Police Act Review Wiki

Police Act Review Wiki Now you can help draft the new Policing Act in 2008 - by contributing to their Wiki. The home page suggests users should contribute in this form of "extreme democracy" but encouraging a national conversation on policing. "The new Act will need to cover a wide range of topics, from high-level governance to day-to-day administration. To help get people started, we've included some headings and a few example ideas. "But don't feel constrained. For instance, if you'd prefer to work offline and upload a complete Act for others to comment on, by all means add it beneath the one we've started (there's a space provided under the "Alternative versions" heading)."

Cabinet paper summarising results of public consulation, August 2007

Cabinet paper summarising results of public consulation, August 2007

It is indeed intellectually alarming to read the submissions summarised by the Cabinet discussion paper. There is a definite sense of a set of new legislations for the sake of having laws that legalise the activity of police is overtaken by internal opinion that essentially any redrafting is a statement of the status quo.

If there needs to be an element of tradition in Government that does not swing from right to left, it would seem that would be the Police - the keepers of the meaning of tradition. There is a simple truth to reality, and then there is opposition to that. Sometimes, Government by committee results in a synthesis of the black and the white. And that is called gray. It is duller to the eye and when applied to legislation, it is an attempt to say one thing when saying another that results in unclear motives for law.

The purpose of the police is best expressed in simple terms:
e.g. "to keep order"

Overriding principals that make sense allow one to form more complex judgments later. It may seem very right-wing to say that basic principals aside, the function of police is fundamental to the operation of civil life. And if their function causes more civility, then their function is generally going to be more correct.

When the function of police is the creation of disorder (for example, the violent action of military police in Burma is out of proportion to the harm done by protesters who are merely exercising their ability to speak out) - society loses its essential guardians to chaos.

The role of a police officer is to maintain, not bring, order in civil life. If life is not civil, then the conduct of commerce becomes false. In a corrupt world, the Police will be corrupted. It requires the establishment of a social order for the Police to uphold for the Police to be police and not military.

And in the pursuit of order, the Police have a role to guarantee to society that wrong-doers will be found and pursued when it can be proven by a trail of reliable evidence (and not intervention by a convinced law officer) that harm has been done and then the full force of the Law is enacted by the officers to expose the truth to the balances of justice.

Police are not there to punish or judge. It is their function to bring order. The Police who confuse their function with the military are guilty of murder. Police who prevent violence are the most valued.

It is the function of Justice to redress wrongs. It is the function of Police to preserve and present the Truth and bring Order to those who seek chaos. If a Police officer breaks the law then that act is subject to Justice but investigation of the Police by the Police is to taint them so it is necessary to have a Civilian authority above the Police.

The Minister states "I believe the best way to facilitate consideration of the broad range of topics within the Police Act Review is to submit a suite of papers to Cabinet for policy decisions..." and "Timing wise, I intend to bring all six papers forward for consideration by the Cabinet Policy Committee in September 2007."

DIY protection

Straw promises greater legal protection for 'have-a-go-heroes' - Independent Online Edition > UK Politics

Interesting sign to see the UK advocating DIY vigilante justice by reducing the potential for them to be criminally prosecuted as a result of harm to perpetrators. So long as the harm is proportionate to the threat that is. So if someone attacks you with their fists and you shoot them, that is not covered. But if someone attacks you with a knife and you knock them out, you are probably not going to get prosecuted. Even if he gets accidentally cut with his own knife in the tussle.

It is not as if the law expects people to lay down dead at any approach by a mugger - far from it - but it is interesting to observe that a leniency to those that take measures against intrusion, from the electrification of windows to walking around with a loaded gun.

It appears to be bringing the UK law perhaps more into alignment with what we have in New Zealand. Under Section 48 of the Crimes Act 1961, 'Everyone is justified in using, in defence of himself or another, such force as, in the circumstances as he believes them to be, it is reasonable to use'.

Hence, New Zealand films that are violent tend to have been more so than UK films of the same ilk. Maybe so. But DIY justice does lend itself to more interesting fiction as it makes it tougher for those who wish to commit crimes in public. Making that something that people will react to is an interesting social experiment, it seems to me that the law covers us Kiwis to rugby tackle every shoplifter - and perhaps we do to some extent. But as our society becomes more exposed to violence it seems self evident that this sharp edge may require more careful definition.

In Great Britain, Police Can Use Taser Guns on Children | The John Birch Society - Truth, Leadership, Freedom

In Great Britain, Police Can Use Taser Guns on Children | The John Birch Society - Truth, Leadership, Freedom Is this the slippery slope of soft arming police with "undeadly" force, that they see as a device of torture administered in public? This trend toward totalitarian state control of society will also catch innocents in its juggernaut need to resolve problems we as individuals are not fit to resolve. Criminal behaviour is identified and sequestered into the constrained society of jails. The effect of such concentrations of criminals being made to have limited social contact but with each other is known to have a low effect, it can not reform anyone but could scare the wits out of a teenager considering the odds of a criminal enterprise instead of school. Such logic works well for the very stupid who do not learn to look after others as well as themselves from an early age. They see the world in terms of what it can do for them, only. Therefore we mete out punishment to "suit the crime". Tasers are not reasonable because they randomly kill about 1% of the "taser victim". Use of bully tactics and the teaching of lessons (humiliation) is now an instinct that, like the stocks of medieval times, can be applied to children - to teach then that lesson that a short jolt in prison used to serve. Guns at least can not be used without consequence. Just how long will this go on before some bright spark invents Taser resistant clothing?

Crime victims should get compo from state

Crime victims 'should get compo from state' - New Zealand, world, sport, business & entertainment news on Stuff.co.nz

Victim Compensation is one way that justice is done, but when there are $50M in unpaid reparations one has to ask what the effect of the legal system is on victims. And if the Government pay reparations then the taxpayer is paying twice for the criminal. If the Government underwrote compensation so then the $50M in unpaid compensation would be like an unpaid tax debt. Makes more sense.

Judges' profiling 'not just for Maori' - Hawkes Bay Today - 2007-08-20 14:56:00.0 - localnews

Judges' profiling 'not just for Maori' - Hawkes Bay Today - 2007-08-20 14:56:00.0 - localnews

ITN - Man and baby hit by Taser

ITN - Man and baby hit by Taser

Suspect Dies After Being Shot With Taser Gun

Man dies in JPD custody

Clearly, Tasers are used inappropriately and kill people quite often. In cases they cause injury, in New Zealand - Accident Compensation could be claimed by the Tasered if they fell and hit their head. When do the Tasers become weapons available to security firms in New Zealand? How about private individuals?

Of course the right to bear arms is sacrosanct in America, so there is no barrier to arming gangs, thugs or citizens. You could have a Taser in the cupboard under the stairs.

The Police Trials

Police Corruption Trial result

After fourteen years and over seven trials, Louise Nicholas has finally been vindicated. The four guilty verdicts of the former Chief Inspector of the Rotorua CIB John Dewer for perverting the course of justice provides a full stop for her extraordinarily affected life. As a person the public refused to accept the word of, and who yet despite much derision persisted until she challenged the system. Dewer enabled the offending of the aspiring and rapidly rising Clint Rickards who now seems logically doomed as factually, if not legally, well and truly implicated party.

But one has to ask, if that was the pervasive culture of the day as recently as the mid nineties, then what else was going on?

Did we have police covering up and committing other crimes? Did Dewer cover up anything else he should not have? If he wins an appeal, will that be the end of it?

Prime Minister Helen Clark opposed the appointment of Clint Rickards, and if the allegations against him were proven as his own guilt instead of being invalid by reason of coverup, well, he would not survive on $150,000 per annum buying him the finest lawyers he can find who will help him wriggle out of this kind of tar, the kind that sticks?

The appointment of men who think it is okay to rape very young women with their batons is comnpletely out of place - even in the most corrupt courts of Saddam Hussien you would not find such a demeaning torture. The thought of what the baton is used for, and how it is not sterile makes this a criminal act that you do not want all over the headlines for the world to see.

This "culture" that "existed" and "now does not exist" is not a tangible thing. A culture is not just a set of relationships or expectations. It is a code of trust. That a handful of corrupt cops from "those days" are now being put into jail - that says a lot to the police of today. It is not so much a "witch hunt" but a guilty verdict for everyone but Rickards. What one can infer from the Dewer trial effectively makes Rickards hasty "I am not guilty, so I look forward to resuming my job as Commissioner Monday" sound more hollow than ever.

One has to agree with Louise Nicholas. It is worth persisting to seek justice if it changes the world. Finally the public see what she is saying. What happens to Dewer is not so relevant as what now changes in the way that police complaints are investigated. Independent investigation has become necessary, in light of this, and other unsafe findings that have come to light from the overloaded justice system and disturbing corruption now found to have existed by a jury, beyond a reasonable doubt.

Police Brutality charges before court

Four police officers are being charged with using pepper spray on a detained uncharged individual. Read the article. The New Zealand police have had the spot light upon them for gang rape relating to incidents in the 1980s. The prison service has come under the spotlight for moving Liam Ashley in a van alongwith a psycho killer who killed him. And now, reading this tale of extraordinary bullying and punishing behaviour of four police officers subduing a prisoner with close pepper spray torture and batton hits. It is not even clear if the man was arrested or just detained, but he was certainly not informed of his rights or given a lawyer - but detained - possibly for questioning.

There was an enquiry into the police and a culture of abuse. But if police are seen as sadistic and cruel, it does not improve justice, indeed, it seems the all too familiar ground of parents who, having lost control of their children, now look upon the police as the last guard or final super nanny of them all. Unfortunately that won't work. The police are there to protect us from real criminals, not agitated youths aware of their rights who are prepared to say so.

It is a matter for the court but paints a more sobering picture. If New Zealand lurches to the Right, as is quite predictable, what measures will the conservative politicians be able to politically survive - bringing honour back to the New Zealand Police may require more trials of this nature.

The danger is, using criminal justice system to filter out bad police is just another ambulance at the bottom of another cliff. Weed them out in the recruiting process! Thugs do not belong in the police and idiots do not belong in the prison service.