Chris Parr.
A New Zealander arrested during demonstrations in Ferguson, Missouri -- the scene of violent clashes between protesters and police -- has spoken out against the "hostile" attitude of the officers there.
Dr Chris Parr, a professor in religious studies at Webster University in St Louis, was arrested during a protest on Wednesday last week and held overnight.
The Springbok tour protest veteran's arrest came on the same night two police officers were shot and injured during a protest outside the Ferguson police station.
The protests began after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old black man, by a police officer in August last year.
Unrest was reignited by a Department of Justice report, released earlier this month, which showed a pattern of discrimination against the black population.
Read more:
• Arrest after officers shot in Ferguson
• Race riots: Police shot in Ferguson
Dr Parr told NZME. News Service from St Louis today that he was arrested and charged with "failure to comply".
"I remain quite unclear as to how I should have known what I was meant to comply with," he said.
Dr Parr said he was heavily involved in the Springbok tour protests in 1981, and he has greater respect for the behaviour of New Zealand police during that time than the US police in Ferguson.
"In terms of ordinary cops and how they handled protesters on the street, contrasting it with how things are handled in America, I've got much more respect for the way things were handled in New Zealand.
"The [US] policing is extremely poor," he said.
"It's very confrontational, it's very hostile, it's very poorly managed."
In September, Dr Parr wrote about the Ferguson protests on a Webster University blog, saying the death of Michael Brown was "one drop too many" for the black community.
"For the black citizens of Ferguson, with their history of disproportionate traffic stops, arrests, humiliating or insulting confrontations with police, incarceration, and with the prevalence around the nation of black deaths at the hands of law enforcement, Michael's death and its circumstances were 'one drop too many'.
"Rage and outrage spilled onto the streets not just over Michael; the jug was already full to overflowing."
Dr Parr, a University of Canterbury graduate, was born in Christchurch and raised in Hamilton, and also lived in Auckland before moving to the US in 1983.
He received his PhD at Boston University, and now teaches at Webster University in St Louis, where he has lived since 1992.