Police Perceptions of Maori - Rethinking Crime and Punishment

differences between the responses for the questions about Maori, Pacific Islanders and
Asians.
Some of the comments distance the respondent from negative attitudes:
I have noticed a lot of racism toward Maori, Pacific Islanders and Asian
cultures and women.
Other comments indicate the respondent's own negative attitudes:
Responses are tailored to the comprehension/intelligence/age etc of offender
NOT race as such. But empirically certain races seem to possess similar
levels of comprehension etcetera.
Asians will try to say they don’t understand English. Maori, more often than
not, will just lie to you.
And other comments referred to contextual factors that affect police attitudes and
behaviour:
In many cases within the police, with regard to offenders, complainants,
victims and other customers, the issue is not what race they are but the
individual met on each occasion. Offenders are offenders, no matter what
colour they are.
The reality is that racism exists in the police but sadly this is a reflection of
society itself.
Most police persons would hold the view that in general terms crime is a major
problem for Maori which is the basis of why some would hold negative
attitudes to Maori.
We may have to change our policing but 80% of people we deal with are
Maori/Polynesians that have bad attitudes towards us.
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