He's admitted now that despite his denials that he knew anything about the police bashing of the clowns during the 81 Springbok tour he now says, 'of course I knew. I was the Squad Commander for goodness sake.'
He admits lying to police inquisitors, saying that 'it [the] became a matter of fighting fire with fire' in terms of closing ranks when 'Deep in Forest. One looks after one's mates.' Additionally, he has admitted ensuring that identification parade looking for a prime police suspect was 'illegal.' So he condoned the inclusion of a constable who was very similar in appearance to the Red Squad member suspect.
Having already spoken about a corrupt police culture and giving specifics of the framing of Arthur Thomas, he know reveals that he conspired to pervert the course of Justice in covering up for his squad members.
Of course unlike ex undercover Patrick O'Brien, he's not asking to charged or volunteering to plead guilty to perjury of any offence, but he seems totally confident that for his admitted crimes (for which I'm sure there is no statute of limitations on when a prosecution might be brought.) I wonder where that confidence comes from, also why at least to this point the police do nothing.
Am I the only one that things have turned upside down, pack-rapists protected from prosecution, undercover committing perjury and other crimes, ex police seemingly proudly confessing to breaking some of the most sacrosanct laws to preserve justice. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad Meurant and O'Brien have spoken out but I'm not glad at the inaction of the Government or Minister of Police to address these matters. It's perjury and conspiracy to defeat the course of Justice that strikes at the heart of the Justice system, it says that police can do such things; send the innocent to prison, turn a blind eye to offending of their colleagues and so forth, speak out about it and Police hierarchy and the Government are silent.
There needs to be an inquiry into narks/whistle blowers, police confessions being dismissed. What you say about police corruption, (perjury and conspiracy to defeat the course of justice) is in the public interest. Until there is acknowledgement from the Commissioner of Police that this is a priority and a task force is set up to travel any where in NZ to speak to complainants about historical concealment by police, I worry about the lives the police ruin.
ReplyDeletePerjury and conspiring to defeat the course of justice go to the heart of the system, at the moment 2 Christchurch lightbulbs are towering over cases in which ex police officers have spoken out. Those men should be encouraged, not ignored. Meurant seems oddly confident in his statements, but if 2 will come clean, others will follow and a better police force will result. The Commissioner's, PMs and Minister's silence is far from encouraging. Most people that have been around know that these things don't go away, ignoring them doesn't help.
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