So, was there a gun or not?

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The Police have yet to announce that the man they shot in central Auckland in fact had a gun.

The desperation and depression of David Cerven is becoming more and more apparent and it raises questions about how the Police should deal with people who may be angling for ‘suicide by cop’ whereby a person claims to have a gun so that a confrontation with Police leads to them being shot dead.

The problem with approaching a person with firearms in a situation like this is that it removes options. Surely a smarter move by the Police would have been to bring in a dog and after demanding Cervan surrender, set the dog on him.

If Cervan had a gun, the Policer could then escalate the situation with an armed response, but by going in with guns drawn, they put themselves in a position whereby their only option was to shoot if he didn’t surrender.

In a situation where the suspect isn’t going anywhere and is clearly wanting a stand off, Police had better options open to them than rolling in with guns.

We do not want the Americanisation of Police killings in NZ, and when they do take life, we must demand critical investigation.

9 COMMENTS

  1. He didn’t have a gun. The brave boys in blue would have brandished it in front of the cameras by now if he had. What is so difficult about walking up to the body and finding (or not) a weapon? This is typical not-owning-up-to-anything Kiwi mentality.

  2. “If Cervan had a gun, the Policer could then escalate the situation with an armed response,”

    Not if the offender had already shot them.

  3. I agree with the dog option…safe cordons…there are quite a few options…from rubber bullets, tranquilizers , flash bang grenades, teargas , tasers and live ammo.., I guess every situation is different and sometimes warrants a quick , on the spot decision…

    Dogs are a good option. If the environment lends itself to it by all means. Yet sometimes the environment is not that conducive to any one method…particularly at night or where there is natural cover in the form of a maze of buildings or bush.

    But once again …the dog is still an excellent choice in these situations…their ability’s far surpassing any human’s …the problem being in a lot of incidences that dog patrols are not always available in immediate crisis. In which case cordon and detainment of a situation if possible is the optimum. Better to take and use time as the winning factor in a stand off and wait until backup arrives than to have needless deaths. Surely.

  4. Of course there was no gun, as otherwise we would have been told by now. The cops are busy trying to work out, how they can best get themselves “excused” out of what happened.

    I do not think they would dare “planting” a weapon though, as the IPCA may be keeping an eye on things now.

    So wait for that awkward press conference, where all possible explanations will be used, to justify a shoot first, then ask questions incident.

    As things are with the way the public have been indoctrinated and conditioned for the last seven years, they will simply nod in agreement, no matter what the Police Commissioner will say.

    We need “order”, “order” and more “order”, and people causing trouble can only blame themselves for what may happen to them, no matter their mental state, and whether they actually are armed or not.

    Anyway, I need to go back to sleep now, I have to join the other Hobbits.

  5. Now that its been referred to the IPCA we can be assured that this matter would be investigated by professional detectives who without a doubt fine a few discrepancies with Polices arm response procedures but overall the police acted with integrity and thereby within their legal rights had no alternative options but to use deadly force.

  6. Another US style cover-up eh liberty bell?

    We have seen how the result of that internal police investigation went over in the “Good old US of A” has gone over after the horrendous multiple killing of African Americans over the last several weeks has gone, where we are not at all confident in your “assurance” nor impressed, so it would be a waste of anyone’s time.

    He was killed without careful desist and recognise your target firstly and you know the Police are trained to do this firstly before pulling the trigger.

  7. The police put themselves in situations we’d never dream of. They risk their lives every day and get abused by people who have no idea what they deal with. Its so easy to comment when you have no idea.

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