Police And Armourguard Officers Storm The Temple

Some 20 police and Armourguard officers stormed the Temple, confiscating band equipment worth well in excess of $10,000 as well as arresting patrons and band members without due cause and assaulting a number of patrons including a female, just before midnight Saturday 9th June.

The confiscation was carried out despite no warnings being issued to the band. The musicians from the band "We Dunno" had offered to stop playing. The officers also confiscated equipment from another band that wasn't even being played at the time.

Both Armourguard officers or police officers refused to communicate with Karen q Temple, owner and manager of the bar, and the police officers refused to provide their badge numbers. "Their manner was extremely aggressive" says Karen q Temple, "you could tell they were here to fight".

44 onlookers have given the Temple their names and phone numbers and are willing to act as witnesses to the unacceptable behaviour exhibited by police and Armourguard. There was also some video footage taken of the debacle.

Noise Control has been an ongoing issue for the Temple and the few other live music venues in Auckland like the Kings Arms and the Java Jive. Temple owner and manager Karen q Temple has been dealing with Auckland City Council regularly over this issue and had been given the following advice;

"Since the testing has been done, and the view was that the noise level is fine as long as the door is shut, noise control officers won't be sent upon complaint. Instead, an Environmental Health Officer (employed by Council) will go, and will have to take proper measurements. This should mean that provided you are willing to turn down if you actually are over the limit on some occasions, you shouldn't have to worry about being shut down, or dealing with the noise control officers and their subjective measurements".

At no time was any employee of Auckland City Council at this noise control situation, or were any noise measurements taken. Although both Armourguard and the police were advised of Council's ruling, they were not prepared to either read or hear it.

There has been considerable interest from the media; there will be TV3 news coverage on Sunday evening, Newstalk ZB has covered it, Bomber on Channel Z will be discussing it Sunday night, Radio Detox on Planet FM have done an interview and Radio Pacific will be covering it on Monday.

Any comments will be gratefully accepted as the Temple will be addressing this situation at length with the Police Complaints Authority, Auckland City Council and Armourguard.

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