 | NORML News: Cannabis, Cops & CORRUPTION |
 BY PHIL SAXBY, Norml News Autumn 2004
Allegations of police corruption, perjury, rape and sexual assault, excessive violence and cover-ups in recent weeks are building a picture of the police which must have startled many members of the public. It's not the picture we are usually presented!
And what is worse for the police is that the allegations are coming from the heart of the Police itself.
The allegations include: - A group of former undercover officers have repeated their claims they were trained to smoke cannabis on the job and lie in court;
- Doubts about the Rotorua Police investigation into Louise Nicholas' rape allegations have led the Prime Minister to order a commission of inquiry into the case, and the Police Complaints Authority is reinvestigating it's original "whitewash";
- TV3 reported on allegations of police brutality, corruption and racism, allegations made by former cops themselves, including former Senior Sergeant Mike Meyrick (interviewed in Norml News Winter 1994), and Tony Grieg and Alex Hope, both former sergeants.
For most NORML NEWS readers, the surprise is probably not the allegations, but the fact that such senior police officers and prominent former members of the police have been publicly named!
Some of our readers will know of other examples of Police abuses, and brush-offs by the Police Complaints Authority. Readers who have information about Police wrong-doing surrounding cannabis, especially the undercover programme or the PCA, should contact NORML, the media, or the commission of inquiry. Setting the record straight is just part of what's happening. This is a time when questions are being raised by the Police themselves, as well as the public, into the proper role of the police in society.
Policing carries a cost beyond the tax dollars allocated, and that cost is often ignored. Ordinary police men and women bear some of the cost, and the Police (and society) need to accept that drug laws force police to perjure themselves and thereby undermine the law.
Its inevitable that there will be corruption in any society with a drug prohibition policy, and New Zealand is no exception!
With excellent timing, several members of the US-based Law Enforcement Against Prohibition group are touring NZ in April, to confirm the harm prohibition is doing in other countries.
Racist behaviour by police creates a danger to the whole social fabric. Corruption and perjury by police undermines confidence in the whole justice system. Using victimless crimes (such as drug possession) to harass otherwise law-abiding citizens is not "fighting crime" - its creating injustice! So far, the government's response has been cautious. Yet, the increasing scale of the allegations and revelations by highly credible witnesses does provide pressure for much greater changes than seemed possible under this government.
The Police must clean up their act - that is clear. But the Police, and the government, must get the big picture - and evaluate the true cost of some policies to society and to the police themselves.
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