Warning: The footage above contains strong language.
A shocking new video shows a New Zealand police officer appearing to call a woman "skanky" before walking up to her boyfriend and shoving him to the ground.
Police have now received a formal complaint about the officer's actions and an investigation is underway to understand the circumstances leading to the video and the officer's behaviour.
The footage, which is circulating on Facebook, shows a large number of cops responding to an incident at a party on Waimairi Rd, Ilam, Christchurch on Thursday night attended by about 200 people. A group of youths can be seen standing around the street watching and yelling.
Some of the youths yell at an officer, who tells them they have been warned to go home. The officer says unless they leave the area immediately they will be arrested. One woman yells back "no" and says they will ring a relative who is a police officer.
The officer at the scene asks who that is. The rest of the conversation is mostly inaudible, but the officer at one point says: "I am sure he is really proud of having a skanky daughter…"
One of the women responds "she is not skanky", before a man says: "Don't f***ing call my Mrs skanky".
The officer then walks a number of metres over to the man, who is standing with his arms by his side, and shoves him to the ground with two arms. As he does it, the officer says: "You were told to go home." When the man gets up off the ground, the officer again tells him to go home.
'Situation sort of blew out of control'
A witness who was shocked by the incident told Newshub he believed it was an improper use of force and that the situation escalated very quickly.
He was at a property on the road when he heard "a lot of noise outside".
"We went outside and we saw a big party spilling out onto the street. Once the cops rolled up, eventually they managed to clear out most of the crowd. It was a bit of a big job trying to move everyone out of the way but they did get it done in the end."
He said the smaller group approached by the single officer didn't appear to be causing any major problems.
"The majority of the cops walked off and it was just this one cop who turned around. This one group of people, they were quite drunk, but they were by themselves and out of the whole situation. They weren't really causing any problems," the witness told Newshub.
"It was just the fact that he took offence to what that girl said about her dad being a cop. That is when the whole situation sort of blew out of control."
He described the cop as acting "quite aggressive".
"He shouldn't have done what he did... The cop wasn't very professional. I felt quite angry... it was just ridiculous really. I couldn't believe it. It seemed quite childish."
The witness was worried the man pushed to the ground "could have hit his head on the concrete and it could have ended badly".
But he praised the efforts of the other cops responding to the wider incident, saying they didn't react unprofessionally despite some of the unruly behaviour shown by the youth.
Investigation underway
In a statement to Newshub, Superintendent John Price, the Canterbury District Commander said: "A formal complaint has been received in relation to the actions of one police officer, and an investigation has been commenced to understand the circumstances that led to the video and the actions of the officer involved.
"NZ Police have high expectations of all our staff that they will exemplify police core values in every interaction with the public. We have zero tolerance for unjustified violence in our communities. Any behaviour that does not meet the standards expected of a police officer in this regard is unacceptable and will be investigated."
The incident has appalled Shannon Parker, the founder of the New Zealand Police Conduct Association.
"This is an unnecessary use of force. Police officers like this shouldn’t be on the front line (or employed by NZ Police)," Parker said.
"Police employees should be able to and be trained to remain calm, de-escalate and be professional at all times. There is just no need for this kind of behavior and there shouldn’t be any room for it in the NZ Police."
The video has quickly begun to go viral, with hundreds of people reacting and commenting on it early on Thursday morning.
