Political Policemen

March 23, 2019

By NZB3

This officer, Constable Michelle Evans, is on duty. However, the New Zealand Police Officer is also expressing herself and her branch of government politically by adorning with religious sectarian symbolism. New Zealand official documents, uniforms, vehicles, seals, logos etc are required to be free of political symbols; We leave that to party politics and citizens in non-official acts. Our society is so secular that the 1853 Parliamentary prayer compromise was axed only last year by this government, Labour 6.0. Yet here we see the policewoman following the trend set by the Prime Minister’s own Live Action Role Play dressup. And it reads like a Woman’s Day fashion extra..

“Constable Michelle Evans is wearing a Calvin Klein scarf over her head, a red rose on her chest and is holding a Bushmaster semi-automatic rifle.”

By the by, is there some weird competitive thing going on to love-on women cops in uniform at the moment? It seems to keep cropping up. Highly unprofessional. Constable Lana Crichton was given an expose last month but in the guise of it being a scolding about objectifying policewoman. Did that fool you at all?

Off-duty official persons can be self-expressed but cross a line in doing so in the capacity of representing their office. If we break that rule now then on what other occasions will we allow the uniform to be used as a billboard? And who decides which political message? The commander or individual officer? Next thing you know police cars will start looking like Nascars….

..oh no, too late.¹ If such political expressions come from the organisation itself that’s even more worrying. If the Commissioner of Police ordered Constable Evans to go down to the graveyard with her hijab and Bushmaster semi-automatic to strut for the press…has the dam already burst on partisan secularity? At a time where the Mongrel Mob are dumping their sieg heils and swastikas their counterparts in the New Zealand Police are tattooing² and accessorising.

“As a Muslim woman myself, I think this is nothing but cheap tokenism. It’s a gimmick and pretty distasteful. All Muslims in New Zealand appreciate the sentiment, and the aroha we have received has been phenomenal since the terrorist attack last week, but support does not have to look like this.”- Headscarves movement means well but it is ‘cheap tokenism’, Stuff

Showing compassion is not a political act but the way we choose to express it can be. For example, secular or non-secular when it comes to official acts of the state? Is it to be decided by individual officers or is there some kind of uniform code? It’s a prickly problem. The problem has been solved by consensus peacefully for many years by strictly keeping officials, like the police, to a defined uniform. Politics and religion, out. This is no longer true and it’s a slippery slope.

“no, it is not political. The police officer is showing respect for the customs of people at a mass funeral service, people grieving deeply, by covering her head. There is nothing political about that. I am not a church goer, but if I go to a funeral in a Catholic Church, or any church, I respect and follow its customs. When these people are suffering over the loss of their loved ones, why add to the grief. Your comments come from someone who lacks tolerance for others.”- Comment to me on Facebook concerning this story

Repeating that ‘it’s not political’ is not an argument, nor is “showing respect” mutually exclusive with political expression. Kiwis have their own way of grieving without appropriating someone else’s who don’t want or ask us to anyway.

Besides, this is dropping the context as if it were a private visit rather than an official deployment of an on-duty uniformed cop acting as a peace officer. This isn’t a Catholic church picnic or funeral you’re rising or sitting down in unison with on your day off. And it’s not like you have to wear a funny hat like the Pope or brandish a thurible to respect and follow Catholic customs as a visitor.

The proper context is to suppose yourself on duty, an officer of the Crown representing the people officially. Suppose you were escorting a young criminal on jail leave to a tangi on a marie. As a Prisons Officer would you remove your work kit and equipment, loose the cuffs, etc out of a higher respect for custom than for your professional role? Earlier this year another officer was widely condemned for the choices he made under these conditions. So, it’s a practical test.

“A Serco prison officer has refused to remove his shoes at a marae for the tangi of a musician, Radio NZ has reported.”

“The man’s actions were labelled disrespectful and rude.”- RNZ (2018)

Simple equation. What’s more important? Upholding our Justice System by ensuring a criminal is secure? Or, showing respect to a psudo-Maori custom in the case of one pair of feet?

It’s astonishing to me that so many people put public safety as LESS important than upsetting a ritual in one instance. How ready our mainstream is to callously dispose of institutions like uniform codes that really protect us in their clamour to signal how protective they are.

—

1 Police unveil Maori-themed cop car; TVNZ (2017) and Te reo Māori police car on tiki tour; Stuff (2017)

2 Air New Zealand, the State air service, has higher standards for its flight attendants. What in the weird? Ref. Air New Zealand’s tattoo policy ‘doesn’t make sense’ – rejected application; Newshub

ref. Hijab wearing police officer’s photo makes powerful statement in wake of Christchurch mosque shootings; Stuff

ref. NZ Police disappointed that Auckland officer is ‘objectified’ on social media; Stuff

ref. A Serco prison officer refused to take his shoes off…and had his tyres slashed; Spinoff