Veronica Stuart
Chairperson - Te Poaka Tipua Charitable Trust
Thursday 16 October 2014
Media Statement
“Youth and Community Trust in Linwood concerned about police presence”
The Poaka Tipua Charitable Trust makes an announcement today that they are concerned about the absurd presence of the
police in Linwood, stationed at the McDonald car park predominately during the hours of 10am to 7pm.
The visual presence of the Police at the Linwood McDonald car park is a response to the amount of young people that are
congregating around the Mall, McDonald's building and the main Linwood intersection.
The trust chairperson Veronica Stuart says -" The police are not having a positive impact on the needs of this community
and at the end of the day when they leave, you can bet your bottom dollar that the problems will still be here.
The name of a presumed senior police officer by the name of Greg led an investigative inquiry on 15 Oct at the trust and
harassed a client of the trust and took her away to the police station for questioning without any explanation to the
lease holders of the building of 5 Buckleys Road.
I let the police officers into the building without knowing or asking what their agenda was but it become apparent when
the officers started looking through the rooms and lifting up table cloths of tables and looking through wardrobes that
they were looking for something but they would not say what
Police officer Greg s asked questions such as 'are those your underwear' in a room where clothes were being dried.
The trust chairperson let the officer know of his inappropriateness and told him that she was going to get the camera
and film them while they were on site
All three officers quickly left the building taking one of our clients with them with no explanation. The community
constable was with them but said nothing.
With the trust opening its doors to the youth and community in the next week, such behavior of the police leaves a sour
and very un-trusting feeling to the relationship that the trust was hoping to establish with the local police
"It is my understanding that a new surveillance bill has been passed by the government in relation to the giving the
police extraordinary powers to go and search buildings without a search warrant, but does this mean that they can
bastardise the Act" - says Veronica
A constable of the police announced their strategy and presence at the last local community board meeting and when asked
whether or not this would be a repeat of the Phillipstown intervention disaster he said no - this strategy is more about
a high visual presence and not about pulling everyone up for regos' warrants and the local community.
To date, over the last week the police have been viewed doing exactly what the constable said that they would not be
doing. We already know that police lie, so when the stint is over for whatever they are doing here in Linwood then we
will assess the damage that the police leave behind and work from there.
The trust encourages the police project to station themselves in the three carparks adjacent to the mall between the
hours of 7pm ad 3am.
Having 3 to 5 cops during the day hours is a ridiculous waste of tax payers money when statistically the trouble happens
between 7pm and 3am.The chairperson Veronica let Greg of the police know that the police are never here in the community
when we need them, which is 7pm - 3am and his response was "we have lives too".
Ridiculous.
The trust prays that the next three weeks goes by fast and that the presence of the police does not do too much damage
to the community. Arresting people, giving them fines and locking them up, then leaving the only leaves the community
with more problems.
Preventative programmes and positive injections with local NGOs and community organisations would have more positive
results than the 'Hitler - hit them hard' approach.
The trust will be watching the police and monitoring thieir behavour and reporting this to the local community board of
the Christchurch City Council
"As a trust we maintain the position that the solution for community problems here in Linwood will come from themselves
and that our role as a trust is to facilitate that process and to seek resources and platforms that can make that
happen” says Veronica
If you would like to find out more about how the police are progressing from a community perspective please call us
today.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT
VERONICA STUART 021 029 37740
ENDS