Enforce the Law

I don't envy the Police when they have to intervene in family disputes. They end up trying not to take sides and hoping that everyone will eventually cool down without any arrests.

Now the Police are stuck between two family groups over the hijacking burial of a the body of a man by his extended family at a marae in the Bay of Plenty after his immediate family decide that he was to be buried in Christchurch.

In the case of the late James Takamore, the law is clear. It is the decision of the immediate family that over-rules any decision that his extended family have taken. Unless Mr Takamore specified in his will that he wanted to be buried at Kutarere Marae (and I can't believe a court order preventing his burial, or the subsequent exhumation order would be issued if it was so specified) then his wife should have the final say on his burial place.

That the Police are sitting on their hands over this is only adding to his immediate families anguish - they have been unable to have a funeral or access a burial plot to greive at. (And good on Ms Clarke for not fighting this battle in the media.)

The Police should simply advise the elders at the Marae that they will enforce the exhumation order, and that any person who resists the exhumation will be arrested for obstruction.