Police Officer killed
The Dom Post reports a Police Officer has been killed in Porirua after being hit by the driver of a stolen car.
The NZ Police Force is a relatively small force and this death will touch every serving police officer. Luckily deaths in the line of duty are rare – but every one which occurs is one too many.
No TweetBacks yet. (Be the first to Tweet this post)
Tags: Police
July 11th, 2008 at 8:29 am
It’s sad to hear. My condolences.
Another unwanted crime statistic for the Government. The sun and the moon can be such cruel beasts.
July 11th, 2008 at 8:33 am
A very sad day indeed.
Oh for a return to the days when the low life who was driving the car would have “fallen down the stairs at the police station” and suffered major (and bloody painful) injuries.
I can just imagine what it happening right now, his legal aid lawyer will be sitting by his side telling him that he does not need to answer any questions etc…
July 11th, 2008 at 8:47 am
My condolences to his family and colleagues.
I hope we don’t Clark and her cronies trying to use this tragedy to get some publicity like we did with the Muliaga funeral.
July 11th, 2008 at 8:54 am
As always this is a sad event and especially so because this time the victim is a serving Police Officer.
No doubt there will be a call for Police to stop high speed pursuits (whether or not this was the case in this instance which I understand form news bulletins to be a hit and run) and the usual call for Police and independent enquiries. What will be completely overlooked is that this could have been avoided if the perpertrator had stopped when instructed to by the police.
Assuming they have caught the driver the charge should be murder!!
July 11th, 2008 at 8:55 am
My condolences to the family.
I wonder if this low life now regrets his actions….probably only getting caught. Throw the book at him.
July 11th, 2008 at 9:04 am
It is tempting to believe that the balance is shifting to favour the deadbeats over the decent, but to do so would be to roll over and stop resisting.
The fact is, there ws never a ‘good old days’ when the scum of this world would have been law-abiding decent folks, that is why police forces needed to be invented in the first place.
Take two people, one who followed the rules, who did the right thing and grew up in a nurturing environment with a sense of right and wrong. Now compare him to the other, who felt he was a ’special case’, who disobeyed the rules and who has now brought the deepest shame upon his family.
Which is the better tribute to this policeman? To roll over and decry the overpowering influence of the bad man, or to honour and praise the example set by the good man who stood up to the bad?
I choose to honour and praise the good man, without him and people like him, we would ALL be prey to the scum of this world.
With thanks and Condolences to the family of this police man. You have every cause to be proud and every reason to hold your heads up high.
July 11th, 2008 at 9:45 am
Well said Lee C.
July 11th, 2008 at 9:45 am
This is a terrible thing that has happened. The people in the Porirua Police Station are great people. I can imagine the offenders are sitting in an interview room smugly knowing the justice system will protect him/her. Perhaps they were beaten by their parents as children, spent their lives on the street, and all that rubbish which usually gets criminals less time inside. Let’s bring bring in the same sentences as in Texas. Life means life without parol.
July 11th, 2008 at 9:54 am
Lee C
You said it for me
All
The vehicle in question was ‘carjacked’ (Is this PC for stolen, or does it mean the owner way ejected ‘with prejudice’ by the two ccupants?) and the Police Constable was in the process of laying tyre rippers on the raod when he was hit. The driver and passenger were both arrested.
Can you see the court case? ‘Yes your honour, there may be overwhealming evidence that my clients did this terrible thing, but when you look at their childhood, raise without access to large flat-screen television, live footie, or designer label clothing, is it any wonder that they hadn’t yet learned to drive when the biting cold wind on the esplanade, as they were returning home from their daily rest period in the local gtang clubhouse, forced them to take a car that the owner was parku=ing in his driveway – clearly he didn’t need it any more for the evening – and asttempt to get home without any further risk of catching a cold. They lost their way, and if the dead officer hadn’t been standing in the road, looking down at the paving, he would still be alive today. After all, police uniforms are very dark in colour, and difficult to see when you can’t drive properly and are pushing the accellerator instead of the break. If the officer had remained in his car, or stood on the sidewalk, or , even better, stayed at home, he wouldn’t be in this terrible state today, so, your honour, my clients are willing to accept some responsibility for what happened, say 5%, but they believe the rest of it should rightly be place with the officer himself. I therefore submit that you should acquit my clientsa of the heinous offence, and instruct ACC to pay for them to have counselling to assist in their recover from their police imparted trauma.
July 11th, 2008 at 10:03 am
My condolences to the family. What a tragedy.
We should raise ‘causing death while involved in a criminal act’ to the same seriousness as murder.
July 11th, 2008 at 10:54 am
I just hope d4j has the common decency to refrain from abusing our hard working policemen in this thread
July 11th, 2008 at 11:26 am
Its past time we acknowledged who is responsible for those hurt and killed in “police pursuits”.
We hhave arranged things so that the message is if you can drive fast enough and make it dangerous enough the police will be told to stop chasing you.
First a name change: “Offender pursuit”.
Second any person failing to stop must be held criminally liable for any damage and/or injury resulting from the pursuit.
The message MUST be if you run you WILL get caught and you will be held responsible.
If we remove the motivation to run there will be less people getting a knock on the door in the early hours of of the morning. Those are not fun to either deliver of recieve.
July 11th, 2008 at 11:56 am
Condolences to the family, police force and country in general.
It was the height of idiocy for the government to publicly demand tight restrictions on police pursuits. Criminals now know all they need do to escape is use excessive speed and drive on the wrong side of the road – the police will be forced to let them go. I wouldn’t be surprised if the actual number of failure to stop offenses have increased since they implemented that brilliant piece of policy. To discourage pursuits, offenders need to chased more, not less. Punishments for failing to stop need to be raised as well. Criminals need to know that the chances of them escaping a pursuit are virtually nil and that the consequences for attempting to flee will be massive. Only then will the number of fatal incidents involving pursuits drop.
July 11th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
The Police need to be armed so that they can shoot the tyres out of the car they are pursing.(And shoot the offender if he is threatening them)
Give them Pistols and Tasers – the Labour Govt.should be ashamed about the increase in violent crime and the lack of resources to deal with it. Where is all their extra police as promised.
And then they muck around a get rid of the SFO in the middle of it- White collar crooks are actually worse!
The Greens will say……..
I wonder what the Greens will say about this incident-
(Be nice to the crim he was probably high on P and therefore didn’t know what he was doing!!)
July 11th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
I feel for the cop doing his job, (rest in peace ), i also feel for the poor kidnapped person in the car , WHAT IS HAPPENING TO POOR NEW ZEALAND, the scum rule the roost and the lawabiding pay and pay
as i have said ,come on liarbour and helen clark, if you cannot run New Zealand for lawabidding New Zealanders , step aside if you cannot and let MR KEY do a real job
July 11th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Deepest sympathy to the family and his fellow officers. This really brings home that the Police Fire and others do put their lives on the line
Sadly the perp will have the full support of the NZ legal system all looking to find excuses for their actions.
Respect is alas but a long past memory for the political judical and legal classes in NZ
July 11th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
“The fact is, there ws never a ‘good old days’ when the scum of this world would have been law-abiding decent folks, that is why police forces needed to be invented in the first place.”
My condolenses naturally, but I do have to take umbridge to this comment.
This was a time when the state institutions were not so full. When medications were not being consumed by such a large sector of society and when mental illness was not a self inflicted disease.
This era of cause was pre 1970’s when marijuana was thought to be the name of a small village in Mexico.
Now P is here the US authorities have said we’re now on a downward spiral.
There should be an organisation with a sarcastic title like ‘International Govts against Humanity.’
Unemployment is planned, drugs are introduced and the US television bosses want to opiate the minds of the masses with reality television. At least they admit it openly.
Its up to the individual to understand self worth and educate themselves. There may be a horrendous student loan, but if masses are being educated it is worth it.
I may have been fortunate to be a baby boomer and come from a more enlightened climate, but thats why I feel sorry for the youth of today. They don’t understand what the ‘oldies’ are saying has been taken from this country.
Who are the grass roots of crime and apthy in this country. Uneducated Maori who end up in jail or institutionalised.
They are the biggest protestors with the biggest grievances. They are not the role models of tomorrow, the educated are.
When you can remain drug free and independent of the system through education, you give the true hope to the next generation.
Success is healing.
July 11th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Thanks riki for those words Yes alas as a fellow babyboomer we were fortunate to be raised in an golden era that those generations after us havent known.
Growing up in Auckland in the 50s and 60s was a world away from the current times.
the so called working class suburbs where I and many others grew up was crime free to the extent that yes we did leave the doors unlocked and Mum and Dad never locked their cars either at home or when parked on the street
there was respect shown and respect given To adults to the Police to teachers.
Of course the current scoffers can never know or understand the reality of that time they are stuck in a mindless fog of no values no ethics no morals dog eat dog.