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Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Your Parliament just voted in a Police State – and you aren’t even aware of it!


Policing Bill To Become Law
Police today welcomed the passing of the Policing Bill, following conclusion of its third reading with near unanimous party support in the House. Acting Commissioner Lyn Provost says it is an historic day for New Zealand Police and all the communities it serves. "Receiving such a resounding vote in Parliament is a welcome indication to Police that the new legislation is well balanced and widely supported." The Policing Bill now requires Royal Assent to formally become the Policing Act 2008. "I extend my thanks to everyone who had input into the Bill's development - including Police staff, service organisations, members of the public, government and non-government agencies, and those who guided the Bill through the select committee and parliamentary process," Acting Commissioner Provost says. A comprehensive implementation plan is well advanced within Police to effect the many changes the new Act will introduce following Royal Assent.

Unbelievable! Are you kidding me? WTF! When my co-blogger Tim Selwyn brought this to my attention months ago I argued that there was no way this could go through. I did not think for a minute we would be so stupid to give the Prime Minister of the day such unregulated power by appointing the Police Commissioner and the Deputy Commissioners while relegating the Police Minister under the Prime Minister. Meaning the Police are answerable to the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister hires and fires those who run the policy, it is a closed relationship that does as my co-blogger points out “invites political manipulation, under-performance and ultimately corruption”.

The exacerbating factor is that we are realigning accountability right when the Police are about to execute and mug the Serious Fraud Office of it’s existence and it’s no right to silence powers. As the Police immediately attempt to use this newly acquired power they will turn from white collar corporate crime to ‘da gangs’, so a power created to acknowledge the difference in power relationship between the state and the corporation is about to be used between the state and the individual within a system controlled by the Prime Minister of the day.

This is not acceptable in a country that likes to think of itself as fair and democratic, this is the sort of structure that builds a Police State.

10 Comments:

At 9/9/08 9:16 am, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Woo hoo a police state finally!

I'll look forward to the forthcoming rounding up and liquidation of undesirables.

And also the natty uniforms, every police state needs natty uniforms.

 
At 9/9/08 9:19 am, Blogger Tim Selwyn said...

On National Radio now they are debating why cops have been banned from standing on local councils as Mayors and councillors (but not community boards). The rationale seems to be that councils make bylaws that are enforced by police. Makes sense. Arguments for disclosing conflicts of interest and so on are tricky and in the circumstances I think it was actually a good thing to bar them. As they say, a cop is a cop regardless of whether they are wearing a uniform at the time. Pressure may also come on them from Police management to push certain agendas - there could be an appearance of bias or ulterior motives.

The police assoc. are complaining about the move, because local councils may not be able to have serving police on their boards. What we should be complaining about is that local councillors/judges etc. have no ability to hold the local cops to account because they don't even have a board. We have it all backwards here.

 
At 9/9/08 10:13 am, Blogger Tim Selwyn said...

But we aren't in the third world yet - check this out - Mumbai's own Dirty Harry has killed 112 people! And has been fired for being in cahoots with a crime boss.

 
At 9/9/08 10:25 am, Anonymous Anonymous said...

But we aren't in the third world yet - check this out - Mumbai's own Dirty Harry has killed 112 people!

Give him a job in South Auckland, now he's got some spare time.

 
At 9/9/08 11:04 am, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Why all the fuss?

We've been there for the last 10 years, even since Doonegate.

All this does is make the de jure laws the same as the de facto situation

 
At 9/9/08 2:19 pm, Blogger Barnsley Bill said...

The anonymous comment at 11.04 sums the situation up perfectly. When both ends of political opinion in this country are united in abhorrence of what this govt has done e know things have gone too far.

 
At 9/9/08 9:22 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

can we have more details on the act please

 
At 11/9/08 7:54 am, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Another police officer killed by the scum of South Auckland.

Give them guns.


It's an interesting case, on Breakfast they just made the point that the officers were not in uniform and that the guys attacking them may not have known they were cops, they may have thought they were other crims.

 
At 11/9/08 9:14 am, Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's an interesting case, on Breakfast they just made the point that the officers were not in uniform and that the guys attacking them may not have known they were cops, they may have thought they were other crims.

So?
Are you saying it is acceptable to hunt down and kill somebody who entered your property?
If they were other crims, doesn't mean you have the right to execute them.

Best find Mr Emery not guilty of killing the tagger then.

 
At 11/9/08 9:22 am, Anonymous Anonymous said...

What P cook would put his business at risk by chasing and killing a car thief?

What car thief would steal a car from a house that is involved in crime? (believe me, the locals would have known what was going on, and the residents of the house would have been somewhat intimidatory)

They knew they were police, thats why they shot them.

 

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