#auckland pride

The New Zealand Police’s latest publicity stunt, in which it has slapped a rainbow on a police car to “celebrate” diversity, is a slap in the face to every marginalised person who has ever been mistreated by the cops. As the comments in the cops’ patronising #WeCareEnough hashtag show, our community is insulted that the NZ Police believes we will mistake a coat of paint for any kind of real progress towards ending police brutality, racism, and violence.

We can’t help but be reminded of last year’s eye-wateringly insensitive stunt for Māori Language Week, in which “pirihimana” was written on the side of police cars along with a koru pattern. Police officers got to pat themselves on the back for celebrating Te Reo Māori while continuing to do their job of tearing apart Māori communities.

For the young Māori racially profiled by the police every day, picked from the streets of their papakāinga and dragged through a racist and colonial criminal justice system, a temporary paintjob on one police car means less than nothing. The families of the people killed every year by police in reckless, unnecessary car chases wouldn’t sleep easier knowing that it was a rainbow car which killed them. When a jackboot is ground into your neck, as we see almost routinely on Aotearoa’s streets, no amount of rhinestones will distract from the injustice.

At every proud moment in our history when brave people have stood up against evil, the cops were right there, standing with that evil. It was the cops who burned and destroyed Parihaka. It was the cops who dragged Pacific Islanders from their homes at dawn. It was the cops who took to the streets in defence of South African apartheid. Every bone was broken and every drop of blood was spilled, not because there weren’t enough rainbows on their cars, but because violence is the basic function of the Police.

We are not enemies of the Police because of appearances or because of symbolism. We are enemies of the Police because the Police are enemies of the people.

The Police can keep their rainbow cars and their carefully massaged PR. #WeCareEnough to be out here doing the real work to protect and strengthen Aotearoa’s LGBTQ community. We are among those beginning the hard work of healing the damage inflicted every day by the Police. If you care enough too, please join us.