Kiwis have say about armed police

George Floyd death in US and local racism worries see Armsdown website flooded

Anumber of Kiwis are expressing their disdain at the idea of armed police patrols in New Zealand after the controversial Armed Response Teams trial.

The six-month ART trial aimed to tackle a reported rise in gun crime and to boost police capabilities after the Christchurch mosques terror attacks.

It focused on Canterbury, Waikato and Counties Manukau — areas cited as having the highest rates of firearms incidents.

The trial ended in April and a review is now under way. But calls are mounting on social media for any plans of armed police officers to be abolished.

Amid concerns of police violence and racism, the website Armsdown. nz was created for Kiwis to share stories about their experiences with police and to share their opinion on armed officers.

The hashtag #ArmsDownNZ was also trending on Twitter in New Zealand, skyrocketing in popularity after the death of black man George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis last week.

Floyd died after an officer pressed his knee onto Floyd’s neck for several minutes as he was being arrested on May 25.

The officer has since been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. Riots have since raged across the United States.

Arms Down NZ spokesperson Emmy Rakete said the response around the campaign had been “overwhelmingly positive”.

Rakete said that in just the 24-hour period after the “racist” police killing of George Floyd in the United States, the hashtag was shared 10,000 times.

“We see what happens in countries like America: when we have armed frontline police officers we get racist police killings. We do not accept that for this country and we don’t need to, that’s why so many people have come to Arms Down.” After the ART trial was announced in October last year, there were outcries about a lack of community consultation, especially from Ma¯ori.

The trials were conducted in areas with a disproportionate number of Ma¯ori people, and those communities were also disproportionately targeted by police, Ma¯ori justice advocate Sir Kim Workman said last week.

Between 2009-2019, two-thirds of all people shot by New Zealand police were Ma¯ori or Pasifika.

A police spokesperson said police were “committed to remaining a generally unarmed police service”.