1
MMA
MINISTRY OF MEN’S AFFAIRS
MINITATANGA MO NGA TANE
PO Box 13130, Tauranga 3141
26 August 2012
Sgt Mark Oliver
Central Communications Shift Manager
NZ Police
Private Bag 11-040
Palmerston North
Dear Sgt Oliver
You were reported in the NZ Herald today, 26/08/2012, as claiming that
“…police saw an increase in domestic violence following the All Blacks’ win against the Wallabies last night.”
and that
“…police normally saw an increase in domestic violence call-outs when there were big matches.”.
You were also directly quoted as stating, regarding domestic violence
"There would have been more if we lost."
The Ministry of Men’s Affairs, an NGO existing to protect the interests of men and fathers because successive NZ governments have failed to do so, is concerned about the damage your reported comments will have caused to the reputation of men and to people’s accurate understanding of domestic violence.
The Ministry of Men’s Affairs is aware that previous claims by Women’s Refuge of increases in domestic violence associated with major sports events have been refuted by police figures that showed no particular increase.
The idea that domestic violence significantly increases when there are major sporting events first arose from the Superbowl myth, invented by U.S. women’s groups based on ‘anecdotal evidence’ in 1993. The Ministry of Men’s Affairs is concerned that your statements may also be based on anecdotal evidence and that you are perpetuating this anti-male myth.
Can you provide the following please to justify your public statements?
1. Can you provide data to support your claim that domestic violence complaints were higher after last night’s All Blacks’ match than is the case on other Saturday nights or holidays in which alcohol use increases?
2.Can you provide statistical analysis to ensure that any increase for which you can provide figures was in fact statistically significant compared with normal fluctuations from weekend to weekend?
3.Can you provide data to support your claim that domestic violence callouts are typically higher if the All Blacks or other home teams lose than when they win?
Further, you were quoted in the same article as stating
"Then mum's a bit sad in the morning when she goes to buy bread or milk and there's no money left."
4.Can you provide data to support this statement?
5.Can you explain how you came into possession of the data about ‘mum’ having no money left in the morning for bread or milk?
The Ministry of Men’s Affairs is concerned that your statement about ‘bread or milk’ is emotive feminist propaganda, perhaps extracted from you in a journalist’s campaign to justify the idea of ‘economic violence’. Even if that concept had some validity, it does not seem a matter of legitimate concern to police because spending one’s own money is not yet illegal.
If you are unable to back up these public statements with good data such as numbers of domestic violence callouts shown to be statistically different from other weekends, and numbers of police callouts by mothers for being unable to afford milk and bread, then the Ministry of Men’s Affairs requests that you stop making such statements. The damage to the stability of our society caused by false feminist propaganda is immense already and police should not be misleading the public.
Please be aware that your response or lack thereof will be made public.
Yours faithfully
Hans Laven
Chief Executive
Ministry of Men’s Affairs
Copy to: Central District Commander Superintendent Russell Gibson