Oh pa-leeeeese…
Mallard bullying police – Tolley
The Labour Party has been accused of bullying after one of its MPs appeared to threaten a high-ranking police official’s job.
Police Minister Anne Tolley said Labour MP Trevor Mallard was attempting to destroy the career of deputy commissioner Mike Bush, who she described as one of New Zealand’s top-performing policemen.
…get over yourself Anne, ‘Mallard was bullying Mike Bush’ – what nonsense! This was Mallard and Goff at their best, sticking it to a Cop who epitomizes the very worst elements of the us-against-them-we-are-never-wrong-respect-my-authority-alpha-male culture that politicians should be attempting to stamp out at every given opportunity.
Mike Bush wasn’t just speaking to mourners at the death of a Police Officer who had been caught planting evidence, he was speaking to the wider Police family. He was saying to Police that despite what society thinks, the Police are never wrong, even when the are caught planting evidence.
Even if we give Bush the benefit of the doubt, and that they were just words to comfort a grieving family, it suggests that Bush is simply to naive to be the next Police Commissioner if he didn’t see how those comments would play to wider society.
Hutton matters because most of the time bent Cops get away with what they want in NZ. I’ve asked people in the know how bad our Police force are and I’ve been told that around 30% are bad buggers.
I’ve seen first hand the impact of Police harassment and threats with the suicide of cannabis activist Stephen McIntyre.
Unfortunately with an under resourced watch dog and a small brother syndrome worship of authority that I think is a cultural hang up from when our colonial forbearers required the local constabulary to keep Maori in check, there is little to ever reign the Police in.
By challenging Bush’s comments vindicating a bent cop, Mallard and Goff were pulling on one of the few levers of control the people have over their Police force, a parliamentary select committee.
We can not have as Police Commissioner a cop who condones corruption. With the vast levels of surveillance and power the National Government have handed over to the Police, we need leaders within the Police force who are beyond reproach.
Hutton was well short of that threshold and to hold him up as an example to praise, Bush has failed miserably as a Deputy Commissioner.
Mallard didn’t destroy Bush’s career, Bush did that all by himself.
that whole crewe murder police investigation (arthur thomas framing) was, to my mind ,the loss of innocence of the n.z. police
Oh the irony of anyone complaining about a police officer being bullied…
Siometimes, it boggles the mind that a high ranking Police officer could say what Bush said, in public, and not realised the consequences.
If those comments were intended for just the family, would it not have been prudent to make them in private?
By going public, Bush has,
* undermined his own career
* dredged up ill feeling with Thomas’s friends, familiy, supporters, and the wider public
* upset Hutton’s family with the resulting controversy
I suspect Police Minister Anne Tolley is not pleased.
I believe he was wearing his Police uniform at the time too?. In my mind, that means he was representing the Police (as an organisation) AND speaking to the public as a whole.
I don’t decry his offering Hutton’s family sympathy for their loss, but his comments made publicly means he legitimising the behaviour.
Good point. Cops…always on duty.
NZ coppers are generally bent, the culture remains violent, bullying, sexist and racist. I mean really, does anyone with some knowledge of NZ history believe the recent Tuhoe raid formed up on the 1916 “Cullen Line” by mere chance? If they are not purloining seized narcotics or harassing local women as in my area, they chum up with the local torys. A classic being National Northland MP Mike Sabin.
For every lost tramper found or gruesome car crash cleaned up there is a protestors ribs kicked in (John Minto at GI), scabs assisted thru a union picket, environmental/animal rights activists assaulted and so on. They are part of the state forces so good on Mallard and Goff for once.
That Bush still even has a job after his comments is absolutely staggering.
[…] See also Martyn Bradbury’s blogpost on The Daily Blog; Mallard & Goff at their best grilling top cop who condones corruption on this […]
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