NO! NO! NO! These new armed Police must go!
What the bloody hell is this?
Police trial: Armed police in special vehicles to be on regular patrol
Special police vehicles carrying trained armed officers will routinely patrol Auckland, Waikato and Canterbury in a police trial that hopes to cut down response times to serious incidents involving firearms.
Police Commissioner Mike Bush is expected to make the announcement in Counties Manukau this morning.
Police have had growing concerns about the increasing number of incidents that police respond to that involve firearms, and that is understood to have contributed to the decision to trial armed response vehicles.
A source confirmed to the Herald that the trial will be in Counties Manukau, Waikato and Canterbury.
Ok – no one wants Police to be hurt, they serve an immensely important function and are our first responders in many cases, and ill trained armed police are as much a danger to innocent bystanders as the criminals, so it makes sense to have roving tactical units that are ready to respond to serious issues involving firearms, so far so good…
The vehicles will be manned by armed offenders squad (AOS) members who would be ready to attend major incidents at any time if needed.
It is understood to be similar to what has been rolled out in the UK, where armed response vehicles have been adapted to accommodate specialist equipment.
There are currently 17 armed offenders squads made up of nearly 300 part-time members who are specially trained to respond to incidents involving firearms.
But they are police officers with general duties who operate on a call-out basis, meaning they have to return to the station, suit up, and then head out to an incident.
Police also have the Special Tactics Group, who are full-time and respond to “high-end tactical incidents” beyond the capabilities of the AOS.
The trial is hoped to see a reduction in response times to serious incidents that involve firearms, as armed response teams will be on patrol, already suited up, and can head directly to call-outs.
…this all sounds terribly reasonable, if a firearms incident occurs, having well trained armed Police intervening immediately protects us from terrorism atrocities like Christchurch and could be a solution to the growing gang war that TDB pointed out was engulfing us in June, but then we fucking get this…
They will also be able to more quickly help with higher-risk situations, such as warrants for dangerous suspects or drug raids.
…whoa, wait – what the fuck? Before the ink is dry you immediately see mission creep.
Back that truck up champ and hold the phone blocker, it makes absolute sense to have armed well trained Police on stand by in case an armed incident occurs, we can all agree on that, but look at how that unique event has suddenly become expanded from incidents where a firearm has been presented to ‘high risk situations such as warrants for dangerous suspects or drug raids’ – Oh no you fucking don’t!
This is an open licence to bring in heavily armed cops to any situation the Police pretend is ‘higher risk’ what that means in effect are armed cops storming houses. Now we don’t have that situation in NZ because the American style militarisation of Policing isn’t acceptable to us, Police have to use skills and training to effect those arrests, they don’t smash the door in with drawn weapons screaming ‘respect my authority’.
Mark my words, if we allow this broadening of what amounts to a threat to justify armed cops, this will lead to more civilian shootings in NZ.
Yes, there should be armed response units to protect us if an incident with a firearms presents itself, NO we shouldn’t allow the Police to expand that to anything they think ‘might’ be a risk.
We allow the NZ Police enormous discretion to kill dozens of Kiwis each year because of their deeply flawed chase policy, allowing armed cops to burst into homes will quickly become another flawed policy.
“suddenly become expanded from incidents where a firearm has been presented to ‘high risk situations such as warrants for dangerous suspects or drug raids’ ”
To comprehend the significance of what Martyn is saying, it might help to see these changes to the law as a trajectory. Further down the line in time, seemingly small changes now, show wide disparities in where we’ll end up. One arm of that trajectory leads to a more peaceful society. The other heads further down the track to a police state.
Since when do police do ‘instant justice” draig raids! lmao.(these things hav to b organised can’t just drive thru the front door with an s.u.v on a hunch). They caught the christchurch shooter because of active and experienced police who weren’t waiting around for a black s.u.v full of special ops to show up , how ridiculous. Most policing’s just common sense that’s all you need.
It’s in times of peace, such as now, that we need to meet evil, in effect, “before it has even begun to stir” (as I read somewhere). If we’re complacent, it will grow, unseen.
Our present government is benign in comparison to some others. But let’s face it, they won’t be here forever and eventually a more hardline one may well hold sway, one which cares less about people’s wellbeing and more about enacting the power of the State. (And the State pulling the strings may even be some foreign power.) And, we’ve already seen a juxtaposition of power and corruption here in NZ. Not that long ago..
Once you set up a para-military police force budgetary considerations alone compel it to be fully employed.
It is also important to maintain morale within the force, and to do that it is necessary to keep it occupied.
Defence has a number of strategies, ranging from polishing the brass to jumping into relatively safe roles supporting US forces in minor wars around the globe.
The Fire Service, more benignly, has found a role in attending vehicle crashes, rescuing cats from trees, checking fire alarms and educating the public in fire safety.
The para-military police won’t be doing any of this stuff. They will be at the hard edge of policing, doing drug searches, arresting gang members, attending noisy parties, aggravated industrial conflicts, land occupations and so on.
Like the police Red Squad of the Springbok Tour years their purpose will be to instill fear in the public, but unlike the Red Squad they are intended to have a permanent presence in New Zealand society.
This is not about keeping New Zealanders safe. It is about keeping them afraid, either of the imagined dark forces out there that compel the state to take such drastic measures, or, increasingly, afraid of the state itself.
But we don’t need to be afraid. We can stand in front of the armored vehicles, we can defy the automatic weapons of the para-military police, we can block their way and we can maintain our freedom.
Jacinda Ardern’s government is rapidly creating an authoritarian police state which is no longer beholden to the rule of law and which will be fully utilized by future governments of the colonial regime but we need not be dismayed and we should not submit.
Totally agree with all your comments Geoff, especially
“This is not about keeping New Zealanders safe. It is about keeping them afraid” but do you honestly believe that shonkey/soimen’s mob would not be up for this or worse?