Minister of Police Out of Touch with the Realities

George Hawkins comments about the Police being fully resourced shows a concerning lack of understanding when it comes to the realities of everyday policing in New Zealand.

Ex Police Sergeant and Leader of Destiny NZ, Richard Lewis, revealed a worrying lack of staff in New Zealand’s busiest region – South Auckland.

“I managed a squad at South Auckland Emergency Response Group. We could barely allocate one crew of two officers per suburb, which included Otara, Otahuhu, Manurewa, Papatoetoe, Mangere, Papakura and Howick. We were also responsible for policing Manukau and Pakuranga - with no staff to allocate”, he said.

“One serious incident had the potential to deplete your whole squad for a 10 hour shift, this places both the public and the police at serious risk”, he added.

Destiny NZ Policy demands an immediate and significant increase in Police numbers at street level and CIB, with an emphasis on recovering and retaining experienced personnel.

© Scoop Media

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>>