Broad Bows Out.
I cannot say that I regret the news that Howard Broad is ending his tenure as Police Commissioner. Regardless of what positives he brought to the job–and I know that certain people on the Left think...
View ArticleSleeping dogs
Tim Watkin usually writes good sense, but with the latest post on gun control it’s clear he just doesn’t know his subject. Toughening gun control in NZ is basically a hiding to nothing, both in policy...
View ArticleFirearms, no debate
I generally agree with r0b’s reasoning on the police need — or lack — for firearms. This is a mostly-empty moral panic. But how things have changed for Greg O’Connor of the Police Association. This...
View ArticleIti and Bomber: response to “The Big Dog”
Rather than further sidetrack the discussion about police and firearms at The Dim Post, quick answers here to inquiries there by “The Big Dog” as to my views on two topics: Lew, I’d be interested to...
View ArticleJustice delayed, now denied.
Rather than ring out the old year and ring in the new year with the usual inane rubbish about new beginnings and fresh starts, annual lists, countdowns etc., how about we use the occasion for a reality...
View ArticleJustice Gnomes
The New Zealand Police [and Crown Law] appear to be adopting the Underpants Gnome strategy to deal with minor breaches of public order and transgressions against the general authority of the state: 1....
View ArticleExaggeration as a prosecution strategy.
Judging from the media coverage of the Urewera 4 trial, including video and audio evidence given by the Crown to the press, the prosecutorial strategy is quite clear. It consists of three interwoven...
View ArticleUrewera Terror: epic fail
Whatever your opinion regarding the Urewera Terror raids, you have to admit that the Police and Crown Law have failed. The so-called “Urewera 4″ were convicted on about half of the least-serious...
View ArticleLabour’s new Tui Ad.
Former Police Minister Annette King says that she and her cabinet colleagues were not informed about Operation 8 until the night before the dawn raids. She says this after stating that the Solicitor...
View ArticleAgainst “courageous corruption” as Crown policy
It should come as no surprise that I disagree with Chris Trotter’s latest piece about the Urewera raids. Don’t get me wrong — I think his assessment of the operational capability New Zealand police and...
View ArticleOpinionated Coroners.
In the past few weeks coroners have been in the news. The investigations of the disappearance of an emotionally distraught woman at Piha, the Kahui twins murders and the death of a cyclist on Tamaki...
View ArticleMedia Link: The GCSB and the Dotcom case
I was interviewed by the RNZ Nine to Noon program on the subject of the GCSB involvement in the Kim Dotcom case. Nicky Hagar followed me. Although it now has been confirmed that the Police misled the...
View ArticleDrones in our future.
Although I have no technical expertise in the field of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), I have discussed in various fora the military, intelligence, domestic security and political implications of...
View ArticleA Day in the Life.
On a recent day in New Zealand we were treated to the following news. A group of rapists who openly bragged about having pack sex with drugged or drunk underage girls on social media were outed by a...
View ArticleMonitoring Syrians and Supplicants.
The subject of spying is back in the news this week, but the coverage has been inadequate. Allow me to clarify some issues, first with regard to those who want to join the Syrian conflict and second...
View ArticleMedia Links: The Sydney Hostage Crisis.
Amid the flurry of media interviews I did as a result of the Sydney hostage crisis, this one may not have received the attention other outlets have received. The RNZ interview is here. The TVNZ...
View ArticleFighting terrorism is a matter of law enforcement.
The post 9/11 security environment has been dominated by the spectre of terrorism, mostly if not exclusively of the Islamic-inspired sort. In most liberal democracies the response to the threat of this...
View ArticleDon’t tase me bro
Police Commissioner Mike Bush on Friday announced that tasers will be deployed for the use of all front-line officers. The reasoning behind tasers emphasises the taser’s potential for de-escalation — a...
View ArticleThe Impunity Files, Police Edition: Trolling for Rawshark.
By now it is well known that in their effort to find the source of the information upon which Nicky Hager’s book Dirty Politics was based, the NZ Police searched and seized computers, phones and...
View ArticleQuestions of the day.
It seems that a fair share of people are concerned about the Intelligence Review Committee’s recommendation that the GCSB be allowed to spy on the private communications of NZ citizens and residents,...
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