By Amanda Gillies
Mana Party leader Hone Harawira has described how police broke into his car, arrested him and then asked if the handcuffs were too tight.
The MP was one of eight people arrested as protesters tried to stop a state house in Auckland being removed to make way for private developers.
It was a scene Mr Harawira described as “ugly, surreal and over-the-top”.
He was arrested after he parked his car in front of a removal truck, locked himself in and shone his lights on the house set for removal. He turned up the music and ignored police.
Police then broke his car window and hauled him out. But Mr Harawira claims he still received special treatment.
“They put these plastic cuffs on me and said, ‘They're not too tight, are they Mr Harawira?'”
He was charged with failure to remove a vehicle from a road, a charge he called petty, saying “99.9 percent of New Zealanders would've never heard of it”.
Mr Harawira will have to appear in court on October 17 and says he will the fight the charge and use it as an opportunity to highlight his cause.
He says in 2008 the Government promised people living in Glen Innes state houses wouldn't be moved if they didn't want to be. Housing New Zealand (HNZ) has since moved 50 state houses from the area and is redeveloping 156 properties to create 260 new homes.
HNZ asset development manager Sean Bignell says people have actually been cooperative.
“Once they understood we would help them, we understood their needs and [could] work with them and give them plenty of choice and opportunity. They are really receptive to that and the response has been really good.”
But Mr Harawira says people were not happy.
“Glen Innes took their own survey, found nobody wanted to move. The Government then decided, ‘Bugger you, we are going to move you anyway.’”
HNZ says tenants have been pressured to take part in protests largely organised by those not affected by the redevelopment.
3 News