Well the political year is up and running.
And Simon Bridges is complaining about the Government politicising the police. Given all of the law and order themes the opposition has run in the past year and especially the Simon Bridges video which featured a former police officer talking about him this is a bit rich.
The context is a police raid on a person holding rather strong right wing views alleging that this person was in possession of illegal weapons. It has been claimed by the opposition’s pollster among others that the raid was based on what this person said to a select committee considering the Government’s gun law changes which were formulated after the Christchurch massacre.
The police however have said that they did not use any information from the select committee process. It appears that the subject was a regular use of social media and I presume that the application would have relied on it.
He has his ability to seek legal recourse. The Nicky Hager case will provide an interesting precedent for him.
He has been described by the right as being a family man. It has been pointed out on twitter however that he thinks Trump is a great leader and is stopping the world drifting leftward, thinks there are points of the shooter’s manifesto which overlap with his movement’s world views, opposes the United Nations,wants greater controls on Immigration and opposes the UN migration pact. So in all fairness it could be said that he holds some pretty hard right wing views.
Bridges has chosen to step in, support the “family man” complain about the Police decision and allege that the Government is effectively controlling the police. From Zane Small at Newshub:
Bridges described the firearms ban and buyback scheme as a “quiet fiasco” and suggested the Government is influencing the police to prioritise it over issues he feels are more pressing, like gang violence.
“I do – and I don’t want to get into conspiracy theories – worry about the politicisation of the police,” Bridges said. “I think they have to be scrupulously independent.”
The National Party leader said he’s seen top police officers having coffee with ministers in the Beehive in Wellington and said it “worries” him.
Williams asked Bridges if Judith Collins did the same thing when she was Police Minister under the former National-led Government.
“I don’t know,” Bridges replied, “but I’ll tell you what I do think: we need to be scrupulous in guarding against that and ensuring that there is a separation.
“To the police, I say quite clearly: Mike Bush, you guard against politicisation of your force. It’s too precious to do otherwise.”
The police has responded with a very clear denial:
Police Commissioner Mike Bush responded by pushing back against Bridges’ claims.
“I can assure the New Zealand public that all operational decisions are made independently of any political inference,” he told Newshub. “There are no exceptions to this, including matters that are currently in the media.”
The claims of having cups of coffee with Ministers in the Beehive is bizarre. Police and other senior public servants visit Ministers all the time. What are they to do? Be offered water only?
There is an attempt to draw an equivalence between this incident and what happened to Nicky Hager. I can’t see it myself. Making sure the current law works has to be a priority for the police. And people should be aware by now that the law has changed.
Besides Hager had his papers and computers seized as well as his daughter’s computer. And police said at the time that he was not a suspect.
Such subtleties are beyond current political discourse. And it is unfortunate that the current leader of the opposition has this practice of barking at pretty well every issue that goes past him.
Powered by WPtouch Mobile Suite for WordPress