Surprise surprise – NZ cops abuse being armed – just like we warned
As TDB noted when this was announced, the danger would always be mission creep, and lo and bloody behold what do we see here…
New armed police use could enflame Māori community – Borrows
A six-month trial of the Armed Response Teams began in October in Manukau, Waikato and Canterbury. Originally police said the purpose of the teams would be to respond to critical or high-risk incidents.
During the first five weeks of the trial, they were called out 75 times a day – 50 times more often than the Armed Offenders Squad were called out.
…and what’s the response from the cops at this outrages abuse of armed Police?
National commander Freda Grace, who oversees the teams, defended their day-to-day use, which included traffic stops, telling Morning Report it made no sense for them to sit idle.
…unbelievable!
We are paying for them, so we may as well use them???
Last year, Armed Offenders Squads were called out on average 1.3 times a day across Auckland, Waikato, and Canterbury – 488 times in the 2018/19 financial year – for both emergency and pre-planned events.
The same AOS officers, which make up Armed Response Teams, were deployed 2641 times between 28 October and 2 December last year in Counties Manukau, Waikato, and Canterbury districts.
This was ALWAYS the danger and look at their bare faced pretence this was always going to be the case.
The justification for these armed roaming squads was as a rapid response unit to an armed threat. With the spike in armed Gang tensions and in the wake of the Christchurch atrocity we could all agree with that argument.
Previously AOS members had to be pulled in off the front line, assembled and then dispatched. That’s a cumbersome response that can be streamlined by roaming pre-set teams and if you are going to have a Police Officer pull the trigger you want well trained Police.
But this has immediately moved from a tactical response to an armed threat to random response units to any situation.
That brings a danger to Maori and Pacifica communities that is negatively disproportionate within a biased Policing culture.
This has been a screaming failure and an obscene abuse of power and the only watchdog over the Police don’t have the funding to keep up with complaints against the Police!
So they have abused this power and the watchdog is muzzled due to underfunding?
How fucking delightful.
We trust the Police with this extra power and they can’t help themselves but abuse it.
Incidently, there were two big cannabis busts in the Wairarapa in the past two weeks, followed by lead stories in the local paper where the police tried to justify them
Well didn’t you say this was going to happen Martyn. In my view the mere fact our police are armed and loaded and locked is inciting violence, causing community concerns and unnecessary anxiety. And furthermore this is encouraging gangs and violent people to take up arms themselves to fight fire with fire. This is dumb dumb fucken dumb and when I heard that women she obviously has no idea how communities particularly brown and poor ones feel about this pure act of authority and I know best cavalier approach. And then we have the bullshit justification so they could be ready to act if a situation arises when they need to. This is not making people feel safe in fact it is doing the complete opposite. How did that stupid women Freda Grace get her job.
Another confidence builder.
https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/ipca-investigating-deputy-police-commissioner-mike-clement-minister/ar-BB10LzJ6
Wasn’t he put in there by national ? Any appointments or promotions made by national of government officials they need to get rid of them quick smart its a bit like having a rotten apple its infecting the rest and undermining our current government.
Not surprised. When they stopped a car and pepper sprayed someone outside my house I realised they had guns, contacted the cops, well ‘he could have been dangerous’.
The best analogue would be the Fire Brigade. If they want fast response police armed team, fine, but shouldnt they be assembled at the Station ready to go when called, not driving around looking for work?
Add this to this govts list of unpopular screw ups,and broken promises and its not looking too good come this election. Of course the other crowd may do the same, they seem to have a thing for “crime and punishment” but given what this govt claims to be vs the reality of what they are, its pretty disgraceful stuff.
The other crowd is worse sean they will build a billion dollar prison and fill it with Maori then they will contract it out privately so they don’t have to take any responsibility for all the problems that will occur.
Colonized AF
I’m 100% against the widespread arming of our Police.
The Police are routinely guilty of numerous abuses of their power and if they carried guns, that abuse will result in deaths.
The second reason is because of the farcical IPCA. Their role is to find in favour of police action even if blind Freddy can see they have abused their power and wronfully caused injury or death. It’s always been this way in NZ and most who have seen the IPCA in action know what they are about. It’s one thing to give police a free pass for assaulting a person or their involvement in a pursuit but we just can’t go down the track of sanctioned and condoned murder by trigger happy police on a power trip.
I am however 100% in favour of specialized police such as the A.O.S being fully armed despite their at times questionable history.
Arming police using stealth means, is another step backwards for NZ.
Along with all of this in Otautahi we have this dammed helicopter and various pieces in the paper and on Nat radio saying what they have done……….. a bloody waste of money frankly and not making me feel safer at all.
FFS the lot of you, have a cup of tea and a lie down
Despite their various PR spinners and multiple reports, and investigations of themselves! via IPCA, NZ Police culture remains macho, violent and resistant to major change. They racially profile, and treat Māori and Pacific people in a discriminatory way. Mission Creep is their middle name.
Long Batons, for riot situations–soon appeared in team policing units in bars!
Pepper, lethal force substitute–used for compliance and torture on already detained persons!
Taser, lethal force substitute–used as a compliance and punishment device, used against medical guidelines
Routinely armed Police will also break down community Policing. Who wants to approach trigger happy cops and try and engage with them? The AOS routinely shoots people armed with nothing more than a golf club or hammer so get those hands out of your pockets and no sudden moves if talking to a cop.
Sure they need to be armed sometimes, and they carry revolvers in lock boxes anyway. The armed cops squads are trojan horses for full arming and further militarisation of the NZ Police.
Now our Police are using baton for sex games before they help themselves to there female colleagues