Criminal defence lawyer Lucy Rogers was arrested at a pro-Palestine protest on Auckland's Queen St on Saturday, for breaching the peace and failing to comply with lawful instructions of a police officer as she held up a sign criticising the protesters.
Video / Lucy Rogers
A criminal defence lawyer who was at a pro-Palestine protest on Auckland’s Queen St claims police wrongfully arrested her as she peacefully held up a placard.
Lucy Rogers, who told the Herald she was present as an “anti-hypocrisy” protester wanting to highlight violence committed by both sides in the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, was arrested for breach of the peace and failure to comply with the lawful instructions of a police officer.
“They [police] just wanted to get me out of sight and shut me up for the duration of the protest,” Rogers claimed, calling the arrest on Saturday a “misuse of power”.
But police alleged Rogers was attempting to “antagonise” the crowd and their role during protests was to uphold the law.
Rogers was holding a sign reading, “Selective condemnation of genocide is evil”.
“I was standing silently and peacefully several metres away from the protesters with the sign above my head,” she said.
“I know - I’m familiar with the law, and it’s absolute nonsense that the protesters reasonably believed that I was threatening them.”
In a video of the arrest supplied to the Herald, a police officer can be heard telling Rogers the pro-Palestine protesters were “going to get upset [with the sign] and then it’s going to start a riot”.
Rogers told the Herald: “Police intervened almost immediately. They saw my sign and then came and took it off my hands and tore it up.”
When she asked for her sign back, an officer told her it was gone: “I don’t care, I’ll stand here,” Rogers responded, “What are you going to do, tell me I can’t stand on a footpath?”
Officers then arrested Rogers, handcuffing her and loading her into the back of a paddy wagon, where she stayed until police let her go without charging her.
When police uncuffed Rogers, she claimed they did so only if she undertook not to return to the protest. She said she wouldn’t return as she had to get back to a work meeting, but she told police she wouldn’t stop attending future protests.
The protest was against the importing of Israeli goods, with one protester threatening to remove a hummus product co-owned by an Israeli company from New Zealand supermarket shelves.
‘Using breach of the peace laws to silence legitimate speech’ - advocate
Rogers contacted the Free Speech Union about the arrest, who have since gone in to bat for her, saying they would write to police Commissioner Andrew Coster and Auckland District Commander Karyn Malthus, as well as lay a complaint with the Independent Police Conduct Authority.
Free Speech Union chief executive Jonathan Ayling said police quashed Rogers’ right to free expression and said police “must not fall into the trap of using ‘breach of the peace’ laws to silence legitimate speech as has become common overseas”.
He said: “Commissioner Coster must ensure this behaviour is swiftly stamped out and that the police affirm their role in protecting peaceful protest and counter-protest, not preventing it themselves.”
An earlier pro-Palestine at Aotea Square in, Auckland on November 19. Photo / Alex Burton
Acting Superintendent Jacqui Whittaker, the relieving Auckland City District Commander, told the Herald officers “were required to engage with a female whose behaviour gave rise for concern”.
Whittaker said: “Her attempts to antagonise people rallying along Queen Street was deemed to meet a threshold where a serious disturbance or violence between parties could eventuate.
“Police applied a graduated response to dealing with the situation, which saw the female arrested for breach of the peace, but was subsequently released and received a warning a short time later, once the safety risk to all parties had been mitigated,” she said.
Samira Zaiton, co-convenor of the "Justice for Palestine" movement, at an earlier pro-Palestine protest. Photo / Ted Black
“Our role in any protest action is to uphold the law. Police recognise the right to peaceful protest as well as the public’s right to go about their lawful business.
“During this, and other previous planned gatherings, Police have taken an approach appropriate to the circumstances and this has included engagement and monitoring as well as enforcement action in response to unlawful behaviour.”
Raphael Franks is an Auckland-based reporter who covers breaking news. He joined the Herald as a Te Rito cadet in 2022.
