Not so, Mr Trotter

Chris Trotter has interviewed his typewriter bout the recent terrorist raids, so it's hardly surprising to find him concluding his half-baked conspiracies about "deep Green" activists and Maori radicals are "all too plausible".

Radicals are not alone in feeling a healthy scepticism of the police. Judging by her recent report, Dame Margaret Bazley feels concerns about aspects of police culture. John Dewar, former CIB chief of the Rotorua police, has just been jailed for trying to obstruct the course of justice. Meaning: thanks to their own actions, the police have earned a fair degree of this public scepticism.

None of which appears to bother Trotter, who seems outraged that everyone else might not share his high estimate of the Police Commissioner, or be unwilling to give the police open slather.

On that score, I challenge Trotter to substantiate his lurid fantasy that the Green Party has challenged our constitutional arrangements, or supported taking up arms against the state. We have not prejudged guilt or innocence. We will, however, continue to speak out in favour of due legal process, and about the rules that govern when police force is properly used, and when it is over the top and irrational.

Frankly, it is amazing that a columnist claiming to be left wing should be hostile to this approach. It does not require an apocalyptic vision to oppose the improper use of state power, especially in the post 9/11 climate. Or to support systemic change in the face of global environmental disaster.

Calling for te tino rangatiratanga guaranteed by Te Tiriti is hardly extremism either, but Trotter never had any sort of Tiriti analysis.

Disillusionment with the failure of our political institutions to deal with problems has never led to terrorism in this country in the past. There is no reason to think this generation of radicals is any different in that respect.

Like all my Green colleagues, I am committed to our kaupapa of peace and non violence. Trotter really should get out more often. The Green Party has simply displayed a sense of fair play and an instinctive sense of solidarity with those being treated unfairly.

Good old fashioned Kiwi values, I would have thought.

Sue Bradford
Green Party MP