Young Labour Starts Important Debate On Police/Young People Relationship

On Friday night Christchurch Young Labour held a successful forum attended by over 25 people on the relationship between young people and the police. The three key points were: that the relationship is an important one and needs to be improved and worked on, young people should be included in the formation of policies and documents that will directly affect young people, and that despite perceptions to the contrary, young people are interested in their communities and want to be pat of the solutions to New Zealand’s key problems.

Government MP and Chair of the Justice and Electoral Select Committee, Tim Barnett, Youth Advocate at the Community Law Centre, Louise Taylor , and Inspector Dave Lawry from the Christchurch Police each spoke about the key issues and problems in the relationship between young people and the police and offered some solutions.

“Young Labour identified through the negative experience of our own members and news of other events in the city that there were a lot of issues surrounding the relationship between young people and the police” Chair of Christchurch Young Labour, Anselm Williams said.

“We decided that we didn’t simply want to wait around for others to do something about it, so we held a public forum to identify the key problems and give young people the chance to have their say”

“Young people have the best solution for other young people”, Anselm Williams said.

“Young Labour in Christchurch believes a good relationship between young people and the police is vital for a cohesive and well functioning society and will continue to be involved in any way we can to raise the issue within our own party, within our city, and with key stakeholders in Christchurch” Anselm Williams said.

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