Students to lodge official complaint in response to unwarranted and aggressive police action

Blockade the Budget
Friday 8 June 2012
For Immediate Release

Auckland students who last Friday 1 June participated in a peaceful protest against the attacks on tertiary education in Budget 2012, are preparing to lodge an official complaint with the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) in response to the arrests of 43 peaceful student protesters.

Among the students' complaints are instances of arrestees being grabbed and dragged by the neck and throat; dragged along asphalt by their arms and legs; punching, trampling and holding unresisting students against the ground while performing arrests. Police actions were described as "arbitrary" by one of the protesters, Branko Marcetic.

The controversial Police tactic known as 'kettling' is of particular concern to the students. Organisers say, "the response was out of all proportion to the peaceful and controlled nature of the protest." Kettling involves surrounding groups of protesters with large numbers of Police, preventing them from escaping the cordon.

Marcetic described the police actions as "callous and dangerous," particularly at the outset of the protest when "Police pushed a large mass of us down the steep hill on Grafton Road when we were simply preparing to cross Symonds Street.”

Questions have also been asked about one Police officer who was involved in the operation who was not wearing a badge number on his shoulder. Students say that this "flies in the face of accountability and is incredibly poor police practice."

Last night, Thursday 7 June, approximately 50-60 students staged a silent study-in on the 6th floor of the University of Auckland General Library in an event labelled “Don’t turn out the lights on education!”. Commenting on the action, they said in a statement “This movement is not a one-off demonstration - it is a sustained campaign against an ideological attack on education.”

The 2012 Budget increases the repayment rate for student loans from 10% to 12% for all income over $19,084. This has been described by one student, Brendon Steen, as "effectively creating an additional marginal tax bracket for students who have to borrow to fund their studies."

The Budget also restricts student allowances to the first 200 weeks of undergraduate study, removing all eligibility for post-graduate study (except honours programmes) and further undergraduate study. Steen went on to say that "these changes fail to value the important role that tertiary education will play in building a smarter and more productive society in New Zealand."

Resources:
Video showing arrests, YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AJro_kCE20
3 News video showing an arrested student being dragged by the throat: http://www.3news.co.nz/More-protests-to-come---students/tabid/309/articleID/256436/Default.aspx
TVNZ video showing a police officer punching a student on the ground: http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/raw-video-police-clash-protesters-4906662
BBC Report on concerns with police kettling tactics: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8000641.stm

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