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Injustice Video? The Appeal Against Insanity
The Appeal Against Insanity
http://baboeska.wordpress.com
I am appealing my court stuff on Tuesday 19 June 2007 at 10:00am in the High Court in Wellington.
In October last year there was a protest against a Weapons Conference being held at Te Papa, our national museum, and referred to colloquially as “Our Place”. Only it is not the place of the New Zealand people for a few days a year, when Arms Dealers from all over the world congregate on this small area to work on sales of weapons.
On the first day of the protest I witnessed numerous assaults by members of New Zealand’s police force against peaceful protestors, all of which would have been recorded on CCTV, yet none of those assaults were investigated. I witnessed Andrzej Kowalczyk (head of the NZPD Strategic Response Group) pull a male by his dreads, I was hit in the face by another Police Officer, I was shoved around alot, I witnessed someone else’s glasses get broken, and a general breakdown of the New Zealand Police Force’s ordinarily strong ethics
What I witnessed was disturbing and made me fear and doubt that the NZPD had any real interest in preserving law and order, after all the entire Strategic Response Group of the NZPD was fully engaging in and encouraging the affray.
While at trial I witnessed the head of the SRG, Andrzej Kowalczyk, refer to the “melee” with protestors with a smile on his face, as if he enjoyed participating and willingly participated in the affray.
To the best of my knowledge, the incident that sparked the violence initially occured when a Police Officer, G718 struck a woman in the face across a barrier for no apparent reason.
On the next day, I was with a good friend of mine, manning a banner. We were standing within half a metre of the police lines, and had they wished to do so they would have had ample ability to engage with us in friendly conversation. They did not do this, and we continued to protest, occasionally chanting “Arms Trade, Death Trade,” amongst other slogans.
We were then told the protest was over and were moving to depart when my friend was grabbed by a Three Man Extraction Squad with no prior warning of what was occuring.
Based on the assaults and affray I had experienced and seen the Police engage in on the previous day I believed that my friend was being assaulted unlawfully by members of the police force, as neither I nor my friend had been given any prior warning or indication as to what was happening.
I then reacted instinctively to protect my friend against what I percieved to be unlawful excessive and violent action on the behalf of the NZPD Strategic Response Group, linked arms with him, and was dragged away and charged with one count of Obstructing Justice.
On the record I was almost charged with Resisting Arrest, which would be ironic, after all the Police need a reason to arrest people in this country.
Two months ago the charge came to trial as I pleaded Not Guilty, as I believed I was innocent due to the fact that I had no foreknowledge of what was occuring.
It was explained during trial that the “Three Man Extraction Squad” is a legitimate tactic to use in order to apprehend someone safely and peacefully, however I was not aware of that at the time and misunderstood the Police’s actions.
At the end of the trial I was found guilty and convicted of one count of “Obstruction of Justice”, and all defence evidence was discredited.
I am currently in the process of appealing this judgement as I sincerely held the belief at the time of my actions that the Police’s actions were unlawful, violent and excessive, and that to not intervene would allow a miscarraige of justice and possible physical harm to come to a friend of mine.
The Judge’s final judgement states that “It is for the prosecution to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the defendant did not have such honest beliefs”.
Watch the video for yourself, you be the judge:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2QAaClsMZg
(I’m the guy in the green hoody)
I did not see that proven beyond reasonable doubt while in court, and furthermore, the Judge states, referring to myself, “He said he believed he was watching a bunch of police officers grabbing a person with no prior warning. He believed the action was unlawful and that the police action seemed excessive and unreasonable.”
However, none the less, the Judge ruled that all prosecution evidence was to be taken at face value and accepted without a doubt, and all defence evidence was to be discredited.
Hence the appeal, as Prosecution made no attempt to disprove that I held those beliefs at the time, and acted in full accordance with those beliefs.
ENNDS
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