A community hui has been called this weekend in South Auckland to gather feedback on the trial of armed police patrols. The meeting is part of People Against Prisons Aotearoa’s Arms Down campaign against the militarisation of policing. The trial was announced in October by Police Commissioner Mike Bush, and has seen squad cars of police commandos armed with automatic weapons put on patrol in Counties Manukau, Waikato and Canterbury.

“Armed police patrols were declared without any democratic process,” says People Against Prisons Aotearoa spokesperson Emilie Rākete. “Arms Down is meeting so that the people living at the point of police assault rifles can actually have their thoughts heard.”

“The assistant Police Commissioner told Radio New Zealand the police cared deeply about our communities’ feelings about being policed by riot cops. A month later, the police have still taken no action whatsoever to gather any feedback. We are holding this hui because if we didn’t, the police would utterly ignore us.”

The Arms Down hui is being held in Saturday 7th of December, from 2pm, in the Ōtāhuhu Town Hall at 10 High Street in Ōtāhuhu.

ENDS

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