Steven Wallace, a 23-year-old Maori university student, was shot in the town's main street early in the morning after being confronted by three cops. He had been breaking windows in the town center, targeting the local police station and fire station. Friends and family said his behavior was out of character. Five shots were fired, four entering Wallace's chest.

For at least 20 minutes until an ambulance arrived, Wallace lay on the street dying and asking for help, while the cops--their guns still drawn--refused to allow anyone to offer him aid or comfort.

Although Wallace had no firearm, police claim the shooting was justified because he was carrying a softball bat that he had been using to break windows. But at least one witness, who was standing only meters away when the cops opened fire, said Wallace had already put down the bat when police shot him. Several witnesses have spoken out, describing the events and criticizing the police for the shooting.

One witness, while expressing sympathy for the police, told a Militant sales team that the cops' mood changed after Wallace broke a window in their police car. At that point, according to the police account, two of the cops went and got their guns. A minute later Wallace was shot.

"But for the dramatic nature of the outcome, much of what took place here was not remarkable or unusual," said Tom Hunt in a telephone interview with the Militant from Waitara May 7. Hunt, a member of Te Atiawa, the main Maori tribe in the area, has been prominent in protesting the killing. He explained the growing anger among Maori and other working people in the region at mounting incidents of harassment by police, including displays of force in response to even trivial incidents, and the increased carrying of firearms by the cops.

Traditionally in New Zealand, police have not worn sidearms. But today "the presence of guns in the hands of the police in Waitara and Taranaki is standard operating procedure," Hunt explained.

"Many Maori believe that if there is an incident and the police are coming, they will be coming armed. It doesn't need to be a particularly serious incident. It could be a minor vandalism and they will show up with guns," he said.

The day after the shooting two Maori sovereignty flags were raised over Waitara's main street in a show of protest. As police swarmed into the town, they were greeted with taunts of "murderers" by residents.

In another show of defiance, young people broke windows in the town on the evening of May 5, challenging police to confront them. Other residents intervened to defuse the situation.

Of Waitara's population of 6,000, 40 percent are Maori. The number of registered unemployed in the town is 1,000, 50 percent of the workforce, reflecting the closure over recent years of a major meat processing plant, clothing factory, and car assembly plant.

Steven Wallace was a successful student and sports player, and known as a speaker of Maori and participant in Maori cultural groups. He had completed two years of a university degree and had returned to Waitara to take a break from his studies. His achievements and popularity have made it difficult for police to demonize him as a "criminal." More than 600 people attended Wallace's funeral in Waitara May 3. Earlier, hundreds more had turned out for a funeral procession through the town.

The shooting has dominated news headlines here, opening a major political discussion. In a statement on May 4, widely criticized by other ruling-class voices and the police, Prime Minister Helen Clark questioned whether police were pursuing a "shoot to kill policy" and expressed concern at "the underlying bad relations between Maori and police in Taranaki."

"It is serious and we're very concerned about it because you can't have good administration of the law when a section of the community is very alienated," Clark said. A delegation of members of parliament who are Maori went to Waitara for Wallace's funeral.

A report commissioned by the Legal Services Board late last year highlighted widespread racist views among police in Taranaki. It quoted one senior police officer as saying that Taranaki is populated by "endless succeeding generations of scum being produced by some Maori families."

Although an initial court order obtained by police barred identification of the cop, that was overturned on appeal by the New Zealand Herald. Following convention, however, most news media, including the Herald declined to publish the cop's name. Breaking with that tradition, the weekly National Business Review named the cop on the front page of its May 12 issue.

In an editorial May 9, the Herald said that in opposing name suppression it had merely wanted to reveal that the cop is an "experienced officer" who "is also part-Maori" in the hope that this would undermine "accusations of racism being thrown at the police" and dispel "the distorted assumptions that were forming" following the killing.

Felicity Coggan is a member of the National Distribution Union.  
 
 
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