Two protesters arrested by police at the Parliament Protest in 2022 have filed a civil claim against a police officer involved in their arrest.
Police Commissioner Andrew Coster has been named as a co-defendant.
The two plaintiffs are Laura Cassin and 17-year-old Alex Lawrence. The officer at the centre of the case was second-in-charge of the police operation to remove the protesters.
Footage and photos of the arrests circulated widely online at the time of the incidents.
In Cassin’s case she was shown being pulled from the crowd by her hair and forced to the ground, before her naked upper body was covered in a blanket. The male police officer then kneeled on her upper body while she was arrested by two female officers.
Cassin was later charged with trespass but that case was thrown out when the officer failed to show up in court despite repeated requests from Cassin’s lawyer Tudor Clee that he attend for cross-examination. Cassin was subsequently awarded $6,000 in costs.
Lawrence was also arrested while on the ground, with the same officer seen kneeling on his head for 11 seconds.
Earlier criminal complaints made by both plaintiffs were dismissed for ‘not reaching’ the threshold for prosecution. In those complaints the officer claimed both were resisting arrest and the force used was necessary and reasonable, but expert opinion from forensic pathologist Dr Judy Melinek obtained by police said the pressure placed on the head and neck area was potentially life-threatening, and that in Lawrence’s case the use of force was unnecessary.
Civil prosecutions against police officers in New Zealand are rare. The evidential threshold for such cases was ‘balance of probabilities’ – lower than the ‘beyond reasonable’ standard in criminal prosecutions. The most common remedy sought for a successful civil claim is an award of monetary damages – another point of difference with criminal prosecutions, where the outcome for a guilty accused could range between a fine up to a term of imprisonment.
The civil proceedings were filed this week, and the defendants will now have the opportunity to file a defence, with a first court date likely in the New Year.
Sue these bully-pigs’ a*** off and sack them, including the boss-pig.
I have zero respect left for police and judiciary in this country. The protesters, by contrast, in my eyes, are real hero’s and they keep on showing their courage…..
If their is any hope for New Zealand in the future it lies with people like them…..all the best.
The behaviour and modus of the cops is global; we see it in Oz, the UK and the US.
& the US cops are trained by Israeli Police and IDF.
THAT explains a lot…and we’re ALL Palestinians in that aspect of being ‘targeted’…!
& BTW, if you go to ‘FMovies.com’, you can see the movie by Dinesh Sousa titled ‘Police State’. It should be required viewing for all universities, schools, and MSM personality types, although most of the aforementioned are too far gone due to their Zionist-based brainwashing.
You can’t joogle that site.
Go here: https://ww4.fmovies.co/24/
Not to mention the ‘Gray State Movie’ trailer of a movie that was never completed, as the producer, David Crowley along with his wife & daughter were assassinated in their home by those who didn’t like their plan being exposed.
Crowley was also a Combat Veteran…
Ugh this is a problem when a line is crossed it is very unfortunate