It’s probably a bad sign when a fisk of Idiot/Savant seems calm and logical by comparison to other politics of the day!
Last year, our police killed sixteen people in chases, victims of a policy which allowed them to chase on suspicion without regard to the danger such chases posed to the public.
Yes, the police killed 16 suspects who fleed. None Sorry, all of those later proved to have comitted a crime.
This year, they’ve killed already, with a teenager dying in a police chase in Auckland last night. Like the other victims of police chases, the victim was not suspected of a serious crime and did not pose any serious danger to the public. He was a car thief, not a psycho running amok with a gun. But the police chased him at high speed, encouraging dangerous driving, and ultimately caused his death.
He was a car thief, not a serious criminal. Serious criminals drive their own cars – no, wait…
(I am now waiting for the inevitable press release from the Police Association claiming that the fact people flee from police means they should have greater access to firearms. It makes about as much sense as their other claims on the topic).
Actually, I think the proposal for chases is for RPGs to be mounted on police cars 😉
The Independent Police Conduct Authority have repeatedly told the police to change their pursuit policy to prevent dangerous chases on suspicion or for minor crimes.
Quite. Car chases should only occur after suspicion has been confirmed by a properly ordered trial by a jury of the accused peers.
The police have refused,
They clearly aren’t prepared to invest in the necessary time-stopping technology.
defying their oversight body, and effectively our parliament, in doing so.
“effectively” allowing them to continue policing the country.
What we are looking at here is a police force out of control, and killing people. That situation should not be allowed to continue.
Yes, this situation where the police enforce the law must stop!
Sadly, the police have the full support of their Minister in doing this.
the minister …and effectively our parliament…
Rather than reining them in and telling them to use only proportionate and necessary force to enforce the law,
I’d love to see what “proportionate and necessary” are defined as in Idiot’s dictionary. I’d have thought pursuing fleeing criminals met both those definitions to a “t”. After all, no one’s accusing these fellows of going slower than the police, are they?
Judith Collins has written them a blank cheque, abusing anyone who criticises their behaviour. Now she’s demanding that anyone who flees from police be jailed, regardless of the severity of the original offending. The idea is mad on multiple levels – it won’t deter, because scared young kids don’t do a rational cost benefit-analysis before fleeing police,
Quite. Car thieves have very little capacity for cost benefit analysis under pressure.
and it won’t make said kids (who are at best guilty of minor crimes, and sometimes of no crime at all before being chased)
I have an idea: let’s have the police operate on the assumption that suspicious behavior isn’t a possible sign of criminal actions.
better people or prevent further criminal behaviour. If anything, it is likely to do the opposite, imposing further costs on society. But hey, the Minister gets “tough on crime” headlines and stupid redneck votes, which is all she cares about. Rational policymaking? You won’t see any of that in Collins’ office…
Get that? The guy who’s suggesting that police don’t enforce the law, and don’t react to suspicious behaviour considers this “rational policymaking”.
Collins’ support means that she is as guilty as the police in this young mans’ death.
That is to say, not at all. I guess we agree on that one then.
Someone should carve his name – and that of every other person killed by the police on her watch – on her office door to remind her that such posturing has consequences.
and that of every other person killed by the police on her watch.
I suggest we start with those who crash before the police have time to even turn around, and then move on to those who crashed after the chase was called off. Once we’ve got those, we can move onto those that were identified as known serious criminals.
Or we can just admit that these people died of their own decisions and stop blaming those protecting the public.
Something should go here, maybe later. 