Police Thugs at it here and there

The thugs that pass as this country’s police force have once again shown their true colours: a report obtained under the official information act outlining 84 different police operations against political actions demonstrates their fixation with shutting down dissent and opposition to the status-quo.

‘We organised a solidarity protest outside of the Greek Embassy in Wellington shortly after Greek police murdered a 15 year-old boy in Athens in December 2008. The small picket was greeted by members of the Diplomatic Protection Squad, police photographers and uniformed officers. In total contrast to what Police Commissioner Howard Broad said about police not being interested in political groups, these people proceeded to photograph everyone there and prevented them from entering the Embassy offices to seek an appointment with the Greek representative’ said ABC spokeswoman Ivanna B. Free.

In June 2009, an ABC organised protest at the Australian High Commission relating to the Melbourne G20 trials attracted much the same response, heavy police surveillence and presence.

Treatment meted out by police across the diverse spectrum of political activities listed in the OIA report clearly demonstrates that it is not just what people protest that garners serious police attention, but that people protest at all. This creates not only an atmosphere of intimidation from police, but casts all political dissent as criminal activity just waiting to be prosecuted. Thus we feel the insidious grip of authority tighten around all but the most privileged in society.

The Anarchist Black Cross is an international federation that works to abolish all prisons. Prisons are primarily a tool used by those with power and money to punish the poor and disenfranchised people in society, not to reduce crime or rehabilitate people. In Greece, as in New Zealand, the police and prisons are the coercive, violent wings of the capitalist state; they exist to keep us all in line. What we know, however, is that no matter how many police there are or how many prisons are built, there will always be resistance against injustice and exploitation. To the police we say, you cannot run operations on all of us. We are EVERYWHERE.

ENDS

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