Fury in Queen St
Among the fury, as rioters rioted and police policed, a Maori warden in Auckland led a brave plea for peace. Tom Hunt reports.
The scene could have been straight out of Monty Python. Perhaps Michael Palin would have played defence lawyer Peter Williams, who had to stand up in an august Auckland courtroom and explain – presumably straight-faced – what the word ‘‘wanker’’ meant.
It was, he said, citing one dictionary, a ‘‘foolish person’’.
John Cleese doesn’t look much like Crown prosecutor David Morris but he would still do it well – the poor prosecutor who had to explain the word’s other meaning.
Eric Idle, would have played a great Dave Dobbyn, the singer who found himself in the dock of Auckland District Court wrongly accused of inciting a riot.
The debacle, the perverse courtroom scene, started from a free concert in Auckland’s Aotea Square called Thank God, it’s over, an end of academic year celebration featuring Herbs, The Mockers, and DD Smash.
It was December 7, 1984, 32 years ago this week.
Newspaper reports at the time detailed how police were already in the crowd attempting to break up a small skirmish when some in the crowd turned on them at the otherwise peaceful event.
According to nzhistory.net.nz the power went off soon after DD Smash – led by Dobbyn – took the stage.
While they waited for it to be restored, some among the crowd started throwing bottles. Police, some in riot gear, started entering the crowd and Dobbyn uttered the words which would go down in New Zealand history.
‘‘I wish those riot squad guys would stop wanking and put their little batons away.’’
The concert was cancelled and what would follow was described in a Herald report the next day as an ‘‘orgy of violence’’.
‘‘Police and youths fought pitched battles in Queen St last night after a bloody riot erupted during a free rock concert.
‘‘Cars were burned and shops smashed and looted as hundreds of youths clashed with police in riot gear.’’
The events that night would go down in history as the worst rioting in New Zealand in 50 years.
Dame Cath Tizard was Auckland’s mayor at the time.
This week she recalled how there had been a pre-Christmas party in the council office above the square that night.
‘‘We were standing there saying, ‘isn’t it great to see people gathering in the centre city’.
‘‘Somebody said, ‘there’s something going on, why are those people running across?’.’’
Dame Cath went downstairs to the square.
‘‘Walking across the square we were ankle deep in ... everything ... you couldn’t believe so much chaos could be created so quickly.’’
Among the chaos, the looting and burning, and fury, there was a picture of dignified calm.
Maori warden Hine Grindlay, 40, and an elderly friend held hands between the rioters and police.
‘‘Enough,’’ she told the rioters.
The Dominion had a front page picture of the pair holding hands – by then more had joined them – as she led a group of about 50 straight to the front of the mob as bottles and cans flew past their heads.
‘‘A whole lot of people came behind us, all holding hands. We wanted to stop the fighting,’’ she told the newspaper. ‘‘I walked into the middle. There was one person in front of me with a steel drum, ready to hurl down at police.
‘‘I told him to go home.’’
The youth did not throw the drum and she went on to persuade others to leave.
She stayed on, helping exhausted police clear the area.
At her North Shore house the next day the mother of two explained how she had been at the concert with some North Shore children and her own son, all who she sent home as soon as fighting began.
She described how she talked it over with an elderly friend and decided to help.
‘‘The police were absolutely exhausted when I made the decision,’’ she said.
By the time the sun rose on December 8, 1984, 80 people had been arrested and dozens were injured.
A three-member riot inquiry committee was set up and before December 21, 70 witnesses had been heard. They had just days to report to the Government – it was a mountainous task, but committee member Peter Mahon was not concerned – they had technology on their side.
It was described as a 10 mega-byte word processing and high speed printing unit bought by the Department of Internal Affairs for about $30,000 ($90,000 in today’s money).
It took six months to clear Dobbyn of the charges over his on-stage comments. Specifically, the charges were offensive behaviour likely in the circumstances to cause violence against persons or property.
‘‘Thank God it’s over,’’ he said outside of Auckland District Court, once again able to look at the bright side of life.
‘‘I walked into the middle. There was one person in front of me with a steel drum, ready to hurl down at police. I told him to go home.’’ Maori warden Hine Grindlay