Armed Police & Cannabis prohibition – 2 examples of bias against Maori

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Armed Police & Cannabis prohibition – 2 examples of bias against Māori
Martyn 'Bomber' Bradbury

The stats when it comes to Māori cannabis convictions and shootings by armed Police make for sobering reading.

66% of All New Zealander's shot in the decade between 2009 and 2019 have been Māori or Pacifica and Māori are four times more likely to get a conviction for cannabis than Pakeha are.

Arming Police and continuing with cannabis prohibition have enormous impacts on Māori and the impacts are all negative and seeing as social policy must be for the social good, shooting more Māori and punishing them harsher for cannabis clearly flies in the face of good social policy values.

We can not discuss arming Police and continuing with cannabis prohibition without acknowledging the deeply discriminatory outcomes of that policy on Māori. We must see leadership from Māori Politicians on this yet all we get from Paula Bennet and Simon Bridges is a continuation of the existing status quo that is so damaging.

The armed police trial finishes in 5 months and next year we get to vote on the cannabis referendum, people wanting better more equitable outcomes will be scrutinising both results closely.

Martyn Bradbury
Editor – TheDailyBlog.nz
twitter.com/CitizenBomber

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