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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Vol 36 No. 5. 29 March 1973

Statement - Felicity Tuohy

Statement - Felicity Tuohy

Photo of police standing on defence force land

Photo of police standing on defence force land

After I was arrested tor obstruction, a cop shoved me into a car with his knee and I fell onto the floor in the front. The cop lifting me from behind ripped my jeans across my bum and took the opportunity for a furtive feel while the cop in the back seat grabbed my arm as I tried to climb-up. He held my arm over the back of the seat as we drove to the van where we were processed — polaroid photos and plastic handcuffs. These handcuffs are impossible to get out of unless you twist your wrists. The first pair they put on me were a bit loose and I wriggled out of them and rolled people smokes before the cops realised. Then they put another pair on me and pulled them really tight. My wrists were still sore on Monday but the marks had disappeared by mid Sunday.

That evening I was allowed to see George Rosenberg, a lawyer, and he said he would ring my parents as the cops had said they would be notified anyway. He also said that we would be bailed at 9 a.m. the next morning. During the night 14 others were brought in, including a nurse, Kelly, who had been asleep in a car and was woken up to be arrested.

The next morning we were told at hourly intervals, "you'll be bailed soon". We were fingerprinted and photographed again at about 11 a.m. and we were told we'd be bailed when everyone had been processed.

After lunch Kelly and I were left in a cell and 1 got my period. I bled all afternoon. I stood at the door of the cell and yelled out to the cops who kept coming into the back yard to fill their petrol tanks, but I was repeatedly ignored. Finally, about 5.30 p.m., three male cops came in. I was really feeling sick and had blood all over my jeans. They got me a sanitary pad (even nuns use tampax!) and then stood and watched while I went to the toilet, which had no door, and laughed about the situation. Later a woman cop came in and I was allowed to wash my jeans and dry them on the heater overnight before court the next morning. About 9 p.m. the police admitted we weren't going to be bailed, we were going straight to court from jail. Kelly still hadn't seen a lawyer.

They gave us a comb in the morning before court. The Matron who came around then carried on the tradition of treating us as poor silly girls and going "tch tch you won't do this again, will you?". Her friendliness cooled after we both stated that we didn't think we were "a little bit silly" and we would do it again. When we got to court we got to see the guys again and greeted them with much enthusiasm. The Matron, who escorted us to court with her white gloves and knitting, came over and told us to "be good and quiet and play the game" which really made us crack up.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Statements made to the press by the Chief Superintendent of the Christchurch Police after the Harewood-Weedons demonstration suggested that he was making a desperate attempt to justify the enormity of the police operations carried out over the weekend. He told a press conference on Sunday that the Police had good reason to believe that the demonstrators had an arsenal of weapons and were intent on destroying the entire U.S. military facilities at Christchurch. When asked by a member of the press to justify this claim the only reason he gave was that "there were hardline communists and anarchists present".

Chief Superintendent Tait spoke of chemicals allegedly found on two demonstrators: "Some of this was in liquid form, and after a preliminary examination it is believed that this chemical is of a type which affects the nervous and respiratory system", He went on to say that the chemical was more severe in its effects than tear gas, and that the amount found was enough to incapacitate 300 men. Salient has reliable information that the liquid chemical allegedly found on one person was described by the arresting officer as chloropicrin, a chemical that affects only the respiratory system. It is doubtful that the minute amount known to have been found would have had the power to incapacitate 3 men let alone 300 men.

Further to this scare story, Tait claimed that the police had found [unclear: a] home-made bomb near the U.S.

Navy support force headquarters [unclear: or] Saturday night. It was a bomb that was being treated by the police "[unclear: lik] gelignite". Mr Tait said the bomb was made of a yellow substance set inside a fruit can and had a protruding three inch wick. We're not setting ourselves up as explosives [unclear: exper] but it must be a mighty fine chemical which could be placed in a fruit can and yet have the properties of an explosive like gelignite. As well as being highly explosive it must be extremely safe with such a primitive system of detonation. Any mad anarchist bomber would have to be one hell of a good runner. Sounds more like the old sulphur type smoke bomb to us.

Judging by present evidence Tait's arsenal of weapons seems to boil down to a quarter of a pint or so of chloropicrin and a smoke bomb; meagre weapons to use 'to destroy the entire American military facilities at Christchurch'. Of course the police are not really concerned about the validity of their statements; for them it is enough that they have gone some way to justifying the weekend's exercise. The weekend at Harewood-Weedons left many demonstrators with the distinct impression that they were being used as guinea pigs in a large police exercise. Much new equipment was used and the whole procedure of arresting people was streamlined. Gideon Tait claims that it was not an exercise for the coming [unclear: Springbok] Tour but the implications are plain.

Tait said the tactics weren't new [unclear: but] merely a reversion to tactics [unclear: used] "notably in the 1951 water[unclear: front] strike". It's not clear whether [unclear: Tait] was acting on the orders of his [unclear: superiors], or whether the fiasco was [unclear: all] his own idea. But one thing is [unclear: certain]. If the police are reverting to [unclear: the] Holland tactics of 1951, demon[unclear: strators] will be throwing more than [unclear: cocks] next time.

Twenty three people spent from [unclear: Saturday] night till Monday morning [unclear: n] the infamous Christchurch cells, [unclear: built] around 1900. The police used [unclear: their] age old tactic of holding these [unclear: people] at ransom, not to be released [unclear: until] the demonstrators packed their [unclear: bags] and went home. Tait tried to [unclear: get] the assurance of the organiser of the demonstration, Owen Wilkes, that there would be no more demonstrations. It was an impossible request, and little more than blackmail. Worse than that, it was a clumsy attempt to get Owen to admit that he was able to control the demonstrators, and could therefore be held responsible for all that happened.

At about ten o'clock on Saturday night Tait told demonstrators that if they went anywhere near any part of Christchurch airport or the base at Weedons they would be arrested on the spot. It was a bluff that was not called, but had it been it may have resulted in the police having to far exceed their powers and arrest people for doing nothing more than assembling to demonstrate — a right recognised by law.

Tait has gone to press to justify his tactics, and has actually been praised for the new hard line that the police too.

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Censored by printer