophobic, then those who are responsible for maintaining order in this system are also inherently racist, misogynistic, transphobic, homophobic, and undeniably violent. If Pride is supposed to be an event that challenges the entrenched cisheterormativity of everyday life, then the inclusion of the police is absolutely incompatible with Pride.
So, we have some questions for the Auckland Pride Board and the queer community more generally: is it over? Now that marriage ‘equality’ has been won, is that the end of queer politics? Do the lives and oppression of the poor, indigenous, and other people of colour not matter? Do you not care that there are members of the queer community who are disproportionately targeted by the police and incarcerated? Do you not care that it is the job of the police to sustain the system which oppresses the vast majority of us?
Ongoing issues of racism, transmisogyny, systemic inequality and poverty cannot be ignored by a community that was, not too long ago, feeling the full weight of police and societal violence. The fact that a rich gay couple can now have a ‘normal’ life in the gentrified suburb of Ponsonby doesn’t mean that the fight is over.
In fact, it is far from over. The only reason that the police are no longer systematically beating and jailing people for engaging in non-normative sexuality and gender practices is because thousands of people took to the streets and demanded the decriminalisation of sodomy. It is not because the police have ethically evolved. If you choose to include cops in the parade, you are siding with the oppressor.
No place for Police or Corrections in Pride Parade
Queer and trans activist group No Pride in Prisons is putting pressure on the Auckland Pride Board to disallow uniformed Police and Corrections officers from marching in the 2016 Pride Parade.
Articles published by news source GayNZ last week revealed that the Pride Board was willing to negotiate its decision to disqualify uniformed Corrections officers from the parade. It was also revealed that Police would march in uniform, as they did in last year’s parade.
According to spokesperson Sophie Morgan, “No Pride in Prisons encourages the Pride board to stick to its decision to disqualify uniformed Corrections officers from marching, and to reconsider its decision to allow Police to march.”
“Uniformed Corrections and Police officers have no place in the Auckland Pride Parade. Both of these organisations inflict disproportionate violence on already marginalised people. These actions should in no way be accepted by the queer community.”
The group points to Corrections’ decision to introduce the policy of “double-bunking” as a reason for excluding the organisation. Double-bunking means holding two or more prisoners in a single cell overnight.
“The Department’s double-bunking policies lead directly to violence against trans women incarcerated in men’s prisons.”
No Pride in Prisons has been in contact with two transgender women in the last couple of months who have been allegedly raped while in men’s prisons.
“One woman was raped after being placed in a cell with a man overnight by Corrections officers. These Corrections officers and the Department of Corrections more generally are directly responsible for the rape of this woman.”
No Pride in Prisons stresses that the Police have no more a place in the Pride Parade than do Corrections.
“According to a report released in 2015, New Zealand Police use force against Māori at almost 8 times the rate they do Pākehā.[2] This is a clear violation of the human rights of Māori. Inviting this discriminatory institution to participate in the parade is also a clear violation of the Pride Board’s Tiriti obligations to takatāpui Māori,” says Morgan.
“The queer community should not turn its back on its Māori whānau, queer or otherwise. By allowing Police officers to march in uniform, the Tāmaki Makaurau queer community is explicitly condoning that institution. This includes condoning the racism clearly inherent in that institution’s actions.”
No Pride in Prisons is concerned about what it believes the Pride movement has become.
According to Morgan, “The roots of Pride trace back to riots against the violence of the Police. The Police are now welcomed into our parades with open arms. This requires assuming that the Police have stopped being violent. The violence has quite clearly never stopped.”
“We owe more to ourselves and to our marginalised allies than to join hands with violent institutions like the Police and prisons.”
“That a very small subset of the queer community now has marriage equality does not mean that institutional and structural racism, homophobia, and transmisogyny have suddenly disappeared.”
“No Pride in Prisons urges the Pride Board to seriously consider these issues when it decides whether Corrections and Police officers should march in the Pride Parade.”
Te Wharepora Hou is a collective of wāhine Māori/indigenous women of
Aotearoa (New Zealand). We are based mainly in the Auckland region but
also have strong participation from wāhine living elsewhere in Aotearoa
and the world.
Our collective strives to be a pro-active wahine
voice on relevant issues and through any channels available to us. Our
primary concern is the wellbeing of whānau, hapū, iwi and our planet. We
reflect on our responsibility to protect Papatūānuku and to sustain our
living systems.
We see ourselves as part of a global indigenous
network particularly of women who are reasserting the place of women as
leaders of change. We speak on a platform of indigenous solidarity
worldwide.
Emmy’s incredible interview for The Aroha Project.
“There’s a decades-long connection between Pride and protest. I think it’s really sad to see that Pride has become something that cannot be a protest as well. The first ever Pride was a riot led by Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson at Stonewall in New York. That’s the whakapapa of Pride, which is: queer outrage at the forces which destroy us. So I think it’s a little bit ridiculous that we can’t even point out that the forces which destroy us are marching in the parade.”
Friday 4th Sept, 6pm, University of Auckland General Library B15
After a successful action last week resulting in Jade Follett’s prompt transfer to a women’s prison, No Pride in Prisons hosts an open forum on prison abolition for Aotearoa.
WHAT’S HAPPENING:
6:00 - members of No Pride in Prisons speak on the movement for abolition, protest action, and the Prison Industrial Complex in Aotearoa.
6:30 - a screening of Visions of Abolition: Part II
7:15 - open discussion: questions and comments from attendees, ideas for future actions, and building a movement in Aotearoa around the issue of the prison.
[95bFM Radio interview transcript with Jennifer Shields on the 28th August. Thanks to Sophie B for the transcript]
[Music]
You’re listening to a 95bFM podcast
Anna: Corrections will be apologising to prisoner Jade Follett following revelations she requested a transfer from Rimutaka Prison to a women’s facility. Corrections told us on Wednesday they received that request last week, but it’s since emerged the request was filed months ago, but went nowhere when a staff member went on leave.
Activist group No Pride in Prisons has raised Follett’s plight through protest action and media attention. I speak to Jennifer Shields.
Jen, what’s your response to Corrections saying they’re offering an apology?
Jennifer [birds chirping in background]: We reckon that that’s the absolute minimum they should be doing. They left Jade in a hugely unsafe situation for two months longer than needed because they were incompetent and lost the transfer request; and then when we started our action and the press started putting pressure on them, they simply kept stating that they’d only received it last weekend, which meant that everyone was questioning Jade’s integrity. [bird chirping swells] Which we think on top of everything else is completely abhorrent.
Anna: It sounds like there was a breakdown in Corrections processes. Do you accept that as an excuse from the Minister?
Jennifer: No, look, that’s what happened, it’s definitely not an excuse. It shouldn’t have happened in the first place, Jade shouldn’t have been in Rimutaka in the first place. Their whole process for this entire thing needs to be updated and changed, and improved.
Anna: Have you been surprised at how swiftly Corrections moved on this once media got involved?
Jennifer: A bit surprised maybe but pleased. After two or three months of silence on OIA requests, we were pleased to see them respond so quickly once the media pressure got put on. But at the same time disappointed, because they could have been responding this whole time.
Anna: Do you think that it is a coincidence that Minister Sam Lotu-Iiga is addressing the threat of violence in this case, at a time when there are almost fresh, daily reports of horrific violence in New Zealand prisons?
Jennifer: Yeah, I think the transfer request was really simple to approve, it just required one person saying yes. We’re really pleased that it happened but we think it was quite an easy way for Corrections to do something right when everything else is going wrong.
Anna: Do you think Jade is aware of the attention that her case has garnered over the past few days?
Jennifer: We’re not sure. It’s really hard to get in touch with her; the letters take a couple of weeks; we’ve been in touch briefly via her lawyer. All we know is that she’s really happy to have been moved.
Anna: Lotu-Iiga said in his letter to Jan Logie, I’ll quote it now, “I can assure you that decisions made regarding Jade’s placement have been done with her wellbeing and safety being of paramount concern.” Do you have confidence in that statement?
Jennifer: I mean yeah, I think once they made the decision it was because of that, but in the same letter and in every other press statement, and response to our requests, they have the same line they fall back on: that “Corrections is aware and sympathetic to the needs of transgender prisoners, especially around issues of placement and safety.” We reckon if that was true, this wouldn’t have happened in the first place.
Anna: Do you think that generally speaking, there’s an issue of a mismatch between the law and its practical application, or that this is quite specific to this case?
Jennifer: Yeah, I would agree that in general, if you look at the Human Rights Act, the recommendation from the Human Rights Commission, and if you compare that to Corrections policy, I think there’s a massive mismatch, and I think their policy needs to be updated.
Anna: Do you wanna talk about what is coming up for No Pride in Prisons?
Jennifer: Yeah! So next Friday we’re holding a public event talking about this issue and what it means for Corrections and prisons and trans safety in general. We’re also pushing on Corrections to answer the questions we’ve asked them about how many trans prisoners there are, where they’re being kept, what their safety is like. We’ve heard from one person who knows of another trans prisoner in the wrong prison, so we’re gonna be helping them with advocacy and making sure that Corrections knows that we know that they’re there, so they can’t do this again.
