Police Rape

     New Zealand has its own weapon of mass destruction. It's called whitewash. Hitting
the headlines is a rape accusation that has been simmering for eighteen years. An old-
fashioned gang-bang and the inability of the woman to get the police to take her complaints seriously and prosecute her three attackers. She has been ignored and treated contemptuously. This is not surprising when we learn that the alleged rapists were police officers. Only one remains in the police and he heads the Auckland City area. Maybe crime does pay. Sin in the city?
     It is not this writers job to appropriate blame or pass an opinion on the police officer's
guilt or innocence. After pulling her hair out, the Prime Minister has ordered an Enquiry to
placate both sides of the debate. It is the actual Enquiry that concerns me.
     No doubt a retired High Court Judge will preside at great expense. Judges are
appointed by politicians after due consideration as to their independence and legal abilities. There have been many instances over the years of you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. Independently of course. You know the sort of thing. Us politicians are above the law, so back off with your legal mumbo jumbo. You get well paid to administer the law, so go do it and don't argue with your masters.
     Then there's the terms of reference that the judge will be allowed to consider. These
will be dictated by politicians.   Commonsense says anything pertinent to the case should be regarded as relevant. But as Paul Robson sang, it ain't necessarily so. Past precedents would indicate that the Minister of Police will not be held responsible for anything. Thus, the blame will fall on the police. The top police at the time will conveniently insist that the woman's complaints were investigated by an independent body specially set up to investigate complaints against police officers. The fact that the independent body were also police officers and that they independently (naturally) found no cause to prosecute the three cops, will show that justice has been seen to be done. The woman was obviously fantasizing and making false accusations. So no further action was necessary. (Be quiet you stupid woman.) That lets the top cops off the hook if you ignore the fact that policing is a closed shop with careers to the fore and outsiders disregarded.
     The three cops will the cost of their defence paid by public funds. It's a Public
Enquiry, so the public pays. The public will probably be barred from the Enquiry or at least shielded from the more intimate details of why nothing was done despite the woman's continuing insistence that she was raped and internally assaulted with a sexy police baton marked exhibit CE (coccus erectus). High-powered barristers will question the woman's credibility and accuse her of being a slut for having consensual intercourse with the three officers. Any witnesses she calls will also be vilified and told that their truthful evidence is not within the terms of reference and a waste of time and public money.   Barristers always know better, so naturally they are above contradiction. They're only doing their jobs and have no personal interest apart from their exorbitant fees. No doubt they will earn enough to keep Mr Average in luxury for ten life times. The woman will probably have to fund her own defence because she's a private citizen and her version of the truth has cast aspersions on the integrity of the Police Force.
     In reality, the three cops and the woman don't matter. They will be sacrificed on the
altar of irrelevancies. It's the public perception of the Police Force that counts. Political and bureaucratic influence will be brought to bear and the Police will be publically absolved from all responsibility. The pro government media spin will be enormous and the Enquiry is likely to last for years in the hope that all participants will die of old age and nothing can be proven. Can't have the designed to raise funds Police Force's credibility questioned. That's not justice nor is it acceptable in the corridors of power. Fines obtained from minor traffic offences are more important. Money is the only truth.
     At the end of the day, public opinion will outweigh the Enquiry. Truth will be
officially ignored and reality hidden by thousands of pages of legalese. The last thing
politicians want is a well-informed public.   Politicians always rely on public ignorance to get their own way and fund their lifestyle. The Enquiry will go through the motions of
administering justice. But we all know that justice is blind. Especially when authorities sit in judgement of the system they control.