Police cleared for pepper-spraying haka

reply to post by Vitchilo


Most Canadians know the Haka because during the mid to late 1800's many thousands of Canadians immigrated to New Zealand - I know - because my great grandmother is from Novia Scotia.

The Canadians are very much part of New Zealand's heritage of white man, not just those from Scotland and Britain. Many Kiwis today don't realise just how many Canadians arrived to NZ and I have the shipping records of each and every Canadian up until 1900.

reply to post by bluemirage5


Well from my area, nobody comes from New Zealand, I can assure you of that.

So maybe I'm more knowledgeably than the average guy but still those cops shouldn't have done that.

Anyway thanks for the little history lesson.

Why are American Tongans doing a Maori rugby haka? Tongans have the Sipi Tau.

For that reason I believe they deserved being pepper-sprayed.

However. It's culturally ignorant of both the police officers and the Tongans to have no idea about hakas.

I'm honestly surprised there's an American in here who doesn't know what it is. But then America is America

Originally posted by Vitchilo
Hell I'm Canadian and I know what the hell the haka dance is.

How come New Zealand cops didn't know? I mean come on.

Fire all these ignorant cops...

I think you misunderstood, the cops and the pepper spraying took place in Utah on some holidaying Kiwi's.

Originally posted by Kryties

Originally posted by Vitchilo
Hell I'm Canadian and I know what the hell the haka dance is.

How come New Zealand cops didn't know? I mean come on.

Fire all these ignorant cops...

I think you misunderstood, the cops and the pepper spraying took place in Utah on some holidaying Kiwi's.

Utah eh. I propose the police knew full well what the haka is.

Utah has a large Mormon community, and many pacific islanders are Mormons. Someone in Utah should know about the haka.

Also, there are many college football teams in America who have their own haka. You would expect a group of police officers to be familiar with the haka for that reason to.

In the mean time, for those who aren't familiar with the haka and its relation to professional sport, allow me to impress upon you some great hakas









I still remember Rugby League player Willie Mason lining up against the Haka and saying something along the lines of "What's that? F//k off!" -- Only to get absolutely monstered in his first hit up of the game........ Found it actually



Start a 1:0

Where is David Kidwell when you need him? He'd have destroyed these police officers and carried on the haka while they laid dead on the ground

I'm not one for racial stereotypes but I'm gonna have to agree with Kryties once more. These Polynesians and Melanesians are a breed apart.

I believe places like Tonga are considered extremely unhealthy because they're all so huge that Western BMI ranks them as being obese, even when they aren't. I remember I think a couple of Fijians were out at see for a month or something, I don't recall the length, the story was about a year ago. When they were found they still looked to have more weight on them than most Westerners.

In Rugby in NZ and Australia they're considering introducing weight divisions in u16 rugby, if they haven't already, because the Islander kids are too big and the rest of their parents don't want their kids being destroyed. Also from a professional point of view it's been stifling the number of small, quick, creative players from coming through. As they've been dissuaded from playing against 12 year olds built like men and gone into soccer and afl

The Tuilagi family alone could probably defeat 500 normal human beings in a Royal Rumble type street brawl

Make great soldiers too. I'm sure fellow Brits on here with military background will tell you Fijians are a good lot

Originally posted by marvinthemartian
reply to post by Kryties

 

Uneducated idiots,the HAKA has been performed as a ritual meeting by these people for thousands of years.
I mean they even do it to the Queen and other visiting dignitareis when visits New zealand.

edit on 8-12-2011 by marvinthemartian because: oops dyslexic

Why should some cop in Utah know what people do before a game in some foreign country? Are there cops in New Zealand? The reason why I'm asking this is because these people are simply too stupid to follow police orders. I was just wondering if it was their first time seeing a cop.

Originally posted by buster2010

Originally posted by marvinthemartian
reply to post by Kryties

 

Uneducated idiots,the HAKA has been performed as a ritual meeting by these people for thousands of years.
I mean they even do it to the Queen and other visiting dignitareis when visits New zealand.

edit on 8-12-2011 by marvinthemartian because: oops dyslexic

Why should some cop in Utah know what people do before a game in some foreign country? Are there cops in New Zealand? The reason why I'm asking this is because these people are simply too stupid to follow police orders. I was just wondering if it was their first time seeing a cop.

A cop in Utah, as with anywhere else, should have a degree of intelligence. For police in Utah to not know what a haka is, despite the large Polynesian community, would be completely ignorant. Police are supposed to serve and protect the community, how can they serve and protect a community if they know absolutely nothing about it?

The reality is the cops probably knew full well what it was and were just being arsehole bullies, as seems to be the trend with police.

Really isn't surprising that they didn't follow the police orders, considering the police in question proved themselves to be violent neanderthals who attack kids over non-events.

It's not just done in foreign countries either, the haka is performed by several college teams in the United States, and by many high school teams in Utah.

Since when is it acceptable to pepper spray people for dancing?

reply to post by Aim64C


Thank you for the video there. I was able to find a number of generic videos of other events but nothing specific like that. Very interesting trivia about the Koreans as well...that explains a couple experiences. The insight there is appreciated, even if it was a casual comment.

I couldn't agree more about the very simple and basic concept of Stop meaning Stop. Cops wouldn't have reacted well if a few kids were doing something totally benign and harmless...let alone something being mistaken as directly physical and threatening in nature.

So many situations we see in the news would de-escalate or never turn into major issues in the first place if people would just follow that one simple rule. If a cop orders something that is lawful, morally proper and without immediate physical risk by doing it....a person really needs to DO it immediately, if not sooner.

If the Police had of waited, then they would have found there was no threat. If the crowd started getting violent, THEN they could step in. But there was no violence and the police were wrong.

The Maoris deserve all the respect in the world. They are one of the few cultures to stand up to white domination - in fact they basically thrashed caucasians when we tried to take over their island. Now white people can live there as long as they respect the Maoris, unlike most places on earth where the indigenous population was peaceful and got crushed.

I second Krytie's comment about never having met an actual Maori. If you had, you wouldn't be claiming you could take them in a fight.

Overall this just reeks of American egocentricity - "Nothing outside our country means a damn. What's that? You don't know our national anthem? How dare you!?!".

Considering America-only competitions are often called "World Series" or similar...

I can guarantee there are more people in the world who know what the Haka is and follow Rugby Union than care about Grid Iron.

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000So many situations we see in the news would de-escalate or never turn into major issues in the first place if people would just follow that one simple rule. If a cop orders something that is lawful, morally proper and without immediate physical risk by doing it....a person really needs to DO it immediately, if not sooner.

edit on 10-12-2011 by Wrabbit2000 because: (no reason given)

Or on the flip side, if cops didn't try to stop things that had no business being stopped in the first place and minded their own business until someone needed help.

reply to post by brokedown


I am a fan of American Football and what the rest of the world considers football. I also follow NCAA Basketball. I have never heard of the Haka. I have seen a very similar greeting on a show about martial arts of the world. It wasn't that much different to the untrained eye. It was also used right before battle.

It all depends on what you have been exposed too. I never followed Rugby or paid attention to New Zealand. So, I had never seen it. To me it looked like a war ritual from either Hawaii or Samoa. The peruperu haka was commonly performed as a display of force before battle in an attempt to intimidate and dissuade the opposing soldiers. I had never seen a haka used as a friendly greeting.

Well, that's not how you greet strangers! Normally, you'd shake hands and smile! I guess the savages/police need to be more educated on cross-cultural differences. And you wonder why "aliens" don't land their UFOs openly: they might get pepper-sprayed, too! Sheesh!

Total ignorance aside, their excuses for using violence were wrong in the first place. Maybe blocking an exit (did you ask them to move/finish?), thinking they could start a riot (and hitting them with batons won't make them angry, and provoke one?). It sounds like the officers need retraining overall.