ACT New Zealand Police Spokesman Ken Shirley is calling on Police Minister George Hawkins to apologise publicly to Senior police officer John Gower of Te Rapa for his unconscionable personal attack on him.

“Police Minister Hawkins arranged for his backbench colleague Clayton Cosgrove of Waimakariri to ask him a Parliamentary question on how many arrests Senior Constable Gower had made. This was obviously in retaliation to Constable Gower’s public expression of dismay at the inadequacy of policing resources under Minister Hawkins stewardship.

“Senior Constable Gower is highly regarded in his community for his outstanding work and long service particularly with youth at risk. Minister Hawkins attack was that of a bully-boy abusing his power and he owes the constable an immediate apology,” Ken Shirley said.

ENDS

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>