The Wellington High Court has exposed brutal tactics of NZ police, who callously violated the rights of two teenagers during the 2022 Parliament protests, with one, Alexander Lawrence, awarded just $5000 in damages for the excessive force used against him.

Justice Peter Churchman ruled that police actions against Lawrence, then 17, and Laura Cassin during their arrests at the Parliament occupation in February 2022 were a shameful breach of their rights. The pair were part of thousands of New Zealanders opposing the oppressive Covid-19 lockdown, encamped on Parliament grounds.

On February 10, after megaphone demands for protesters to disperse proved futile, police aggressively formed a “skirmish line,” linking arms to strong-arm their way through the crowd. Officers recklessly yanked protesters, including Lawrence and Cassin, through the line, targeting them for arrest for their resistance against the authoritarian crackdown.

When police dragged Lawrence through, they slammed him to the ground, with one officer brutally pinning him down with a knee on his back. Lawrence, showing no resistance, was then subjected to a vicious head control manoeuvre by Sergeant Yancy Hawkins, who grabbed the right side of his face in a dangerous and unwarranted act.

The officer, in a display of unchecked aggression, held his body in a “press up” position for around five seconds, briefly dropping to his knees before resuming. Only after about 10 seconds did a senior sergeant intervene to halt this excessive force.

Meanwhile, Cassin, in a bold act of defiance, stripped to her underwear and coated herself in coconut oil to evade the police’s grasp. Video evidence revealed two female officers violently pulling her through the skirmish line, throwing her to the ground, flipping her over, and wrenching her arms behind her back. A paramedic attempted to cover her with a blanket, but Cassin pushed it away as officers persisted in their heavy-handed efforts to handcuff her. Hawkins then escalated the brutality, kneeling on her upper body to restrain her in a shocking show of force.

The protesters suffered injuries from this police overreach. Lawrence endured severe pain in his head, jaw, and neck, along with blurred vision and temporary deafness. Cassin reported bruises, a swollen neck, and loss of her voice.

While no injuries were permanent, the trauma of the police’s actions have lingered.

The pair sought $50,000 each in damages and a declaration that the police had trampled their rights under the Bill of Rights Act.

An Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) investigation condemned Hawkins’ tactics as non-standard and dangerous. Lawrence was not resisting when the head control manoeuvre—deemed “dangerous, high risk, and excessive”—was inflicted. The IPCA also slammed Hawkins’ intervention in Cassin’s arrest, noting that officers already had control, rendering his kneeling on her upper body “unnecessary and excessive.”

Despite this damning evidence, the police’s internal investigation predictably shielded Hawkins from criminal charges, opting instead for a widely-condemned “lessons learnt” conversation, highlighting their refusal to hold officers accountable.

The protesters initially named Hawkins and former Police Commissioner Andrew Coster in their civil case, but the case against Hawkins was suddenly dropped on the morning of the hearing, leaving the claim against the Attorney-General.

The freedom activists’ lawyer, Tudor Clee, condemned the police’s excessive force as devoid of humanity and respect. The defence’s claim that the actions lacked malice or deliberate intent to violate rights appears to ring hollow, however, given the volatile situation was no excuse for such egregious conduct.

Justice Churchman acknowledged the IPCA’s findings, noting that while the protest environment was challenging, the police duty to treat Lawrence and Cassin with humanity and respect was utterly disregarded. The manoeuvres used were excessive, unacceptable, and a clear breach of the Bill of Rights Act.

The court’s soft $5000 award to Lawrence and denial of damages to Cassin, despite granting both a declaration of their violated rights, underscores the systemic leniency toward police misconduct.

This ruling lays bare the police’s disregard for protesters’ dignity and their unchecked use of force against those standing up to government overreach.