People Against Prisons Aotearoa

Abolitionist Demand 9: Abolish the police.

This is a part of No Pride in Prisons’ Abolitionist demands. These demands were originally published as a book. To see a pdf of the book, click here. To buy a copy, please email info@noprideinprisons.org.nz

For all of the reasons outlined in these abolitionist demands, the Criminal Injustice System (CIS) as a whole enacts severe social violence upon those who are criminalised. The New Zealand Police, in particular, regularly harasses homeless people^[1] and, on average, uses force against people almost once every hour.^[2] The New Zealand Police regularly engages in torture by sending electric shocks through the bodies of its victims, which leads to excruciating pain and, in some instances in New Zealand, death.^[3] On average, police officers taser someone almost three times per day.^[4] The New Zealand Police also uses force, and particularly violent force, against Māori at a far higher rate than against Pākehā.^[5]

In most cases, the first encounter a criminalised person has with the CIS is through the police. The police is therefore responsible, in large part, for the demography of the people who get caught up in the CIS and who end up in prison. Police officers engage in racist everyday practices that have substantial structural consequences. As an institution, the New Zealand Police has admitted that it has an “unconscious bias” against Māori.^[6] 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.^[7] In total, Māori are approximately 40% of those apprehended by the police, despite being only 15% of the total population.^[8] The racist practices by the police are then worsened by other aspects of the CIS, which further discriminate against Māori.

The issues with the New Zealand Police, however, cannot be merely addressed through reform. Contrary to popular sentiment, the New Zealand Police does not engage in these violent and racist practices because of a couple of ‘bad apples.’ As outlined in the Policing Act 2008, the functions of the New Zealand Police include “keeping the peace,” “maintaining public safety,” “law enforcement,” and “crime prevention.”^[9] On the surface, these may appear to be noble goals, but their functions are not carried out in the interests of the majority of people.

The police serves to maintain a capitalist social order and its racist, colonial dimensions^[10]. When it is ‘keeping the peace,’ it is engaging in class war. When it is ‘maintaining public safety,’ it is maintaining the safety of the privileged few at the expense of criminalised populations who are deemed unworthy of saving. When it enforces laws, it enforces the oppressive and racist laws of the bourgeoisie. Finally, when it attempts to engage in ‘crime prevention,’ it never attempts to prevent the crimes of wage theft, land theft, and the destruction of tikanga and whenua.

In other words, it is the role of the New Zealand Police to maintain ‘order.’ What ‘order’ means is substantial economic and social privilege for a few and various forms of economic and social exclusion for the rest. This is why when there are actions that threaten the order, such as workers’ strikes, protests, blockades and occupations, these actions are often met with police violence or the threat of it.^[11] It is the job of the police to protect and serve the racist bourgeois state, no matter how corrupt or undemocratic the practices of that state. This protection is carried out with whatever violence deemed necessary and acceptable by the laws of that state. The New Zealand Police, therefore, is an institution that works against the interests of Māori, other people experiencing racism, women and gender non-conforming people, queer people, disabled people, and the working class.

For these reasons, No Pride in Prisons affirms that the New Zealand Police must be abolished and replaced by methods for dealing with social harm that do not rely on a colonial bourgeois state or the arbitrary use of violence.

^[1] Penelope Laurenson and Damian Collins, “Beyond Punitive Regulation? New Zealand Local Governments’ Responses to Homelessness,” Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography 39, no. 4 (2007): 649-667.

^[2] This is based on data for the use of force by police in 2014. They used force on 7,162 occasions, meaning once every 71.39 minutes.

New Zealand Police, NZ Police Annual Tactical Options Research Report #3, (Wellington: New Zealand Police, 2014).

^[3] The Dominion Post, “Man Who Died After Being Tasered by Police Named,” The Dominion Post, 14 March 2015. http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/hawkes-bay/67366762/man-who-died-after-being-tasered-by-police-named.

^[4] This is based on data for the use of tasers by police in 2014. They used tasers on 1,014 occasions, or 2.75 times per day.

New Zealand Police, NZ Police Annual Tactical Options Research Report #3, (Wellington: New Zealand Police, 2014).

^[5] According to the New Zealand Police 2014 tactical operations report, the rate per 100,000 of Pākehā being assaulted by police is 57, whereas for Māori it is 400. That means Māori are 7.018 times more likely to be assaulted by police than Pākehā.

New Zealand Police, NZ Police Annual Tactical Options Research Report #3, (Wellington: New Zealand Police, 2014)

^[6] “Police Admit ‘Unconscious Bias’ on Maori,” NZ City, 29 November 2015. http://home.nzcity.co.nz/news/article.aspx?id=217390&cat=1034&fm=newsmain%2Cnarts.

^[7] Department of Corrections, Over-representation of Māori in the Criminal Justice System: An Exploratory Report, (Wellington: Department of Corrections, 2007), 13.

^[8] Department of Corrections, “2.1 Apprehensions,” Department of Corrections, 13 May 2008. http://www.corrections.govt.nz/resources/research_and_statistics/over-representation-of-maori-in-the-criminal-justice-system/2.0-criminal-justice-system-bias-and-amplification/2-2.html.

^[9]Policing Act 2008 s 9.

^[10] For further analysis of the role of tikanga Māori in the abolition of the criminal injustice system, see demand 48.

^[11] As demonstrated by the violence that police enacted on anti-TPPA protesters in February 2016. No Pride in Prisons wrote about the protest and police violence here: Ti Lamusse and Sophie Morgan, “Violent Police Officers are ‘Just Doing Their Job’, and That’s Why They Should be Banned from Pride,” No Pride in Prisons, February 6, 2016. http://noprideinprisons.org.nz/post/138774979065/violent-police-officers-are-just-doing-their.