Police deserve better representation than a gild that insists no cop can do any wrong. All Police are tainted by the illegal, unethical actions of the few, which the Police Association under Greg O’Connor endorses, defends, and tries to cover-up. O’Connor’s latest outrages are dismissing a report into systemic sexism and sexual abuse by Police as a “ritual humiliation” and justifying Police laying false prosecutions.
Unions don’t stand by every worker, right or wrong, they go in to fight to workers who have had their work rights violated, not ones who have broken their end of the workplace relationship without justification. Likewise, Fonterra and Federated Farmers are joining the modern age, turning against dirty farmers who make life harder for the bulk of their members, rather than defending every farmer to the hilt. So, why are the Police stuck with this dinosaur?
How many times have we seen O’Connor standing up to defend unjustifiable police actions? One stands out. As the Urewera case was coming apart, O’Connor was on TV slandering the people who had charges against them dropped by accusing them of crimes based on what he claimed was shown on inadmissible video evidence. The Police who had held a town hostage and boarded school buses while heavily armed had done nothing wrong.
Yesterday, O’Connor decided to lambast the Courts after a judge throughout Police cases based on a bogus prosecution that the Police ran against their own undercover officer. Apart from the clear issue of separation of powers for the man who has taken it upon himself to the the Police’s spokesperson telling the Courts what to do, he’s defending immoral and potentially illegal activity. To carry out the hoax charge against their man, Police must have violated s110 and s256 of the Crimes Act (at least), not to mention perjury and false arrest. Does O’Connor condemn that? Does he condemn Police laying charges that they know to be false? You bet your arse he doesn’t. He thinks the ends justify the means.
But I think it’s the outburst on the sexual abuse report that could finally put O’Connor over the line. He’s spat on the 300 women Dame Margaret Bazley identified as having being victims of Police sexual misconduct. He’s basically dismissed all sexual offending as inconsequential and punishment for it as being merely symbolic and undeserved. He thinks it doesn’t really matter that Police are doing these terrible things and his response is to be annoyed that anyone’s talking about it. The Police have important things to do, like reduce crime, he says, and if that means condoning crime among his own, then Greg O’Connor thinks that’s OK.
We deserve better than this, and the Police deserve better too.
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