Cam’s recent article Police Admit to Surveilling The BFD was a breathtaking revelation of the direction in which this country is being taken. The fact that the Police have admitted to such actions should make the blood of every right-minded person in the country run ice cold. Is this the sort of country we want to live in, where anyone who criticises the government is put under surveillance? What type of country does that remind you of? In some ways we shouldn’t be surprised; in fact, we should have seen it coming.
The paying off of the media should have raised a red flag. Money was shovelled in their direction ahead of other much more deserving industries such as hospitality and tourism. The aim was to get the media onside. Virtually all already were, but caveats were added to reinforce the government’s agenda.
Was any given to The BFD? No, instead it was put under surveillance by a highly paid person or persons from the “Scanning and Targeting Team”: a group of intelligence analysts tasked by the PM’s office (I assume) to monitor social media and websites that dare to criticise the government.
That the Police are involved is cause for real alarm. The politicising of the Police has no part in a democratically run country. New Zealand is not yet the socialist nirvana Ardern dreams about, but we are hurtling towards it. The role of the Police in our country is to protect its citizens from crime, rein in the gangs and ensure that their powers of surveillance are directed at dangerous people and organisations. Actual terrorists and extremists, in other words, not conservative websites discussing mainstream issues in a free and open manner.
Heather du Plessis-Allan, headlined her opinion piece in the NZ Herald on Sunday with Who calls the checkpoint shots?. Heather says, quite rightly, that the government should never have allowed these iwi-controlled checkpoints. Instead, they passed them into law. Heather points out that the Police are saying they won’t stop every car but iwi say that they will. Iwi claim that it’s not the call of the Police; decisions are to be made in “partnership” with the Police. So if Police think the queue is too long and iwi don’t agree, then what?
The Police are fast becoming the long arm of the government rather than the law. Perhaps what is going on is not all the fault of the Police, but Police HQ seem too eager to follow the government’s song sheet. This is a bad look for an organisation that is there for the good of the public, not the government. More and more, the signs are indicating that government edicts override core police responsibilities. How often have we heard ministers, when giving answers to questions, get away with, “It’s an operational matter.” Obviously not when it comes to the Police.
The Police hierarchy need to start thinking about how public confidence is being eroded by their actions. We have seen gangs being given taxpayers’ money by this Labour Government and a soft approach taken by Police when it comes to them obeying Covid laws. The Police Commissioner says they are not going soft on the gangs. I doubt the majority of the public would agree.
I wonder how many of the frontline policemen and women are happy to find they have joined an organisation that employs them not to keep communities safe from crime but to stand at pointless checkpoints asking people to produce irrelevant paperwork. Or to attend freedom protests and having to arrest people for exercising their democratic right. That is not what they signed on for. They enlisted believing they could make a difference to this country by serving in a role working for the safety and betterment of all Kiwis.
All of the above serves to illustrate the dangerous path we are being taken down. This is just one part of the agenda. There are many more pieces to complete the anti-capitalist jigsaw and slowly but surely they are being put in place. It’s past time for the population to wake up and say enough is enough. This is not the New Zealand that we want. Don’t be fooled by Ardern’s communication skills or the supposed warmth of the smile produces. It’s nothing more than a mask hiding her real intent. The mask needs to be removed and the Police need to once again focus on their core duties.
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