NZ Centre for Political Research

'Should we arm the Police?' is the wrong question to be asking.

The police are already armed.

The question we should answer is 'should the police be disarmed?'

My answer is that they should be disarmed.

If the Police were to organise their affairs properly they would have no need of weapons of any sort except in one particular circumstance and that problem may one day be solved.

K. M. Findlay.

I say give Maori a turn for 100 years can't do any worse than the parkeha.

My question is why don't many people trust maori about the foreshore and seabed act. They have been taught by the best the pakeha. Most of our sea shores and rivers poluted to the max all for the sake of the mighty dollar now instead of fixing the mess up you are all fighting over who is going to have control over it does include the polution as well bet not costs money. I say give Maori a turn for 100 years can't do any worse than the parkeha.

Muriel

Finally the truth on what is the problem with youth. They are no different than what we were like only the future for them looks a lot bleaker now than when I was growing up. I saw a future for myself, the ability to get ahead by dint of hard work and achieve what I wanted, and to a large degree I have been successful.

These days with nanny state trying to stop young people doing things, instead of them just doing the smaller harmless things, which have been legislated and local body by-lawed out of existence, they just go and do the big things on the basis if they are going to get caught it might as well be a goodun’.

Also, with all of this rubbish pushed in school about global warming, how many young people think that the planet is going to die and hence they may as well go nuts now before it does?

If people don’t see a future for themselves, feel unhappy and helpless, you will of course get what we are getting. Self assuredness comes from inner strength and self discipline neither of which appears to be available in spade these days.

The raw material is the same, what we are doing with it is completely wrong.

Perhaps the next war will give them a purpose?

Trevor

David, I enjoyed your article, but would like to point out that the impressionable condition that seems to invade the young beings psche between the ages of say 13 and 23, has always been the same. I remember going through a phase when I refused to have TB shots because it was very clear to me that it was only a matter of a very brief time before the nuclear bomb would send the entire planet to oblivion and how much good would TB shots do me then.

Guess what? It never happened.

Now days it's simply a variation on a theme ... it's the environmental alarmists who are scaring the living daylights out of the kids and they are responding by getting drunk and drugged, and prostituting themselves in any way they feel like at the time. The big difference now is that they are not taught a strong sense of personal responsibility and are given far too much support and emphasis on rights. Strip away all the rubbish talked about rights and replace the rights talk with responsibility talk and you will offer a partial solution to the dissolute lifestyle espoused by many of the young. Tertiary education should only be offered to those who have a clear career pathway in mind. All the talk of education producting well rounded citizens is nonsense. People are people. The ones with guts and character will attack life with gusto and get what they need to proceed with their lives, come what may. All this feather bedding with student funding is just ruining the country, screwing taxpayers and depriving the elderly of their entitlements in old age. Student loans should attract the same interest as any other loan. That would eliminate the "silly" courses that do not lead anywhere.

Whether the police are armed or not the underlying causes of the increased violence should be tackled.

These are generally accepted as the gangs and drug trafficking.

The main subjects of police (and media) attention at the moment seems to be Christchurch street racers.

Is this because the Christchurch street racers dont have plants in high places or just because police feel much safer tackling them (or traffic offences) rather than tackling the gangs and drug traffickers?

The Commissioner of Police has demonstrated little loyalty to, or concern for the safety of the front-line officers under his command on the issue of arming our Police.. The Minister of Police has indicated her reluctance to arming the Police because it will change our perceptions of New Zealand being a safe society.

In the real world, front-line Police officers go to work each day in the full knowledge of the potential dangers they face and the uncertainty that they will return safely to their homes, wives and families at the end of it.

No politician would contemplate sending a front-line soldier into action without a weapon, yet, incomprehensibly it is not the case with regard to our Police force. The world has radically changed since the 1950s and 60s when the Police knew the criminals and the criminals knew the Police and there were strict limits observed by both.

The criminals of today are waging a war against society in which they will do anything to protect their own interests, even to the extent of taking human life.

The time is surely now, when the decision makers must face up to the need for our protectors to be given the weapons necessary to protect themselves - and us.

At one time I did not believe in generally arming the police.

Times have changed. Criminals will use weapons to protect themselves and their drug
supplies.

Police should be equally armed.

Thugs and troublemakers might think twice about attacking police in superior numbers armed with bricks and bats if they see the firearms on the officers' hips.

I think the time has come to arm the police.

Dear Muriel

It is because the police have failed so miserably in their job to protect the public from criminals that we now have the situation where violent crime in this country is rampant.

Sadly, hardly a week goes by without instances of serious police misconduct coming to public attention. You also recall that Armed Offenders Squad last year shot dead an unarmed innocent law-abiding citizen. As expected, the police swiftly exonerated themselves from any wrongdoing.

Please remember that Greg O'Connor is the head of the police union. he pushes the pro-police line - not the public interest.

Two ex-senior cop acquaintances of mine have expressed concern to me in recent years at the serious decline in police professional standards.

Stephen

Well, as Mandy Rice-Davies once said - "He (O'Connor) would say that wouldn't he?".

If a policeman wants to carry a gun all the time he should join the army.

We have enough officers in the Armed Offenders Squad to manage an 'armed situation' - they certainly seem to shoot enough people.

Each of the situations where officers have been shot have resulted from overconfidence and a very a poor tactical appreciation of the situation. Instead of the 'knee-jerk' reaction of arming all officers why not spend more money on a decent police intelligence system. This is where officers are being let down.

Moreover, public confidence in the police has been somewhat eroded by the continuing examples of 'police behaving badly' - consider the situation where they behave badly - with firearms!

If it is all too risky and dangerous then don't join the police - maybe consider the ambulance or fire service - you still get to drive fast with a siren and tell people what to do.

The key in arming police is not to do so if terrorists, traditional criminals and the police will be the only ones armed. This is what Mexico, by disarming its citizens, did and now "When citizen ownership of guns is outlawed only outlaws (Including police) will have guns" is the rule in that semi-nation.

The same held true for Nazi Germany, Stalin's USSR and other like disasters.

From an USA view, we still remember that it was the attempt of the British government to seize citizens' weapons which finally sparked our Revolutionary War.

Sent by Brent: