Saturday, February 04, 2012
Police in the US state of Utah will not face punishment for using pepper spray and batons on a group of Polynesian spectators performing the haka at a high school American football game.
Uintah County Attorney Mark Thomas said it was a misunderstanding due to cultural differences and no criminal charges were warranted.
Officers used pepper spray on about 12 Polynesian men and boys who formed the haka after their team lost a football game in Roosevelt, east of Salt Lake City.
Thomas opened an investigation at the request of the Utah chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union after a police investigation found the officers’ actions were justified.
The Utah branch had claimed the report was "anything but objective".
The union was concerned the decision to pepper spray during a cultural ritual may have violated the spectators’ constitutional rights, wrote director Joseph Cohn.
He also noted the police failed to consider a video of the haka or statements from witnesses who said they did not feel threatened by it.
One Polynesian family drove 200km to Roosevelt to watch a relative play his final game for Union High School. Union lost, ending the season winless. A group of Polynesians performed a haka to cheer the team up.
Officer Luke Stradinger, who deployed pepper spray, apologised in the initial police report for causing "discomfort" to innocent bystanders, but said he wasn’t familiar with the haka ritual.
"I have never seen such an event, or even heard of such a thing," Stradinger said.
Officer Wade Butterfield, who used a baton to disperse the group, said he became worried during the game because some of the people were yelling obscenities at the referees and acting in an unsportsmanlike manner.
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