Friday, November 23, 2007

One down 10,499 to go...

At least according to Wikipedia.

Clint Rickards is a despicable man, but he is not the problem with the New Zealand police force. When you give people the power he had, some do abuse it, and the consequences of that abuse are devastating.

But what the police do in the course of their duties is almost as bad. It's not just the abusing of police power that we have to be afraid of, but the using of it. Last month's raids are a vivid example of the way police treat those they define as criminals, particularly poor and Maori or Pacific Island, but just a vivid example.

4 comments:

  1. This has to be one of your more misinformed posts Maia. Its very easy to be an armchair critic, but you dont have to deal with the crap police do every night. You critisize the dawn raids, but have you read all the evidence against the the accused? I have and it paints a picture of a group of crazed phyco's who want to kill white people, and have the weapons to do it.

    You're playing the race card is almost cowardly. Police dont go around aresting people beacuse they are Maori, they arrest people because they are criminals.

    Poor Clint Rickards. He is accused of a crime, and subjected to flogging by the media. He is cleared of all charges against him in a court of law. He is then critisized for staying on with the police, despite being found not guilty. When he quits the police he is subject to further critisizim, with Louise Nicholas calling him a coward to promote her new book. When will the lynch mob leave him a lone?

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  2. Anonymous9:28 am

    Hopefully never.

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  3. You really dont care whether Clint Rickards commited a crime or not do you? You just hate the police.

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  4. Anonymous1:16 pm

    Oh come on Nick, Clint Rickards was protected by a corrupt system and one of the guys who was part of that system and aided that corruption has since been successfully prosecuted.
    The police turn nearly half of all rape complainents away, branding them liars without investigation. Women are paying tax so should get a much better deal. I don't think women want to pay Clints wages.

    I don't know much about the raids or the intentions.

    I do think the poverty and the almost impossibility for most Maori to buy houses or land in Aotearoa must hurt big time. In their own country foreigners (people who exploit our week currency) are being put ahead of New Zealanders who work for pathetic wages. Those who own houses are really no better off when it comes to replacing their home with something else.

    We do need the police all of us. Women included, but we don't need Clint Rickards or the corrupt system of supressing and distorting evidence we now have. We deserve better for the money it costs taxpayers male and female.
    Maia is a hero for helping expose the corruption in the Louise Nichols case.

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