New Zealand to apologize for 'racist' historic police raids in 1970s

Even admitting that overstaying a visa would justify the kind of police raids that one would imagine for drug cartels and serial killers, the point of the apology is exactly that they were targeting ANYONE looking a certain way, including native New Zealanders and perfectly legal immigrants, they were doing it BECAUSE of how they looked, and they were doing it aggressively and often violently. Maybe imagining the Japanese police knocking at 4am on the door of every caucasian-looking person in the country, raiding all the pubs in Tokyo and the clubs in Roppongi every night, because two people looking like them helped Ghosn escape, can stimulate a bit the understanding and empathy?

@bungle

the apologies were issued exactly because the only “intel” the New Zealand police had was the way people looked. So yes it is a hot topic because it was a textbook description of racism: if group A is considered a group because of how people look, it is racism.

Okay, help me work through this. Say I'm a copper working on immigration violations and an informant passes on intel that a bunch of Samoan illegals have gone to ground in the local Samoan community. Not knowing exactly where the illegals are, I instruct my team to go door-to-door in the Samoan community to root them out. Should I go rousting the Chinese and Indians too justto make up the numbers?

If your only course of action is "whelp, better interrogate everyone of this race until we found out who did it" you are REALLY bad at your job. The solution isn't to roust everyone equally, it is to actually do detective work without bothering every honest citizen in the process.

Not to mention, these weren't polite "Excuse me, have you seen anyone matching the following description?" type interrogations by all accounts.

AttilathehungryToday  05:29 pm JST

...so the PM will apologize for things that happened before she was born...

I wonder when the "apology tour" of the 21st century will end... possibly when the 'oppressors' pony up enough cash to satisfy the 'victims".

Didn't see any mention of money and the prime minister was not forced by anyone to make an apology, she was just doing the right thing. Her birthdate has absolutely nothing to do with this situation. Many societies feel it's OK to use and abuse (for their own selfish gain) the people who don't look like them and she is acknowledging that a wrong was committed. Europeans went there, WERE oppressors, stole the land and victimized the natives and others. Those points are unarguable.

louisferdinandcJune 14  04:27 pm JST

@bungle

the apologies were issued exactly because the only “intel” the New Zealand police had was the way people looked. So yes it is a hot topic because it was a textbook description of racism: if group A is considered a group because of how people look, it is racism.

Yes, America. When are you going to apologize for the child-snatchings and concentration camps? Abolish ICE and punish Traitor Don.

...so the PM will apologize for things that happened before she was born...

I wonder when the "apology tour" of the 21st century will end... possibly when the 'oppressors' pony up enough cash to satisfy the 'victims".

Maybe imagining the Japanese police knocking at 4am on the door of every caucasian-looking person in the country, raiding all the pubs in Tokyo and the clubs in Roppongi every night, because two people looking like them helped Ghosn escape, can stimulate a bit the understanding and empathy?

You are right - there is a literal invasion of geeky whitey’s storming the borders of Japan, overwhelming the low skilled job market and gorging on the Japanese welfare system. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen white homeless men loitering around Shibuya train station looking for day work or selling cheap name brand knock-offs. It’s a national crisis of white people spreading through out the country side - it doesn’t even feel like Japan anymore. That is how much the problem reminds me of the illegal immigration problem in New Zealand. Can’t these white people just stay where they came from!

PM Arden must feel like she should apologize because she feels guilty for being a racist. No everyone is of course - but since she feels so intensely racist she must believe that she must apologize for it in the most expansive manner in which she is capable of. It’s sad that she feels like she must cast her guilt and shame on others that aren’t racist like she has apparently been. There is no call for blame shifting. She should own it for herself.

Yes, America. When are you going to apologize for the child-snatchings and concentration camps? Abolish ICE and punish Traitor Don.

Well let’s wait until Democrats apologize for slavery, the Klan, separate but equal, Jim Crow, putting Japanese Americans in concentration camps, etc. Then I think Don should not apologize for opposing CRT indoctrination sessions in the US federal government. We are all equal under the law. Even white Leftist colonizers.

Love the way the 'victims' try to gin up Nazi style imagery in their statement: "Aslatian (read "German") dogs, frothing...the midnight knock on the door..... really trying a bit too hard here.

If these people were overstaying their visas, and were arrested, they have nobody to blame but themselves.

New Zealand to apologize for 'racist' historic police raids in 1970s

Did she order those raids? If not, how far is this apology thing going to stretch? Are the Maoris going to apologize for the genocide of the Morioris? That would be interesting.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced Monday she will offer a formal apology 

she screwed up, she just open the door for limitless compensation.

I can just imagine some lawyer with Australian dollar signs in his eyes ready to help those poor victims to all that tax payer money.

and if the gov refutes they will labeled racist and bigoted.