Wellington police may have used\u00a0an alcohol checkpoint to gather\u00a0information about elderly women attending euthanasia meetings.<\/p>\n
The women had been attending an Exit International meeting on a Sunday afternoon early early this month in the Lower Hutt suburb of Maungaraki.<\/p>\n
As they left, about 4pm, all were pulled over at the checkpoint and \u2013 before being asked to blow into the machine\u00a0\u2013\u00a0were\u00a0made to give their names and addresses, and show their driver’s licences.<\/p>\n
In the days that followed, at least 10 of them received visits from police officers, asking questions about their association with Exit, a pro-euthanasia group.<\/p>\n
Wellington barrister Douglas Ewen, a specialist in human rights,\u00a0said it could be an abuse of police powers if it could be proven they used the guise of a checkpoint to get details for an issue unrelated to\u00a0road\u00a0safety.<\/p>\n
Similarly, the act of stopping cars for a purpose other than road\u00a0safety\u00a0could be seen as “arbitrary detention”, and therefore a breach of the Bill of\u00a0Rights.<\/p>\n
“If a power is conferred, it should be used for that purpose,”\u00a0Ewen said.<\/p>\n
Stephen\u00a0Iorns, another barrister, said police were allowed to request drivers’ name and addresses at checkpoints, but it was unusualfor those details to be requested ahead of a breath-test.<\/p>\n
He agreed with Ewen that, if police were using a checkpoint to gather details for an unrelated purpose, it would probably be an abuse of power.<\/p>\n
Voluntary\u00a0Euthanasia\u00a0Society president\u00a0Maryan\u00a0Street said that,\u00a0if the women’s claims were even half-correct, “there is something seriously wrong with the deployment of police resources”.<\/p>\n
Police were obliged to investigate crimes, but\u00a0the women at the meeting were merely preparing for their own deaths, which was not illegal, she said.<\/p>\n
“NOW I KNOW WHY”<\/strong><\/p>\n A Lower Hutt Exit member said she was surprised to\u00a0be\u00a0stopped and asked for her licence.<\/p>\n “Although it is a requirement to carry a driving licence\u00a0when driving, I have never encountered such a check before,” she said.<\/p>\n “Now I know why this one was instigated.”<\/p>\n The following Saturday two plain-clothed police officers knocked on her door asking about her association with Exit.<\/p>\n “I attended the meetings to show solidarity, but had no interest in committing suicide at present.<\/p>\n The policeman doing most of the talking then asked, ‘So you don’t have a bottle of Nembutal hidden away?’, to which I replied ‘No’. We then passed on to talk of other things.<\/p>\n “During the brief discussion … they said they were investigating the activities of the leader of the group. They did not explain further what they meant by this.”<\/p>\n SLEDGEHAMMER TO KILL A FLEA<\/strong><\/p>\n Exit\u00a0International\u00a0director Philip Nitschke\u00a0said his organisation had\u00a010 members who had been visited by police, and “more who were subjected to the post-meeting roadblock set up\u00a0at the bottom of the Maungaraki hill”.<\/p>\n Another woman, who was at the meeting but left late and missed the checkpoint, got a visit from police afterwards. She\u00a0described the checkpoint as an “appalling thing to do” and described Operation Painter as\u00a0“a bit like having a sledgehammer to kill a flea”.<\/p>\n Police have been asked who requested the roadblock, why\u00a0the roadblock was in the spot \u2013\u00a0at the bottom of Dowse Dr, just west of the Dowse interchange \u2013\u00a0at the time, and whether anyone stopped\u00a0was over the limit.<\/p>\n They were asked whether it was standard procedure to seek identification before a breath test, and whether the checkpoint was part of\u00a0Operation Painter, in which several\u00a0elderly women have been visited by police asking about their involvement with Exit International.<\/p>\n Police said the questions would have to be asked\u00a0under the Official Information Act<\/em>, which allows 20 working days for a response.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Wellington police may have used\u00a0an alcohol checkpoint to gather\u00a0information about elderly women attending euthanasia meetings. The women had been attending an Exit International meeting on a Sunday afternoon early early this month in the Lower Hutt suburb of Maungaraki. As they left, about 4pm, all were pulled over at the checkpoint and \u2013 before being […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n