87 Takaparawhā | Bastion Point (1978) The Takaparawhā | Bastion Point occupation is an enduring example of the racist deployment of police violence to suppress Māori grievances over the unjust taking of whenua Māori (Harris, 2004). The government took the land at Takaparawhā for national security purposes in 1859, but when no longer required for this purpose, failed to return the land to Ngāti Whātua. In the mid-1970s, the government and Auckland City Council agreed to subdivide the land and sell it for luxury housing. In 1977, the Ōrākei Māori Committee Action Group began a 506-day long occupation of the Ōrākei headland (Harris, 2004, pp. 78-85). In early 1978, the Crown took an injunction and served eviction notices against four of the protesters. On 25 May 1978, 600 police and army personnel were sent to forcibly remove tangata whenua. The police arrested 222 people and destroyed the settlement (Harris, 2004, pp. 78-85). The use of the huge and disproportionate application of police and military echoed Parihaka and Maungapōhatu and reinforced the lengths the state would take to crush just Māori protests (Aikman, 2021). Operation Eight and Ruatoki (2007, 2012, 2014) On 16 January 2005, during a pōwhiri for the Waitangi Tribunal hearing, Tāme Iti fired a shotgun at the New Zealand flag in a re-enactment of the nineteenth century colonial campaigns that had devastated the Urewera Forest. Although filmed by television crews, the police ignored the incident until an ACT Party MP raised the matter in Parliament. Tame Iti was convicted of discharging a firearm in a public place in a dangerous manner. The Court of Appeal subsequently overturned the conviction. On 15 October 2007, Operation Eight involving 300 police acting under the Terrorism Suppression Act (2002) raided 60 houses across New Zealand, on the basis of unfounded suspicions raised about outdoor camps in the Urewera. The highest profile raids occurred in the Ngāi Tūhoe settlement of Ruatoki and Taneātua where the Armed Offenders Squad set up roadblocks and stopped and searched cars and photographed occupants including children without Human Rights Commission required consents. The Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) would later describe the roadblocks by Police as “unlawful, unjustified and unreasonable” (IPCA Report, May 2013). The IPCA report also found Police had exceeded their authority and misinterpreted legislation. The IPCA Chair Judge Sir David Carruthers said while the Commissioner of Police’s decision to undertake the operation was reasonable and justified, however: Police had no legal basis for stopping and searching vehicles or photographing drivers or passengers. ‘The roadblock at Ruatoki and the presence of armed Police officers was intimidating and the report states that there was no assessment of the likely impact of this activity on the local community,’ Sir David said (IPCA Media Release, 22 May 2013). Eighteen people, including Tame Iti, were arrested; they were all supporters of Te Mana Motuhake o Tūhoe and from diverse networks of environmental, anarchist and Māori activism. Forty-one search warrants were executed throughout the country. The Human Rights Commission received 31 complaints about the police operation. Complaints included the use of the Terrorism Suppression Act 2002, that people were stopped at roadblocks at Ruatoki, cars searched, and people photographed without their consent, and children confined in their homes for several hours, some without food. The Human Rights Commission report stated: Our report focuses on the innocent people affected by the operation. These people had done nothing wrong and did not break any laws but had their basic rights trampled. The report does not deal with those people arrested or charged (Human Rights Commission, 2013, pp8-10). Ngāi Tūhoe sent a 500-person hīkoi to parliament, protesting at what they claimed was police terrorism targeting Māori activists. Police claimed they had uncovered a domestic terrorist plot and a paramilitary training camp deep in the Urewera mountain range. The raids in the Ruatoki Valley and elsewhere saw 17 people face a total of 291 charges under the Arms Act. Most defendants had their charges dropped when the Court ruled much of the evidence inadmissible.