A kuia who confronted police monitoring a Mongrel Mob tangi in Bay of Plenty says it was "totally unacceptable" for them to assemble outside of a cemetery.
Police gathered in the small Bay of Plenty community of Matapihi to monitor the funeral at nearby Waikari Marae on Thursday.
Local kuia Ngareta Timutimu (Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Ranginui) left her house to find 40 or 50 officers assembled outside Otūmoko Urupā on Matapihi Road.
"My cemetery, which is not far from my house, it was just covered with police cars, policemen, and I was absolutely shocked. I'd never seen so many police cars and policemen in the same place before, so I was shocked and basically angry and hurt. Ka tangi ahau (I cried).
"What hit me first was that they were right outside of the urupā where my tūpuna lie and where I and my whānau buried my first cousin on Saturday," she said.
Ngareta Timutimu. Photo: SUPPLIED
Timutimu said at the time, she had no idea why the police were there, but said it was "totally unacceptable" to the Matapihi community for police to assemble right outside the cemetery.
"I was so angry. I was swearing, I've never done that before. Not in public like that. But I couldn't hold back and was asking who was in charge of them, who was in charge of them, you know. What are you doing here? And it's absolutely disrespectful to be straight outside that urupā," she said.
"What were their leaders thinking to let them assemble like that outside an urupā, which is obviously full of graves and stones, so that's really what got me."
One officer came and spoke to her in Māori to calm her down, which Timutimu said she appreciated.
Police eventually moved the checkpoint about 300 metres down the road.
Bay of Plenty District Commander Superintendent Tim Anderson told Checkpoint officers were in a public place however shifted after the exchange.
Anderson said he didn't feel police made an error over the matter.
Photo: Alan Gibson
Timutimu said she just saw red and what the police had done was takahi (trample) the Matapihi community.
"Ki ahau nei ko te urupā he ahuru mōwai, mō ngā whānau me ngā hoa o rātau e takoto ana i roto i tērā urupā."
(To me a cemetery is a haven, a haven for the families and friends of those who lie in that cemetery.)
Timutimu said it was only when she began walking back along the road to her house that she realised why the police were in her community.
"Then I moved along the roadway, the path on the side of the road. I realised that this must be to do with the new legislation. Which I totally oppose."
Police in Tauranga had built good relationships with Māori communities but the new law banning gang members from wearing patches and gang insignia in public could put that at risk, she said.
"It is the legislation that is going to wreck any good relationships that have been developed between police, who have been wise and supportive and the Māori communities that are in their jurisdiction."
Timutimu was hoping that police could continue to work positively with Māori communities.
But they needed to communicate with the community and make sure they did not set up outside of key places to Māori, like marae and urupā, she said.
"I think the big picture is that there are many Māori in our communities who have have struggled to get a relationship with the police. And there has been some progress in the police and the justice department, there are some great initiatives, our rangatahi courts that we have on our marae."
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