The horror of George Floyd makes incompetent NZ armed police trials more unacceptable
If your only contribution to the tragedy playing out in front of us in America is, ‘but wait for the toxicology report’, you might want to sit this one out & think about what you are trying to defend here.
As the civilised world reels in shock at the latest malicious US police brutality, news that the armed police response teams were incompetently put together…
Documents reveal serious lack of consultation before police armed response teams launched
Documents obtained by Checkpoint have revealed numerous issues and a serious lack of consultation before the launch of the Police’s Armed Response Teams.
The trials were launched in Counties Manukau, Waikato and Canterbury, last year in response to the Christchurch mosque attacks.
But internal documents, obtained under the Official Information Act, detail numerous issues.
It comes after prominent Māori have been quick to condemn the police’s Armed Response Team [ART] trials.
The documents show a major risk identified by the working group overseeing the trial was that ARTs could be seen to disadvantage Māori.
…and ended up just pulling over people for traffic issues…
Revealed: Armed police mainly used for traffic stops, not serious crime
A trial of the country’s first armed police officers saw them used most often for traffic stops instead of armed offenders or serious crime.
The six-month trial of Armed Response Teams (ARTs) was launched by police last October, with former Police Commissioner Mike Bush saying they’d be focussed on crimes that caused “significant risk”.
But data obtained by Newshub Nation shows they largely did the work of normal police.
…this mission creep was exactly what TDB warned about when the cops embarked upon this madness.
Despite serious crime continually dropping, the NZ cops want more and more militarisation.
They asked for more search and surveillance powers to protect us, they got them and abused them.
They asked for tasers to stop lethal incidents with the public, that failed.
They used a convoluted process to grant themselves guns while promising it was only for dangerous incidents and that turns out to be a compete falsehood.
No political party is prepared to reign the police and their constant march for power in, last month they were caught running mass surveillance software with no one’s permission.
I’ve had the NZ Police abuse my rights, I know how threadbare the supposed legal checks and balances to our civil rights really are, at some stage some politicians has to stand up to the NZ Police or we face the type of ‘respect my authority’ policing of America.
We support a containment philosophy in NZ, in that the Police contains a situation and then talk people down, we don’t want armed teams because that changes the way the Police deal with us as citizens. We already see the danger in allowing Police pursuit policy become a means for Police to get away with high levels of death. let’s not add guns to that mix.
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Despite what people may think about Floyd or the rioters, policing all around the world will change for ever. The relevant quote by Presedint John F. Kennedy is, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” And while Revolution in the historical sense is a fantasy in the modern era for any number of reasons, large amounts of people violently, desperately lashing out following the never-ending failure of peaceful protest definitely won’t. These aren’t isolated incidences anymore. Police brutality is so casual, so widespread it has to change for ever.
A good quote from a very American perspective Sam.
“No political party is prepared to reign the police and their constant march for power in”
Makes one wonder if the police have compromising info about our politicians. Questions also need to asked about why they don’t data match with Australian police, the failure to do so has resulted in 100s of crims from Aus obtaining firearms licences. It should come as no surprise gangs are armed up when police have been handing out licences to crims whilst claiming most firearms in the procession of gangs are stolen – something the police can’t actually back up with facts. Half the guns they recover dont have serial numbers so they cant prove where they came from. Its almost if the police have deliberately created a problem and their only solution is to give them more power. Serious questions also remain about the process and timeline that lead to the Christchurch terrorist being issued a licence.
Claiming they can’t afford body cams whilst spending millions on new assault weapons for themselves is another issue which needs looking at, not to mention their new found friendship with Chinese police
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/112632211/chinese-police-officers-set-for-training-and-information-sharing-in-new-zealand
I would rant more but its Sunday, peace out!
Historical the Police had a registrar of firearms and if you bought a gun there was a process wher you got a permit to procure, then you took the gun to the police station where it was checked and registered in your name.
The problem was when police were underfunded the records were not consistently kept particularly in small country Police stations. The register became a shambles so the then decided to issue licenses to individuals with no record of their firearms.
When funding is cut problems arise and we carry the legacy of many thousands of firearms in places unknown.
Its like a virus.
I noticed a large heading with a photo of our new Police Commissioner Andy Coster looking serious, resolute.
May.31/20 https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300003371/national-portrait-andrew-coster–top-cop
May.29/20 https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/new-police-commissioner-says-hes-fundamentally-committed-keeping-officers-unarmed
Then:
Apr.4/20 https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/120812456/new-police-commissioner-andy-coster-promises-to-be-open-to-respectful-challenge
Apr.3/20 with Covid-19 in mind: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/120800989/new-police-commissioner-urges-staff-to-shave-beards-for-effective-mask-use
Apr.2/20 https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/120777470/coronavirus-police-commissioner-under-fire-for-withholding-lockdown-law-guidelines
A good backgrounder – salary around $700,000.
Sep.28/2019 https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/116157824/race-for-new-police-commissioner–is-it-time-for-a-female-to-take-the-reins
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Coster
Ther is a Twitter account regarding this
#ArmsDownNZ
What we see is gradual militarization of the whole culture – through policing, but also other elements of society like surveillance, daily invention of new restrictions through ‘law-makers’ and bureaucracy, movies, games, toys, staging of sport events, fashion, and so on…
Check photos of police in the 1960s and compare with today’s appearance, tactics, equipment, weaponry, monitoring and recording facilities.
And look over the legal frameworks covering these.
The universal trend is clearly visible.
Nowadays, policing actions and justification for those are very similar, everywhere. Hardly any structural divergence, in principle, no big difference, even not between loudly opposing different regimes.
One state creates the blueprint, the others do copy.
The History of Police Militarization:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPOpRdUFu44
Trust me, I’m a cop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pejPe3DjkcQ