Waatea News Column: Is it time to dump Police 10-7?
When challenged over TVNZ’s lack of diversity in 2007, then chief executive Rick Ellis told a select committee that TVNZ had Police 10-7 which offered a Māori presence that met charter requirements.
I know, jaw-dropping right?
As America struggles to come to terms with an out of control Police force and has a Black Lives Matter moment of conscience, many aspects of how African Americans are portrayed and treated are coming under a cultural microscope. Seeing as Māori are so negatively impacted by a biased Police force and Justice system, should that scrutiny extend to New Zealand’s own Police 10-7?
The TV show Cops in America has been cancelled and The Daily Show recently highlighted research that showed almost 80% of Americans had no interaction with Police ever and that the reality of police brutality was eclipsed by what they see on TV dramas and reality shows.
A 2012 analysis of 15 episodes of Police Ten 7 showed Māori were overrepresented, but the issue goes much further than that.
When the cameras are on, the Police are clearly operating within the best practise model. Police are always nice, funny and portrayed as helpful, which is not a reality for many when dealing with the Police.
Police 10-7 is a recruitment tool, it isn’t an actual true representation of Police interaction with New Zealanders and when activists argue about police abuse of power in NZ, all the public see are nice officers helping.
Perhaps the lesson here is not to dump Police 10-7 but to actually demand that level of assistance and professionalism with every interaction by insisting body cameras on NZ Police?
Cops behave when there is a camera on them, so let’s put those cameras on them all the time.
First published on Waatea News.
Cop Cams are a good idea. 10/7 is surely only entertaining for those who have led sheltered lives, or authority lovers who get a thrill when the “bad guys” get theirs.
Reality TV shows are a cultural scourge really, and this one does reinforce negative stereotypes without any hint of examining the “why” in crime, or societal solutions.
Tiger Mountain – Body cameras are a good idea, and they will come. Body armour too. I think 10/7 is intended to enlist the public’s help in catching crooks, whereas the Australian counterparts appear to be, as you say, reality television, and reality television is generally lowest common denominator garbage.
When the woman heading the GCSB or SIS stated that she thought her depart’s work would make a good reality television programme, I wondered what the hell is going on in the public service if this is their mindset.
Dumping Police 10/7 is not required, given the style of policing in N.Z.
I used to call police 10-7 ” drunk watch” when I used to view it ,,, but dirty politics protect this drug ,,, and in Nixon / Reagan style we fill our prisons with a bullshit drug war ,,,,,,
Private prisons ,,, racist policing ,,, New Zealand and national in particular copy so much of what is wrong with usa policing, justice and incarceration.
Watch the video and compare things like the rise in our prison populations ,,, the discrimination against the poor and colored ,,, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krfcq5pF8u8&t=4436s
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2019/11/20/waatea-news-column-armed-police-cannabis-prohibition-2-examples-of-bias-against-maori/
Viscous nonsense like Cannabis laws are an abuse of power that harms society ,,, and the police force itself ,,, Clint Rickards and Mike sabin are evidence of a serious sickness within the police ,,,
The link between abuse of police power and police brutality has been understated in both the usa and here
Drug policy abuse is a usa export ,,, ” An Ex-Police Officer On Why It’s Wrong To Criminalize Drug Users ” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RBzHBllwCQ
No. The Host is Tongan and the amount of genuinely dangerous criminals who have been caught due to tips justifies it’s existence. Love ya bomber but two years ago this blog was rightly defending the NZ polices diversity and attacking the LGBT pride board for it’s short-sighted hatred of police and accurately predicted it’d go down as well with mainstreet NZ as a cup of cold sick, as an LGBT I agreed with you, support of the LGBT has actually gone down since then and if the left wanna scapegoat the police the same way no pride in police, the left will be in the same position. Reform the police absolutely, but this hatred of the police and this desire to get rid of police unions (which would be the beginning of the end of trade unions) is short sighted from the left imo. There are people who genuinely think social workers should replace police, I doubt those people have ever dealt with govt agencies like OT, CYFS or Winz who all make the police look Princess Diana or Bernie in terms of compassion.
On the Taranaki cops up for manslaughter
I suggest these public servants plead guilty and get a reduced sentence from their friend and judge. This is often the recommendation given to other offenders by their legal defence, usually to those of a certain background if you get my drift, and often for any crime whatsoever, so it seems hypocritical to plead otherwise. It shouldn’t really matter that you can’t tell one cop from another these days (they all wear the same tired uniform which is two sizes too small, have that same bum fluff attempt at a beard, have the same shady vacuous dark eyes, exude the same odour, make the same incompetent decisions, have the same chest puffing disorder, and may or may not have the same desire to belong to a gang), everyone is entitled to fair representation under the law. But I just think these cops should place their trust in the legal system: be arrested by some undie sniffing cop bully with daddy issues; be subject to trial by media because they look that way; be locked in remand with their true iwi; be prosecuted by a biased, career-driven celebrant; be sentenced by some detached, entitled judge; be incarcerated within a business model; and be ‘reformed’ by psychobabble with a good dose of religion. These cops need to do their time like their fellow citizens, it is character building for them and it can only benefit society.
I see the police association (Union) are in favour of body cams.