14 December 2000

Police Response Over Jiang Zemin Protests 'Grossly Inadequate'

Green MP Keith Locke attacked as 'grossly inadequate' the police response to a Select Committee report which criticised police action against people protesting last year against Chinese president Jiang Zemin.

"It's unacceptable for Police Commissioner Rob Robinson to let his officers off the hook, on the grounds there was 'good faith' when they 'exercised the rights they did'"[Evening Post, December 13], said Mr Locke, the party's police spokesperson.

"The Select Committee decided that there was 'an explicit pre-determined intention to protect the President from unwanted exposure to protesters'. That was clearly against the law," he said.

"The Commissioner was showing contempt for the Select Committee, and denying police accountability to the law, when he stated that no officers involved would be reprimanded [Evening Post, December 13].

"We are not talking about an isolated incident. The Select Committee found the police acted to remove demonstrators from the President's view on demonstrations in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch," said Mr Locke.

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