Greens co-leader Marama Davidson speaks out against plans to further arm police

Greens co-leader Marama Davidson is critical of plans to further arm police officers and will this weekend speak against the move at a rally in Auckland. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Greens co-leader Marama Davidson has renewed her criticism of the Police and New Zealand's Justice system, saying its biased against Māori and Pasifika peoples.

She is also critical of plans to further arm police officers and will this weekend speak against the move at a rally in Auckland.

Davidson told the Herald she is seeking more information from Police Minister Stuart Nash about the Government's plans, but stopped short of saying she would lobby for them to be overturned.

Earlier this month, the police announced it would be rolling out special police vehicles, manned by armed offenders' squad (AOS) members, which would be ready to attend major incidents at any time if needed.

The unit would be able to more quickly help with higher-risk situations, such as warrants for dangerous suspects or drug raids.

Davidson is not happy about this, telling the Herald that more guns have never resulted in less violence.

"Our justice system is biased - Māori are almost eight times more likely than Pākehā to be subject to police violence," she said.

"It is therefore not unreasonable to assume armed forces units will be disproportionately deployed against Māori and Pasifika communities."

The event this weekend is organised by People Against Prisons Aotearoa and aims to end armed police patrols.

"Police cars patrolling Māori and Pacific neighbourhoods armed with machine guns have turned our most diverse neighbourhoods into police states," the group's spokesperson, Emilie Rākete, says.

Davidson said the police need to focus more on training and recruitment initiatives, such as racial bias training.

She said the Greens have been calling for this, but have not seen it come into effect yet.

"However," she said, "it's also important to address the systematic causes of crime. We know that crime decreases when our whānau are housed, pantries are full and incomes are adequate".

This is not the first time Davidson has called out the police.

Mid-last year, the Greens co-leader accused the police of racial profiling and "systemic racism".

She said her 42-year-old brother still gets pulled over for "random checks", and cited racial profiling as a reason to not arm the police.