"All police should carry guns, almost 60 per cent of the public and more than 70 per cent of officers believe.
Police Minister Judith Collins this week said she would support all patrol vehicles carrying pistols in lock top boxes"
Source: Stuff.co.nz
The debate about arming the police has been a hot topic recently and I certainly believe something needs to be done, if not to reduce the number of attacks then certainly to enable the police to be able to defend themselves adequately against these thugs with more than some harsh words and a terse tone. 4 recent attacks, one highly publicised involving a machete, add to a history of such episodes. There was an outcry from do gooders when tazers were introduced so I can well imagine the fuss if firearms were made mandatory. My view is if you wish to operate outside of the law then you forgo all rights afforded by the law - human rights be damned. From my limited knowledge though I understand there are only a handful of tazers in operation anyway. Perhaps if they had been in use they may well have prevented these attacks, who knows. Regardless, the Minister has said she supports firearms in police cars. A lot of good this would do when a patrol officer is accosted when out of the vehicle, unless standard procedure involves the police officer obtaining the firearm upon leaving the vehicle to attend an incident. In which case why not just arm them? An argument may be that if the police are armed then offenders will follow suit and arm themselves as well. In which case stricter measures need to be in place to restrict the access of firearms.
So why is it then that we have seen this blatant disregard for authority. This is a very complex question and one which I certainly do not have the answer for. However, I do have some ideas to add to the debate, which include the 'rights' of the child (in fact too much focus on rights and not enough on responsibilities), sensible sentencing, schools, parenting... But that's a whole other 'blog'!
