If a judge had tried to suppress the Rodney King tape

The TV3 60 minutes story on the Whakatane police brutality case aired last night didn't have the tape of the incident. And they don't have much of a story, I'm afraid. They had no smoking gun. The story about why they had no smoking gun and why the smoking gun didn't convince the jury is now the story in my mind. The Judge has suppressed the tape.

The media can't show it to us because the judge reckons they might show the bits where a man who is not being violent gets his head cracked open by a police baton and then gets pepper sprayed, and left to gasp in a cell filled with gas in a pool of his own blood. The media might show that to the public in a way that might make these four policemen look like the fucking thugs they so obviously are... which is why we can't see it. To protect them.

As the NZ Herald reported:

The four officers were this week acquitted of assaulting Rawiri Falwasser in a Whakatane police station cell, but controversy remains about the trial judge's refusal to allow media organisations to screen the video.

Several organisations, including the Weekend Herald, applied for permission to broadcast the contents, but Judge Patrick Treston ruled that publication would prejudice the acquitted officers, Senior Constable Bruce Laing, Constable John Mills, Sergeant Erle Busby and Sergeant Keith Parsons.

The video was three hours long, and media would likely only broadcast segments of the footage, he said.

This would result in unfair reporting, because the segments would be seen out of context and without regard to other evidence at the trial.

As for the stuff about Falwasser having a "psychotic episode" - it is neither here nor there - it does not matter why he did not want to be fingerprinted and photographed before he saw his Dad. Having an episode does not condemn him, nor must it excuse him - it is an issue that the policemen should have picked up on and perhaps did pick up on as a indicator on how to deal with him.

Because broadcasting just the parts of the footage where the actual crime is being committed might be unfair? So we are left with court reports from the Herald (which I have bullet pointed):

CELLBLOCK VIDEO: WHAT THE SUPPRESSED TAPE SHOWS

Rawiri Falwasser's eight hours in the Whakatane police station begins calmly enough as he is escorted into the processing area at 12.41pm on Labour Day 2006.

he is reluctant to go inside the perspex holding cell, but after a few minutes he enters and the door is closed.

did not want to be searched, fingerprinted or photographed.

next hour and a half, he paces around the cell as officers and his brother try to persuade him from outside

2.29pm, he is still refusing to comply with orders.

Sergeant Keith Parsons arrives and opens the cell door, then turns and walks away, before returning seconds later to pepper-spray Mr Falwasser in the face.

Mr Falwasser raises his arms in defence and advances towards the cell door when he is struck by Sergeant Erle Busby three times with a baton.

Mr Parsons also strikes Mr Falwasser on the head with his baton.
This all happens in the space of a few seconds, while seven officers are outside the cell.

A few minutes later, several re-assemble with shields (which did not result in any prosecution), while Mr Falwasser continues to pace inside.

2.39pm, Senior Constable Bruce Laing and Constable John Mills begin spraying him through vents at the cell floor, ceiling and door.

This goes on for more than 10 minutes, with Mr Mills approaching the vents 23 times and Mr Laing approaching five times.

Officers also jab with batons through the floor vent, hitting Mr Falwasser's feet and a sweatshirt he has taken off and stuffed in the portal to prevent pepper spray coming into the cell.

This ends at 2.52pm and officers flow in and out through the processing area in front of the cell, some wearing masks on their faces.

A doctor arrives about 3pm, followed by a psychiatric nurse, and then Mr Falwasser's brother.
Blood is visible on the cell floor and Mr Falwasser later writes something in the blood on the wall.

He eventually stops pacing and agrees to leave the cell to be fingerprinted.

His brother sits in the cell with him for the last few hours until his parents arrive.

Mr Falwasser spends time wiping the cell floor and walls clean of blood and spray.

And that, the jury has concluded, is reasonable force. That was the defence I take it. I don't know whether the jury was all white (but I did see it mentioned somewhere), but I do know the victim was Maori and the policemen were white. So - quite apart from the race issue - is that it's kick the shit out of everyone day, every day, isn't it.

It is reassuring that the Police management are willing to prosecute their own. It is not reassuring that they failed in this case. I'd like to be certain on this point - I'd like to see the tape. Steven Price has a good commentary on Judge Patrick Treston's decision and why it's wrong.