Despite the police's significant presence at Tongan fans' street celebrations in Otahuhu last night, there was little intervention by them.
One Tongan fan in Otahuhu last night viewed the police’s actions as racist and later took to Twitter to vent.
However, when police started making the call to confiscate flag poles over the fear that they could be used as weapons, they were met with mixed reactions from the passionate fans.
Young Tongan fans seemed unfazed by the police's decision to take the flag poles and bid the police a good evening afterwards.
Footage shows one fan become quite indignant though, when the police ask for her daughter's flag pole, and she calls their methods "racist over-policing".
She later posted to her Twitter page: "My 15 year old daughter just got her flagpole taken off her by the police because they said it might be used as a weapon. I'm furious this racist heavy handed policing had killed off the community coming out to celebrate together."
Manukau's Senior Sergeant Joe Hunter said that the taking of flag poles was not deliberately part of the police's tactics last night.
"We are trying to prevent anything being used as a weapon so if we see something dangerous, then we are trying to intervene before it's a real issue - that's generally what we'd do on everyday policing activity."
Senior Sergeant Hunter said "that safety is paramount in this situation for our community".
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