A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
Opinion
Re: Scary situation on front line.
Lara, I take issue with your contention that I do not support my erstwhile police brothers and sisters on the front line of the Covid issues and mandate protests. You speak as a typical side-line critic. I joined the police at the start of
my 25 years of policing wanting to serve the public and stand against bullies and injustice. Ninety-nine percent of the police I served with were courageous and fair, and thus very effective in serving the public. I am still proud that I have served with them. There is, however, that other 1 percent who were intrinsically ratbags, racists and bullies, and I feel no compunction to protect them from having their misdeeds outed in public.
I am proud of my own service, but shamed by current police actions, such as those of the senior sergeant at the parliament protests who is videoed walking behind the line of police who are pushing vocal but non-violent protesters back. Twice he is seen to open the police line in front of him and direct heavy punches at the heads of protesters. He is then seen to go around the edge of the police line and attack an elderly protester with punches and eye-gouging.
This was all filmed by Stuff reporters, but TVNZ will not play the videos, even though Stuff is a trusted news gatherer for many newspapers and on occasion TVNZ.
The police claim that protesters sprayed a deleterious substance into the faces of police members requiring that they be treated in hospital. This has also been debunked by a Stuff video which clearly shows the police were accidentally sprayed by a police member and the “unknown” substance was in fact standard police pepper spray. Simply police “own goals”? Please watch both videos in full before you dismiss their contents as just part of the game.
