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New Zealand PM apologizes for failings identified by inquiry into Christchurch attack

08 December 2020
 Dan Ackermann

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and New Zealand security agencies have apologised to those affected by last year's shootings at two Christchurch mosques after an inquiry found failings that led to the terrorist attack.

Why it matters: The attack by a white supremacist was one of the biggest mass killings by a single gunman and the worst in New Zealand's modern history. It prompted governments and tech companies to sign on to an agreement to reduce violent extremist content online after the terrorist broadcast the shootings on Facebook Live.

Details: The 792-page Royal Commission of Inquiry report examined the role of New Zealand's security and intelligence agencies in the lead-up to the March 15, 2019 shootings, which killed 51 people.

  • The inquiry found that a focus of counter-terrorism resources on the threat of Islamist extremist terrorism to be "inappropriate."
  • "New Zealand authorities have focused their counter-terrorism resources almost exclusively on Muslim communities in New Zealand," an academic said in a submission, per Newshub. "New Zealand authorities appear to have been institutionally blind to terror threats from white nationalist and far right actors and groups, and threats to Muslim communities in particular."
  • The government said in an emailed statement it has agreed "in principle to implement all 44 recommendations contained in the Royal Commission of Inquiry."

What they're saying: "The Royal Commission found no failures within any Government agencies that would have allowed the individual's planning and preparation to have been detected but did identify many lessons to be learnt and significant areas needing change," Ardern said in an emailed statement Tuesday afternoon local time.

  • "For many years, the Muslim community has raised concerns over issues like the disproportionate scrutiny by security and intelligence agencies. This report confirms there was an 'inappropriate concentration of resources'. It also identifies failings within the firearms licensing system.
"The commission made no findings that these issues would have stopped the attack. But these were both failings nonetheless and for that I apologise."

Read the report, via DocumentCloud:

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.