NZ journalists hate the police

They're baaack...
Last year the NZ Herald went hard out plastering stories berating the police: incompetent, ineffective, tardy, uncaring, insensitive... no gripe too small or petty to be breathlessly publicized with hand-wringing anguish. This time their fellow tripe merchants, the Herald on Sunday, reinitiate the anti-cop crusade:

"The newspaper will this Sunday launch a series investigating the crimes that affect everyday people, & how the police have responded. We want to know how quickly the police got to you, if at all, & whether you were happy with their response"

Why do Auckland based newspapers have their tampons in a twist when it comes to the police. What do they hope to achieve by publically belittling & demoralising cops? Of course no profession should be immune from criticism, but why the focus on frontline officers? There are numerous stories far more worthy of investigation, eg, the decision to not charge Labour Ministers despite prima facie cases; the unprecedented & unpopular appointment of a crony civilian to the post of Assistant Commissioner (and her subsequent bungling leading to the 111 call centre fracas; ministerial meddling prioritising revenue gathering from speeding tickets; resourcing issues; the failures of community policing, etc etc. Why don't our msm hacks bother researching the root causes of these lapses rather than target your average plod who has very little recourse, much less right of reply? It's sickening, imo, unproductive & ultimately self-defeating as attrition rates soar during times of escalating crime & recruitment difficulties in a tight labour market. When cops, fed up with daily journalistic vituperation, leave the job in droves (and who can blame them), our police force is weakened & the only winners are criminals.

Like a number of Maoris, I have a rather shadey past with a long court history & string of convictions. I've experienced first hand all manner of police dodginess: assault, bullying, intimidation, lying, perjury etc. If anyone should be crying in their weetbix, it's me! Nonetheless, with the maturity of age, I now support our cops unreservedly. They are the thinnest of blue lines that delineate civilised order from brutish anarchy. When some idiot kills motorists by chucking rocks off a highway overbridge, or some P-crazed madman lets loose with a gun, who ya gonna call? My sincerest aroha for the cops who have, imho, a incredibly sh*t job - often dangerous, unrewarded, unappreciated - daily confronting humanity's dark face, whether mobs of drunken hooligans, bloodied corpses of murder victims, or scraping body parts off the road in car accidents. They don't need half the abuse regularly meted out by society's scumbags and they sure as heck don't deserve needless lopsided criticism from halfwit journalists with shoulder chips.

Support our Police and boycott the Herald on Sunday!