ROUGHED UP: Naiju Li, from China, suffered injuries during an arrest in Hamilton that her lawyers describe as "police brutality''.

A Chinese woman is claiming police brutality after allegedly being slammed face first into the ground in an incident that dislocated her elbow.

Naiju Li, 56, was shopping at Hamilton's Countdown supermarket on Bryce Street last Wednesday. On returning to the car park she found her vehicle missing.

Ms Li, a retired civil engineer and university lecturer in New Zealand to visit her niece, asked supermarket staff for help, but the Shanghai resident struggled to communicate as she does not speak English.

BEN CURRAN/ WAIKATO TIMES Naiju Li in the hospital.

Staff indicated it may have been towed and Ms Li went to a nearby tow truck.

Ms Li attempted to explain her situation to the driver and tried to sit in the passenger's seat of the tow truck. The driver then called the police.

District Commander superintendent Win van der Velde said officers found Ms Li "hanging on to a tow truck". He said police considered her to be "highly agitated".

BEN CURRAN/ WAIKATO TIMES Naiju Li in the hospital.

But her lawyer, Richard Zhao, says Ms Li obeyed police orders and struggled to explain her situation using hand gestures.

She then returned to Countdown to rest, he said.

"In what was described as similar to a 'rugby tackle', [male] officers then jumped on Ms Li from behind, twisting her arms behind her back and forcing her to the ground.

The officers then shoved Ms Li's face into the car park and twisted her arms further in order to handcuff her," he said.

A doctor's note reveals she has a "ligament injury/fracture to the lateral side of her right elbow" and surgery may be required.

"I was traumatised. I didn't think a parking issue would turn into this whole fiasco," she told the Waikato Times yesterday through a translator.

"By the time the police arrived I felt like they were family, that they would help me. I felt safe because I had an argument with the tow company."

Now her impression of the police and the country is "pretty bad" and she is unsure if she will return.

Ms Li also believes racist remarks were made. "While I was in pain in the [police] car, I started groaning in Chinese and they tried to mock my voice. Maybe I wasn't communicating properly, but I did not deserve to be treated that way."

Ms Li wants a written apology and the charges dropped.

But police have a different version of events. Officers say Ms Li tried to re-enterCountdown but was blocked.

She was then arrested, but tried to fight officers as she was being taken into custody, Mr van der Welde said.

"[Ms Li] is alleged to have tried to bite one of the officers at which time two of our staff took the woman to the ground to facilitate applying handcuffs."

Ms Li refutes that, saying she did not do anything to provoke the situation.

It is understood she is being charged with disorderly behaviour and resisting arrest.

Mr van der Velde believes Ms Li suffered her facial laceration "when her glasses made contact with the ground and her face".

He said police "took all of the appropriate action to restrain her in the nicest possible way".

"The injury is certainly regrettable, but was it excessive force? At this stage no, I believe not."

The matter is under internal police investigation and has been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Authority.

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