Posts by Russell Brown
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I'd just like to say I've seen Damian's scooter (he came straight from the showroom to the lavish media complex where we record Public Address Radio -- 4km on the clock!) and I thought it was quite cool.
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If an off-duty cop had been in the store, called 111 and identified themselves and stated that the scene was secure, and still the police had waited, then I'd be asking some hard questions. In the absence of any such scenario, though, I cannot fault the police for their actions.
Matthew, it seems a shame that an informed perspective such as yours did not form part of the New Zealand Herald editorial on the matter, headlined, with the Herald's customary pompous assurance, Saving lives outranks bureaucracy.
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As for the keyboard commando thing, let me pose you this, why should anyone have faith in a police force who apparently will show up to investigate your murder, but won't necessarily guarantee that they will do anything much to stop you dying? It doesn't sound like much to be thankful for to me.
I'm just not that inclined to make sweeping statements about the police on the basis of this one case where we don't yet really know what happened. Was is policy? Cock-up? Communication failure?
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I think Finland runs a system like this and it takes a bit of the sting out of SST.
I think National is proposing something similar, but the numbers don't come anywhere near adding up.
It's also worth noting that the most recent international crime victimisation survey gave New Zealand a stellar rating for victim support. Best in the world, in fact.
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Some tidbits from the police crime statistics:
- The homicide rate in Counties Manukau was 70% down last year -- a total of 8, or an incidence of 0.2 per 10,000 people. Robberies were down too.
- OTOH, there were 17 homicides in Wellington District in 2007, or 0.4 per 10,000.
- Homicides were in single figures in Manukau City, Auckland, Waitemata, Canterbury and various other areas.
There's some stuff you won't be reading in the news ...
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I don't know what's already stopping local authorities from imposing their own restrictions on liquor licences, as we do in Waitakere. The Trusts now plug millions and millions back into charities every year.
Apart from the restriction of the number of licences, I can't really see that the licensing trusts themselves do anything to help. The off-licences are generally dreadful, and the bars provide a steady income courtesy of that other scourge, pokies. The supermarkets still sell booze, just via a jack-up with the trusts.
I voted against trusts when Grey Lynn had to choose and I don't regret that at all.
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Point two: Any industry/trade connection was the sex industry (as the PM has called to limit retailing), specifically Street Prostitution made up 3.
But you can't argue that street prostitution causes crime the way that alcohol abuse does. Its sole role in those cases was to provide vulnerable victims.
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I think the question is "why the hell are they fighting it in the first place"? I don't mean to sound crass, but the Police enjoy enormous public respect, and 99.999% of police officers, earn every bit of it. To reduce it to crude marketing terms, "The New Zealand Police Force" is a rock solid brand.
And, indeed, the vox pops we gathered for this week's show do suggest that Laws-George-Hopkins are not necessarily representative of the public mood, no matter how endlessly they profess to be just that. OTOH, the police-in-crisis media meme, built of many little pieces, is potentially very corrosive for the force.
Take a leaf out of Willie Apirana's book -- some things just don't need spin or message management.
The irony there being that Willie Apirana's story was one of the most heavily managed in recent memory.
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2 years ago Christchurch was New Zealands murder capital. Most seemed to be street prostitution and therefore drug related.
Oddly the PM didn't call to end street prostitution, but the calls of blame the victim by closing their shops is odd to me.Curiously enough, Christchurch, with roughly the same population as Manukau City, has more than twice as many liquor licences.
But it seems clear enough that alcohol has a central role in this crime, as it does in most violent crime. That's what the robbers were after when they went there.
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Do you have no idea of recent social history?
The story around abortion law reform in the 1970s is indeed a fascinating and important one. Right now, it would make a good lead story for a weekend newspaper feature section. Or even The Listener.
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