The report is a surprise in that the IPCA actually admits some fault by the police, which is a rarity from that
institution which rarely criticizes unlawful or immoral acts of the NZ police force. It also continues to back up the
claims of "reasonable" and "justifiable" actions in relation to those of us who were deemed "a threat to public safety".
The report further frustrates us who have had our names smeared by the state and media for something we did not do nor
plan to do. None of us were convicted of criminal group activity and the convictions for unlawful possession of arms
came from "tainted" evidence. I believe the reason we lost our chance to appeal was not due to us being guilty but to
the unwillingness of the crown to go through another lengthy and expensive trial. At best the crown eventually tried to
claim at trial that we might possibly undertake a "Plan B" scenario incase "peaceful negotiations" between them and
Tuhoe failed. What that plan was never eventuated because the police had no evidence of any plan nor even of a group.
The whole thing has been eight years of over-reaction by racist, paranoid people in power who cannot comprehend the idea
of self-governance and mana motuhake but are more than willing to illegally obtain snippets of conversations from loads
of different people and create a terrible scary story complete with illegally obtained images of scary-looking but
harmless activities on private land.
The lives of the children and whanau terrorised by the police raids in 2007 and the years of court proceedings and
suspicion can never be taken away by some insincere apology too full of excuses and too late. If countries like Canada
and the United States can cope with separate indigenous reservations and entire states with separate laws inside one
country then why can't we? Why do we have to hear ironic calls of apartheid and separatism? One rule for all doesn't
mean equality it means authoritarianism and separatism between the rich and powerful and the poor. I don't believe
that's what New Zealanders want. True equality comes through diversity, respect, trust and justice.
Emily Bailey
Parihaka