Law and Disorder

"Eighty percent of criminals come from unsympathetic homes."
Hans Christian Anderson.

The New Zealand Police are under intense pressure. They're not getting the public support needed to operate efficiently. But they don't deserve a lot of sympathy. While overall crime seems to be reducing slightly, in certain sectors it's leaping ahead. Assaults on police officers are going through the roof. NZ doesn't have a gun culture like the US, but knife attacks are increasingly common. Because of political tardiness, the unarmed front line police are having to buy their own knife proof vests at personal expense. They blame P, the latest in a long line of social drugs for the attacks. They're correct to a certain degree. But there are other reasons.

The main problem is that the gap between politicians and the independent police force has narrowed. The police force has been politicised. Today its main function is to carry out political demands. Real crime has been put on the back-burner in the quest for more and more public money. Recently a sole lady constable was sent as back-up to a vicious assault on a male colleague. She had to call upon her civilian father to lend a hand. It happened in an isolated area but when it comes to raising funds from minor traffic offences, there's a cop waving a speed camera behind every second tree.

In recent years I watched a man stealing money from a Services Club. All damning electronic evidence was available to the police. In another instance, I witnessed a schoolboy selling drugs at school. He was acting for his drug pushing father. I questioned a policeman as to why no charges had been laid. He took a deep breath and burbled for several minutes.

'The people are guilty but we don't have the resources to do anything. Besides, if you saw your neighbour beating up his wife, we won't do anything unless the woman complains. You being a witness doesn't matter. The complaint has to come from the victim.'

Somewhat shocked I consulted another policeman. He took a deep breath and burbled for several minutes. The rhetoric was the same, almost word for word. The school and the
Services Club would have to complain before anything was done. I can imagine the local
Police Commander wagging his authoritive finger at his casehardened troops.

'Now listen carefully boys and girls in blue. Here's what you say if somebody questions why we don't investigate certain crimes. Are you all sitting comfortably? Now repeat after me. All together now, one two three. If you saw your neighbour beating up his wife.....'

If that's not mindless rhetoric, what is it? None of it makes sense. The police are supposed to protect the public from villains. Not ignore crimes when it suits them. Using the same criteria, I sardonically suggested that my neighbour had killed his wife and her body was rotting behind the garage. Obviously the murder wouldn't be investigated because the victim hadn't complained. Surely what was good for the goose would also be good for the gander? The cop sneered and told me to mind my own business. It was for them to decide who to prosecute, not the public. I suggested that if he ever needed help, don't bother asking me.

The police are polarised at the moment. Possibly because they're a brotherhood and protect their own as much as possible. There's a long standing police pack rape case pending that was whitewashed years ago. But now there's a Public Enquiry and wherever there's smoke there's normally fire. Other females have come forward with similar tales. Naturally the cops concerned will be sacrificed in the name of integrity. It's a nice word, but what does integrity mean in political circles? Convenience?

The media publish many complaints about the multi millions police are raising for
government. These are ignored. Unfortunately police are public servants, at the bottom of
the scale and blindly follow orders regardless of public opinion. No social conscience
required in today's police force.

Then there's education. For the last twenty years, school kids haven't been taught to think
and exercise old fashioned commonsense. Apart from the basics, the main object of modern education is to ensure mindless obedience to authority. Thus, one can understand the young and perhaps embittered older police officers, enforcing the greed inspired traffic regulations. They're mentally unable to weigh the consequences. They waffle for hours about how they're only doing their jobs and it's not their fault the sky falls. But since when were police employed to steal public money? Is institutionalised plunder the latest political excuse for theft? But making theft legal doesn't make plunder honest. They make pirates walk the plank, don't they?

Many assaults on police are inspired by their ignorance of humanitarian values. The attitude that they are superior human beings and couldn't care less about the peasants, could be relevant. The official belief that money is more important than justice, inevitably causes deep-seated resentment. This leads to a short-tempered public objecting to police arrogance. It's probably a case of shooting the messenger but what else can the public do? It's a waste of time trying to get any sense from the bureaucrats hiding behind an electronic wall of anonymity. Judges are simply yes men for the establishment and nothing will ever be obtained from politicians. None has the slightest notion of reality.

It's inevitable that police suffer the consequences of their actions. If they want to change
public perception of their role in society, I suggest they look in the mirror of hind sight,
investigate and prosecute the real offenders whatever their status.

The next time my neighbour kills his wife, I'm going to follow the Three Monkey's advice. Hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil. Trouble is, Godzone stinks of dead monkeys.