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The figures don’t lie.
Youth advocacy group Just Speak says statistics point to systemic prejudice against Māori in the criminal justice.
Spokesperson Danielle Kelly says when police question young people in relation to acts considered merely dangerous or negligent; Māori are prosecuted 46 percent of the time whereas Pākeha were only prosecuted 9 percent.
“Numbers that we look at don’t actually go into the factors that might be taken into account by police and making that decision but certainly the discrepancies of which raises a question whether there is some institutional biased or structural discrimination in our police force or among others,” Danielle Kelly from Just Speak.
The Green Party has written to the new Race Relations Commissioner, Dame Susan Devoy, asking her to investigate the high rate of prosecutions against Māori youth.
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