The recent increase in situations where the police are confronted with firearms whilst performing normal duties out and about in the community is justification for the issue of weapons to all police staff engaged in that line of work.
However, there is one major factor that will prevent this happening - staffing. To achieve effective security of personnel each patrol car must contain two officers.
A single officer getting out of a police car and approaching another vehicle with his Glock pistol on his belt is as vulnerable as an officer without a pistol as his reaction time cannot match that of a person getting out of a car with a weapon in his/her hand.
New Zealand is not yet ready for police approaching any situation with a drawn pistol such as the American way.
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Advertise with NZME.This is where the second officer comes into play by exiting the vehicle with a rifle (currently the bushmaster I believe).
This officer is then able to react to any weapons threat and will have a clear shot should the need arise. I say rifle as the effectiveness of a pistol is questionable over a distance of just a few metres.
Historical reports of the number of shots fired in order to subdue a suspect is an indictment of the pistol and its users.
A rifle is far more accurate and our 'brave' gang members will think twice before exposing themselves.
The chances of this happening are nil under the current police hierarchy and our nanny-state government and police will continue to be shot at whilst performing mundane duties.
D PARTNER
Eastown
Quite interesting
After reading Liam Dann's quite witty (for him) piece on interest rates (July 19) I had to decide which cliché to employ regarding his news about the Reserve Bank stopping its money-printing.
Should I say "the cat is out of the bag" or "too late to shut the stable door 'cos the horse has bolted"? Point is that our state-owned bank has demonstrated its capacity for putting fiat money into the economy, even though confined to purchasing the bonds so conveniently issued by Treasury to the capital markets for the banks to uplift.
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Advertise with NZME.Could have fed that $53 billion directly into DHB and local government funds but the foreign investors, who depend on public debt-servicing for their luxurious lifestyles, would have screamed blue murder.
Dann's claim that "interest" relates to a "legal" claim must be challenged. It was an ethical problem put to 13th century scholar, Thomas Aquinas, at a time his church condemned the taking of interest as usury.
Aquinas approved interest being charged where sacrifice is involved - existing wealth given to another for their use. Eventually goldsmiths and banks found they could charge interest on money "printed" when a borrower sought a loan – what economist, J.K Galbraith, described as a process which "boggles the mind".
Undoubtedly there is a role for modest interest charges on commercial transactions, but no ethical or logical excuse for charging it on public funding.
HEATHER MARION SMITH
Gonville
