"There's 20 of us and only one of you," Adrian Troy Kuru called out to the police officer responding to reports of gang members fighting in the street outside a Gonville address.
"F*** off or we'll f*** you over." Sergeant Damon Evans had arrived just as a group of 15 or so Black Power members spilled out on to the street. Other patrol cars had been past earlier and not seen much activity.
"These types of jobs do not occur regularly, but they do happen from time to time," Mr Evans told the Chronicle.
As he arrested 30-year-old Kuru following the disturbance in the early hours of November 16, Kuru struggled while being handcuffed and told him he knew where he lived and where his children were.
"I've been threatened a number of times," said Mr Evans, recalling some of the more risky aspects of his job.
"I've had a pitbull dog set on me, I've had a number of foot chases for a variety of different crimes, I have been involved in closing down a number of large parties, including one that probably had between 500 and 600 people attending.
"At that party as we went to the rear of the address a chant went up: 'F*** the police, f*** the police', so it had the potential to turn nasty fairly quickly."
But despite this - and despite finding himself facing 10-15 angry gang members - Mr Evans has yet to be seriously assaulted or injured in his 15 years in the force. Other officers had not been so fortunate, he said.
Kuru pleaded guilty in Whanganui District Court to resisting police and speaking threateningly.
At his hearing, defence lawyer Raukawa Simon said family were there to celebrate Kuru's 30th birthday.
"They went out on to the street, and that's when it started going all wrong," Ms Simon said. "Police were called and it just went on to, I suppose, a bad run of events.
"He says he was provoked in some way by police. When he was being arrested his arm was twisted."
Kuru, a father of five, was last before the court for this type of offending in 2006.
Judge Dugald Matheson said Kuru's threatening comments were "not the words of a family man" before sentencing him to 120 hours of community work.