Get Better Work Stories?

Eighteen police officers have been disciplined for using the Facebook social networking website to brag about dangerous crashes. Photos of police vehicles that had been driven into lampposts and other cars were posted on a group on the site called "Look I’ve Had a Polcol". Polcol is slang for police collision. One picture showed a uniformed officer giving a thumbs-up in front of a wrecked patrol car pinned underneath a fallen tree.

.............

The group, which had more than 200 members before being closed down, also contained stories about collisions with pedestrians. "Ran over a drunk. I believe he has a permanent limp and a hefty payout. I was given a three-month holiday from job driving. Ooh, bummer," one member wrote.

..............

In this latest escapade where police meet Jackass in the United Kingdom, rebel cops and dangerous drivers unite over their mutual fascination with the carnage and aftermath of serious crashes. Preserving the moment with a photo, these bastions of society then go and trade their memoirs on Facebook with those who are breaking the law; some go so far as to boast of the injuries they inflict on others.

Looking at this story and its accompanying pictures, I am struck by how this article reads like an advertisement for the New Zealand recruitment campaign for police, 'Get Better Work Stories'. Visualise wiping the over-zealous 'thumbs up' and add in an aftershot of this guy standing around the barbeque discussing it with his mates over beer or some zappy grey and red graphics and you get the picture.

Produced by M&C Saatchi, the campaign conveys a message that police are not driven by the desire to create safe communities but primarily the desire to boast about witnessing crime to your mates. The television advertisements are divided into two kinds: one that positions having a boring job as something that makes you weak as a male and the other positioning respect as something you gain from your involvement in combating crime as an extreme sport. The office worker who sends his baby to sleep speaking of his boring life is clearly the emasculated opposite of the cop who runs criminals down 'easy: good thing we get paid to keep fit'. While I empathise that we certainly need to be able to make pursuing a career within the police an attractive option for our youth – let's face it the police perform a lot of positive work within our communities – do we really need to send the message to our future preservers of the state that the definition of an exciting day is engaging in sadistic voyeurism?

I'm not sure that these advertisements and the way they sensationalise crime are the best way to instill public confidence in the police, or that they set a positive role model for recruits. On the website, many of the personal testimonies from police officers currently in the force read as noir-styled tales of the the underworld, detailing the pleasure in punishing. In the words of one 'fall guy' who acted as an undercover drug buyer for police upon seeing his catch outside the High Court: 'I cracked up laughing, at which point his drug-infused brain finally put two and two together. He changed his plea. Catching baddies isn't always that easy, but it can be fun'.

Afternoon news updates

"Sources told the Herald they had attended military-style guerrilla training in the Ureweras"... "Sources have suggested the training camps were intended to prepare a terrorist group that planned assassinations"... " it is understood a specific threat was recently made against Prime Minister Helen Clark."
- NZ Herald

"Charge sheets filed in Wellington alleges offending occurred on:
16th-19th November 2006 (with a semi-automatic rifle)
10th to 14th January 2007 (a rifle)
26th to 29th April 2007 (firearm)
21st to 25th June 2007 (rifle)
16th to 19th August 2007 (shotgun & rifle)
13th to 16th September 2007 (Molotov cocktails & military semi-auto rifle)"
- Scoop

"Man arrested as part of nationwide police raids on suspected weapons training camps yesterday was today granted bail... The Crown said it had recordings in which Lockett made threats to kill and was training to become a very vicious commando... Assistant Police commissioner Jon White said today there was at least one area in Ruatoki that was still subject to being searched and police wanted to talk to more people.
'The operation was not completed yesterday.' "
- Stuff

"A bomb was detonated eight days ago in a guerrilla-style exercise at a training camp deep in the Urewera Range... a year-long investigation that included bugging conversations, tapping cellphone calls and texts and video surveillance.
Maori activist Tame Iti was one of those arrested. He faces eight charges relating to the possession of firearms and Molotov cocktails."
- Stuff

"New police intelligence office boss appointed... Welshman Mark Evans worked as an intelligence specialist for the British government... as the head of Research and Intelligence within the Terrorist Finance Unit which tackled paramilitary racketeering... The new unit, will be made up of Mr Evans, strategic adviser Rick McKee and three project officers."
- Yahoo/xtra

"Auckland: A solidarity group has been formed, and will meet next on Thursday. Details to come.
Wellington: A meeting to "constructively discuss a reaction" will be held on Tuesday at 7:30pm at 128 Abel Smith St and a solidarity demonstration will be held at Wellington District Court at 2pm Wednesday.
Christchurch: A solidarity protest will be held in Cathedral Square on Tuesday at 5pm. There will also be another demonstration in Cathedral Square at 12noon on Saturday."
- Indymedia

"A bail hearing for Maori activist Tame Iti is to resume on Tuesday, after being adjourned in Rotorua District Court on Monday... Twelve people have already appeared in the Hamilton, Wellington, Palmerston North and Auckland courts and have been remanded."
- RNZ

"A total of 300 officers, including the elite anti-terrorist Special Tactics Group, searched properties in eastern Bay of Plenty, Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Palmerston North, and Christchurch.... Critic says timing related to amendment... Raids 'over the top'... Public safety concerns... Ruatoki raids... Ruatoki raids... MP's concerns."
- RNZ

"The 'Officials Committee for Domestic and External Security Coordination' ODESC) met at the Beehive earlier this month to hear what was planned for today. This group is chaired by the Prime Minister and makes high-level decisions on terrorism, security, intelligence and civil defence issues. This group includes representatives from the SIS and GCSB."
- Joe Hendren

"I’m sending my love and support to my friends and others who were arrested today."
- Anarchia

"Of course it was a only a matter of time, once the Terrorism Suppression Act 2002 was in place, that it would be used against Maori activism."
- tino-rangatiratanga

"Iti's partner said: 'I wouldn't hang out with a terrorist. If these allegations are true, I don't know when he fits it all in.' "
- The Age

Courtesy of Not PC (despite the puerile personal abuse directed toward my co-blogger) further international coverage:

Explosion prompted terrorism raids - 'Sydney Morning Herald'

Arms cache discovered in secret Maori ‘terror camps’ - London 'Times'

New Zealand police arrest 17 in terror raids - 'Guardian'

New Zealand activists held after terror raid - 'Telegraph'

New Zealand in first terror raid - Al Jazeerah

NZ police hold 14 in terror raids - BBC

Armed New Zealand police conduct weapons seizures, arrests in raids - 'International Herald Tribune'

NZ police arrest 17 in terror raids - Press TV, Iran

Maori targeted in anti-terrorist raids - 'Sydney Morning Herald'

And the shit storm begins

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News
Yesterday 17 activists from a variety of environmental, political and Maori groups were arrested in an unprecedented use of ‘Terrorism’ powers right at the same time Helen Clark (who was aware of what was happening under her powers as head of the SIS) needs to look rough and tough to an electorate that has her poll numbers flagging, oh and it is done right when there is a new terrorism bill in parliament that gives the Prime Minister the powers to declare who a terrorist is – all pretty bloody convenient. What has happened? Tame Iti and his band of merry men have been playing soldier boy with some pretty frightening toys, the images of bright bushy young idealists running around the Ureweras with Ak47s is going to terrify soccer mums around the country, but the real twist is going to be when it is revealed who they were ‘planning to take out’ – again after a couple of bottles of wine I’m sure I brag about who I would take out, but add the context of the Ureweras, AK47s, Maaaaaaaoris and ‘eco-terrorists’ and you have a perfect storm of stereotype and fear mongering the damage of which simply can’t be known. If Tame and his mates playing soldier are ‘terrorists’ we don’t have anything real to fear, but the damage is going to be the public perception to all those political and environmental groups with a year to the elections. When the terrorism suppression bill was passed, many Maori said it would only be a matter of time before it was used on them, and with the witch-hunt arrests under way now (about 60 more people may be taken in today) this game is still afoot. The manipulation by the cops, by the government and by the SIS into raising the spectre of terrorism to terrify NZ hasn’t even begun – wait until the media find out who the ‘target’ supposedly was. We ain’t seen nothing yet folks.