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Te Tai Hauauru MP Tariana Turia wants to meet police in Stratford this week to hear their justification for a late night raid on a local marae.
Police searching for an offender who had struck a man on the street earlier in the evening entered Whakaahurangi Marae at 2.30am and questioned children and young people who were staying there as part of a holiday programme.
Mrs Turia says the Maori Party expressed its concern to Wally Haumaha, the police manager of Maori, Pasifika and Ethnic Services.
She says assurances the police are working on cultural competency ring hollow when they continue to target Maori people.
"You would have thought they would have learned a lesson after Tuhoe to not go into Maori communities gung ho. No doubt they didn’t have guns on them when they went to the marae, but to line kids up around the marae, how traumatising is that. They wouldn’t do it in Epsom and they wouldn’t do it in Remuera, so why are they doing it, or thinking they can get away with it, in Maori communities. It is not on," Mrs Turia says.
She will also talk with Stratford elders to find out what they want done.
FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH TARIANA TURIA CLICK ON THE LINK
https://secure.zeald.com/uma/play_podcast?podlink=MjAyNjU=
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