19 February 2024

Allowing the Police to set conditions for protests in new legislation would not have addressed the abject failure by police officers to protect public safety in Albert Park on 25 March 2023.

An Independent Police Conduct Authority report released yesterday [Wednesday, 18 February] puts the failure of policing the Let Women Speak event down to inadequate risk assessments and inadequate planning and resourcing as a result.

The Women’s Rights Party says the problems went a lot deeper than operational failures, and were reflective of a lack of respect of the women who were organising the event and the supporters who were there at Albert Park. The women were simply not taken seriously.

The 156-page report is heavily critical of the Police handling of protests in general, and has been used to justify draconian recommendations to give police more powers, but the entire report about Albert Park is buried 77 pages into the report as Appendix A.

Women’s Rights Party Co-leader Jill Ovens says it is clear from the Report that Police knew well before the Let Women Speak event in Auckland of a heightened threat to public safety after organisers alerted them to violent confrontations by protestors at similar events featuring Kelly-Jay Keen-Minshull (also known as Posie Parker) in Melbourne and Hobart the previous week.

Ms Ovens says no one, including the Police, could have missed the well publicised attempts by Green Party MPs to block Kelly-Jay Keen from entering New Zealand, the widely reported incendiary comments by then Immigration Minister Michael Woods, and the widely distributed social media posts by Green Party and Labour MPs, including Grant Robertson who was Deputy Prime Minister at the time.

“The media hype in the lead-up to the event was relentless with accusations of dangerous and ‘incorrect world views’, neo-Nazism and white supremacy – all without basis and aimed at inciting hatred against Kelly-Jay Keen and her supporters,” Ms Ovens says.

Kiritapu Allan, then Minister of Justice, joined the fray on 22 March, three days before the event, with a call to action: “Let’s do what we do, Aotearoa – stand up, make some noise and support our trans whānau by showing up and drowning out any bigotry.”

The Green Party also put out a call to their members to join in the protest, signed by then MPs Elizabeth Kerekere, Golriz Ghahraman and current Green MP Ricardo Menendez-March.

As many as 2000 protestors turned up, making an incredible noise, pushing over barriers, intimidating and threatening the 150 or so who were there to hear Kelly-Jay Keen and to have a say.

Police stood by as women desperately called 111 where their cries for help were brushed aside. Some were trapped on the band rotunda as protestors climbed over the walls having pushed down the barriers that were supposed to separate the protestors from those who came to hear Kelly-Jay Keen.

Others went up to police officers who were lounging under trees at the back of the crowd. They were told other police officers were “over there”, pointing to the rotunda.

“No they weren’t!” says Women’s Rights Party Co-leader Jill Ovens, who was directly in front of the rotunda and yelling out to the TV crew beside her: “Where are the Police? Where are the Police?” “Yes,” said the reporter. “It’s crazy.”

Ms Ovens says the calls for help were ignored. A handful of police officers who had been deployed to the event were hanging around a Police van parked on the edge of Albert Park. As Kelly-Jay Keen, her security officers and supporters pushed their way through shoving and abuse as they tried to get away from the baying crowd, only then did the police officers finally act.

“To suggest, as described in the Report, that Police responded by assisting private security guards in facilitating the main speaker to leave and others to leave if they feel unsafe, is nothing short of a lie,” Ms Ovens says.

Women’s Rights Party members are reporting on fb today their complete loss of trust in the Police. “Being at Albert Park and experiencing first hand the lack of response by the Police has left many of us wounded,” said one.

The Report states that the Police Intelligence Unit in Wellington picked up on what was happening in Melbourne a week before the Auckland event. They passed the information on to Auckland Police, but nothing was done to increase Police resources on the day.

The Report criticises the Operation Commander and Forward Commander for not properly responding to unfolding events by deploying additional staff to protect Let Women Speak supporters.

Ms Ovens says it was deliberate. “They knew, and when push came to shove, literally, they were nowhere to be seen,” she says.

She said when she and others arrived some time before Kelly-Jay Keen arrived, they could see the barriers that Let Women Speak organisers had set up and about a metre inside there was a rope fence.

“We assumed that was where the Police were going to form a line to separate the protestors who were already moving towards where we were in the fenced off area. But the Police were nowhere to be seen. We felt like we were sitting ducks.”

When Kelly-Jay Keen arrived at the rotunda, the protestors burst through the barriers in a very aggressive and intimidating manner resulting in a serious assault of a 71-year-old woman. A police officer told the IPCA that he hadn’t expected the “rainbow community” be so aggressive.

“It is clear there was bias on the part of the police, not helped by training they have been receiving that portrays gender critical views as hate speech,” Ms Ovens says.

The Report identifies that Police suffer from a lack of legislative guidance, and limits on their ability to facilitate protests and enforce reasonable limits on protests. It also says that Council notification and approval processes are ineffective. It recommends new legislation around notification of, and planning for protests.

The Women’s Rights Party says notification was not the problem. The Report documents extensive notification, liaison and planning with both the Auckland City Council and the Police by the event organisers from 17 February, with increasing urgency by organisers from 20 March.

Police also liaised with the protest organisers who gave assurances they would be noisy, but the protest would otherwise be peaceful. The protest organisers were clearly unable to control their people who were spurred on by MPs and other community leaders amongst them.

“There were issues as the Let Women Speak event organisers were using the 105 Police line and other channels to communicate their growing concern, resulting in two separate file numbers, but this is not an issue that requires new legislation,” Ms Ovens says. “We don’t need additional laws to extend Police powers. What we need is for the Police to fix their internal systems and do their job.”

The Report found that the Operation Commander and the Forward Commander on the day did not properly respond to unfolding events by deploying additional staff to protect the Let Women Speak supporters.

Further, the Report reveals that the Operations manager wasn't even attending planning meetings and gave the wrong instruction to do a ‘low-profile’ police presence. This was blindly followed no matter how desperate and urgent the situation became.

The Report also found that the Police response after protestors surrounded the rotunda was inadequate and did not have sufficient regard to public safety.

However, as the WDI NZ has pointed out, despite the criticism which vindicates the Let Women Speak supporters who complained to the IPCA about the Police response, media attention has been focussing on IPCA calls for a law change, and not on the shockingly "inadequate" response at Albert Park.

What really lay behind the failure to protect the mostly women supporters?

Why did the Auckland Police ignore their own Police Intelligence Unit, the event organisers’ growing concerns, and the desperate 111 calls on the day, including calls from people watching the live stream from all over the country?

Did Police take their cue from the politicians? Or was there a deliberate decision from on high?

Is Police diversity training reinforcing bias against women who want to defend their rights?

How independent was the IPCA Report? Was the Albert Park analysis buried as an Appendix to hide the real motivation of the Report, that is to extend Police powers?

These are questions being raised by Women’s Rights Party members and others.

Finally, where is the apology to the women and men who were at Albert Park who are still traumatised be their experience, and those from the wider New Zealand community who continue to suffer from the chilling effect of knowing they cannot reply on the Police to protect them?

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