On Friday, May 30, Levin’s town centre erupted into a battleground as hundreds of anti-social road users (ASRU) and their cars swarmed the streets to intentionally block intersections, burn rubber and bait police into confrontation.

It was the one-year anniversary of the “Levin Invasion” and police were ready.

“It was out the gate. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Horowhenua’s acting senior prevention manager Sergeant Bernie O’Brien says. “They were there to cause us harm. I have no doubt about that.”

Operation Purple was set in motion weeks earlier. Bernie put his hand up to do the planning.

“I was keen to be involved. We’d known probably since last year it was going to happen,” he says. “Eight weeks out, we had intel suggesting King’s Birthday Weekend. The main night was Friday, but we planned for all three.”

The response brought together police support units (PSU), tactical dog teams, the armed offenders squad (AOS), road policing, public safety teams, offender prevention teams (OPT), intelligence staff and Eagle, the Police helicopter.

Support came from Whanganui, Taranaki, Wellington and Palmerston North.

Early Friday evening, things were already building.

“Around 6pm I started to see quite a few of these ASRU members in the centre of Levin,” Manawatū PSU commander Senior Sergeant Sam Gilpin says.

“They were in souped-up cars and they were bringing cars into town on trailers that looked like skid cars… You could just sense it was going to be a big night.”

At 9pm, police gathered at Levin station.

“We had a briefing and then very, very quickly after that, we were essentially out on the street,” says Sergeant Kane Moses, team leader of Taranaki’s PSU.

The first flashpoint

Once on the ground, they didn’t have to wait long.

“We’d been parked up for probably two or three minutes when cars started doing burnouts and skids in the intersection of Oxford and Bath streets,” Kane says.

“There were members of the public and their vehicles getting caught up in the middle of all of this… large trucks that were forced to sit at the lights,” Sam says.

“They just couldn’t go anywhere. People were converging from all directions.” PSU deployed in full protective equipment, forming two shield lines and holding off until vehicles cleared.

“It was quite a dangerous situation… you’ve got a vehicle in the middle of an intersection doing burnouts. You don’t want to get any Police staff near that,” he says.

It took just moments for the crowd to turn violent. One youth was armed with a tomahawk. “They closed in and it was pack mentality from there,” Kane says.

“They started to throw bottles, rocks and then fireworks in our direction. It was the point of rioting,” Sam says.

“The street was just thick with smoke from the cars doing burnouts,” says Kane. “You couldn’t see your staff two or three metres to the left of you.” While moving behind the line to check on his team, Kane was struck by a Roman candle.

“It hit my round shield, glanced up under my helmet, hit me in the mouth, then bounced down into the crook of my arm. That’s when the firework exploded,” he says. “It was surreal… It’s gone off down there and blown up all through my visor and behind my shield. My shirt was all singed through my body armour.”

Despite the burns to his arm and a split lip, Kane stayed on.

Dangers everywhere

A command came through to take the intersection. Police pushed forward. The crowd scattered. But the night was far from over – officers were then nearly blindsided.

“A Toyota Surf four-wheel-drive came flying out of the Burger King car park behind us,” says Kane. “We didn’t even see it coming.”

Sam’s planning had accounted for this type of risk: “I’d planned for two PSU vans to stay behind the line… This vehicle approached us from behind, and one of our van drivers actually put his van in the way of the vehicle to prevent it from hitting staff, which I believe ultimately saved some staff from being seriously injured or worse.

“It was a deliberate attempt. It did strike the police van, but that gave staff the time to get out of the way,” he says.

With Levin’s town centre secured, the convoy of vehicles shifted. “We started getting reports that a person had been hit from vehicles doing burnouts,” Kane says.

At Tavistock Rd, officers encountered a blocked road and more hostility.

“It was just lined with vehicles for hundreds of metres... We were met with a volley of bottles and fireworks,” says Sam. “We deployed on foot there and cleared that, made the area safe for ambulance to come in.”

On returning to their vehicles, they discovered several slashed tyres. Meanwhile, Bernie was watching footage from Eagle and saw how reckless things have become.

“I was watching it live when one person was hit and prone on the ground, couldn’t move and this guy just continued to do skids,” he says. “It just shows you what we’re dealing with. It’s another level of dumb.”

Next, the convoy moved to Palmerston North.

“They went up to the rocket just south of Longburn,” says Sam. “Two people were seriously injured there, had been struck by vehicles.” 

From there, they regrouped at Tremaine Ave and Ferguson St in Palmerston North.

“It looked like they were going to start doing burnouts again,” Sam says. “We were advised… they may have had Molotov cocktails. I was obviously not keen to take staff into that environment due to the danger of those being thrown at us. While we were there, the group set fire to the road, so it erupted in flames and burnt for about two to three minutes before burning out.

“But they didn’t hang around. They got in their vehicles because they saw there was a number of the PSU units there, outside of our vans, lined up with a show of force, and they took off again.”

Training, teamwork and tactics

Two key factors made a difference that Friday: Eagle and sponge rounds.

“If every district could have a bloody helicopter, it would be fantastic,” says Bernie. “It made a huge difference. Eagle meant we didn’t have to put our staff in danger pursuing. They could just track from the air.”

Sam agrees: “Eagle was a game changer. The ability to follow and pinpoint exactly where people were going to direct staff to go and grab them.”

The 40mm sponge rounds also proved decisive, giving police presence and space.

“The OPT with the 40mm less-than-lethal rounds was a massive tactical advantage,” says Kane. “It had a huge effect. They helped us push through and take ground.”

“Every time we turned up, after that initial confrontation, these guys weren’t hanging around,” says Bernie. “They knew we’d come prepared this time. They didn’t want a bar of us.”

Despite the danger and scale, all three officers point to preparation and teamwork as the reasons things didn’t spiral. It also showed the value of consistent and regular public order policing training.

“It certainly wouldn’t have gone as smoothly as it did [without it],” says Sam. “We were pretty effective… Manawatū, Taranaki, Whanganui, Wellington PSU, we all worked together really well. By the end of the night, when we turned up, they were running off.”

“Yes, once we managed to establish some sort of control, we pretty much controlled the night after that,” says Bernie.

If Groundhog Day comes?

There’s no illusion that Operation Purple was seamless. They’d go in even heavier next time: more staff, more gear, more deterrents.

“Was it perfect? No,” Bernie says. “But I think over all, it was actually a huge success for us… We didn’t even have time to finish our briefing. Out we went.

“Next year? 100 per cent, it would be sponge rounds,” he says. “More trained operators... and a full AOS deployment would probably be more appropriate.”

All three officers were clear: this wasn’t about car culture.

“These weren’t car enthusiasts,” says Sam. “They came to cause chaos, carnage.

“It would be up there with one of the most busy and aggressive nights I have experienced in my years in public order policing, with the danger of so many vehicles being driven recklessly, and the behaviour towards Police staff by those using vehicles and other weapons to assault Police.

“Hopefully the Government can bring in some powerful legislation to help us deal with these people,” he says.

“Yeah, this isn’t protest,” says Kane. “These were people who came out looking for violence. Some of the vehicles were bought especially for the night and tagged with anti-police abuse.”

Bernie says the lack of co-operation has continued as police investigate the scores of incidents from the night. “One person broke both legs,” says Bernie. “Even they don’t want to help the police... won’t tell us a thing… It’d be interesting what approach they would take if someone were killed.” Despite burns, broken bones and hostile crowds, the men are proud of how the night was handled – and the message it sent.

“Everyone did a stellar job,” says Sam. “They really stood their ground. They did everything required of them, and more. They were excellent.”

“They all just got in there and mucked in and went for it,” Bernie says. “It could’ve been a hell of a lot worse. But it wasn’t.”