There are concerns police have misused a new gang patch ban law after a 12-year-old boy was questioned on Christmas Day for wearing a boxing gym t-shirt, featuring elements of the Black Power logo.
The boy was walking to a friend’s house on Wednesday when officers, earlier responding to a medical event across the road, approached him.
They told the 12-year-old they were allowed to confiscate his t-shirt, which displayed the logo of his boxing gym.
The gym, Kia Kaha Boxing Club, is associated with Black Power and had elements of the gang’s insignia in its logo, including a raised fist and two ferns. The gym has been open since 1995 and operated out of the Black Power Marae in Mt Wellington. The symbol has been a part of the club since its inception.
“So they walked towards me, and they said, ‘do you know that you’re not allowed to wear that?’,” the boy told 1News. “And I said, ‘but that’s my boxing uniform’.
“They said, ‘But it has that fist’. So they said it was our patch.”
He claimed one of the officers was trying to “scare” him by using “harsh language” and being “aggressive”.
The 12-year-old returned to the club, removing the t-shirt and swapped it for another.
However, police took the shirt and toldthe boy he was being detained.
“I felt sad because it was mine and I got it for Christmas,” the boy said.
He said he accepted the shirt looked like a Black Power patch, but it wasn’t, and he believed the officers had made a mistake.
He had been boxing at the club for four years and said he’d never had trouble for wearing clothes with its logos.
After what happened on Christmas Day, he said there was “no point of wearing it outside again if they’re going to take it”.
He said he wore the shirt with pride and treated it as a uniform to show how far he had progressed. “It’s like carrying the power on my back and the front of my body,” he said. “The t-shirt is like you earned it, like you worked hard for it.
“Like the All Blacks, how they work hard for their jerseys, and they get put into a spot that they assigned to, and then they work hard in that spot.”
Boxing club member: ‘We want the right to be who were are’
Josh Chellatamby, a member of the boxing club and secretary of Counties Manukau Boxing Association, said he was called to the scene, where he saw the officers with Pitman’s shirt. He asked the officers if he could have the paperwork so they could get the shirt back. Instead, the officers began inquiring about his car.
“They said, Is the vehicle in your name? I said, What’s the vehicle got to do with anything?
“And then they said, ‘Well, the vehicle’s not under your name so you need to prove that this vehicle is yours’.”
Chellatamby was driving his company car and went to get his business cards. When he returned to the vehicle, an officer said he, too, was being detained. He said the officers then started inquiring about his boxing tattoos.
“I said it’s to do with the boxing club. It doesn’t say anything about any gangs or gang insignia. It’s all to do with the boxing club, Kia Kaha. And I said, again, the tattoos have nothing to do with it. There’s no crime in having boxing club tattoos.”
Eventually, he was allowed to leave and contacted lawyers to seek advice on the 12-year-old. He said he wasn’t trying to fight the law but said, “We want to have the right to be able to be who we are”.
“The fist itself means unity and that’s global, that’s worldwide, that’s a universal symbol for unity, which is kind of the opposite to intimidation, right?”
“When it comes to our boxing, that fist there facing forward, that’s a defensive fist. And then from that position, you can go into your hooks, you can go into your rips. So it’s a starting position for us, and at the same time, it guards.
“So we decided to adapt that because there are the ones that are to the side, and that’s more aggressive. We didn’t want it to be aggressive.”
Police response: ‘No charges will be laid’
In a statement to 1News, police confirmed officers noticed a youth on Jolson Rd in Mt Wellington on the afternoon of Christmas Day, “wearing a t-shirt featuring Black Power type insignia”.
“The officers had previously been attending a callout at a Jolson Road address but were clear from that job when they observed the youth.”
Police said officers noticed a person at the nearby Black Power pad was wtching their interaction with the youth. “However, when officers tried to speak to that person he would not engage.
“Officers then took the youth to his home address so that he could remove the t-shirt in private before it was seized by the officers.
“No charges will be laid due to the age of the youth, however a Youth Aid referral will be completed.”
Police said the t-shirt was determined to be in breach of section 7 of the Gangs Act, “due to Black Power insignia on the front and both sleeves of the t-shirt”.
“Police believe that the image on the t-shirt seized is clearly a variation of the standard Black Power insignia.
“However, given the age of the youth, a cautious approach has been taken with this young person.”
What the Minister has said
The boxing club had earlier contacted the Police Minister, seeking clarification on its logo and received a response from Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith.
“I want to reassure you that the intention of this law is not to criminalise symbols where they are not actually part of a gang insignia,” Goldsmith wrote. “The law is intended to prevent the intimidation and fear felt by some members of our community when they see gang patches, and to prevent gangs from promoting themselves.
“This is intended to capture, for example, gang patches on the back of leather vests, which are not able to be worn by ordinary members of the public. However, a fern or raised fist symbol that you have identified can be worn in many contexts unrelated to gangs, so are not intended to be captured by the offence.”
