What a dreadful weekend for police – an Oamaru officer was taken to hospital after being assaulted. That follows two other unrelated attacks on police – an off duty officer was beaten unconscious in South Auckland and in Whangarei an officer’s lip was bitten off.
Drugs and alcohol are part of the problem – biting off someone’s lip is deranged behaviour – but a lack of respect for police and the law are also contributing factors.
Police Minister Judith Collins said she would consider a law change to better protect police officers, but rebuilding respect for the law should be the first step.
“What I’ve asked to find out is whether or not the law is being properly applied, that’s one side of it. But actually we’d rather stop the attacks in the first place, and I think it’s extremely important that we start to rebuild the respect and fear for the law that we expect,” she told Radio New Zealand.
These attacks on police are attacks on society, if they’re not safe we aren’t either.
You’re bang on the money, I’d say.
The police work for us – not for some mythical group that requires force to maintain privilege.
Does Oamaru still run the private security patrols they used to a few years back? I was picked up by one and given a cup of tea while hitchhiking in the dead of night (as one does when traveling long distances).
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