I posted recently on how NZ took another step closer to “third world” status with the decision to clear beggars off the street for the RWC (in Palmerston North). When it comes to undesirables we want them “out of sight out of mind” while the rugby crowd are in town.
That was bad enough, but now we learn that there are plans to go ahead with full scale racial profiling, and specifically target “drunk Maori”. I’m not making this up:
‘Drunk Maori’ to be targetted at World Cup
Wellington bar owners say drunk Maori will be specifically targetted during the World Cup, by a 50-year-old law that has been pulled from the archives by police and the city council.
The law allows Maori wardens to enter bars and remove drunk or violent Maori.
Many bar owners say it is a shameful, racist law and the Government now wants to take a look at it. …
“I can’t get my head around it and it is a racist law and I think it should be changed, and I can’t understand it’s still in the legislation,” says Wellington bar owner Jeremy Price.
Another bar owner, John Coleman, is just as worked up. “It’s disgraceful, disrespectful and racist I can’t believe that they’re doing this,” he says. …
Lots of countries have daft old laws still on the books, there are any number of humorous web pages devoted to mocking them. Not many countries drag out these relics and start applying them again. By all means crack down on drunkenness – drunk Aussies, drunk Germans, drunk Swedes, drunk English, even (perish the thought!) drunk Pakeha. But racial profiling for the RWC? What sort of message will that send about New Zealand when international media get hold of it?
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