The report is a surprise in that the IPCA actually admits some fault by the police, which is a rarity from that institution which rarely criticizes unlawful or immoral acts of the NZ police force. It also continues to back up the claims of "reasonable" and "justifiable" actions in relation to those of us who were deemed "a threat to public safety".

The report further frustrates us who have had our names smeared by the state and media for something we did not do nor plan to do. None of us were convicted of criminal group activity and the convictions for unlawful possession of arms came from "tainted" evidence. I believe the reason we lost our chance to appeal was not due to us being guilty but to the unwillingness of the crown to go through another lengthy and expensive trial. At best the crown eventually tried to claim at trial that we might possibly undertake a "Plan B" scenario incase "peaceful negotiations" between them and Tuhoe failed. What that plan was never eventuated because the police had no evidence of any plan nor even of a group.

The whole thing has been eight years of over-reaction by racist, paranoid people in power who cannot comprehend the idea of self-governance and mana motuhake but are more than willing to illegally obtain snippets of conversations from loads of different people and create a terrible scary story complete with illegally obtained images of scary-looking but harmless activities on private land.

The lives of the children and whanau terrorised by the police raids in 2007 and the years of court proceedings and suspicion can never be taken away by some insincere apology too full of excuses and too late. If countries like Canada and the United States can cope with separate indigenous reservations and entire states with separate laws inside one country then why can't we? Why do we have to hear ironic calls of apartheid and separatism? One rule for all doesn't mean equality it means authoritarianism and separatism between the rich and powerful and the poor. I don't believe that's what New Zealanders want. True equality comes through diversity, respect, trust and justice.

Emily Bailey
Parihaka

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