The Press does the world a service. This is the man who survived a fatal car accident in Christchurch on Thursday night.
Under the headline Moron's act of devastation, a very interesting story follows on the vexed issue of lawbreakers who refuse to stop for the police. This story is mandatory reading for anyone interested in this issue. It's too lengthy for us to reproduce in its entirety, but we couldn't agree more with this bit:
A review in July found there was insufficient evidence to support banning pursuits, as this was unlikely to improve or guarantee public safety.
The latest deaths prompted Police Minister Judith Collins to warn motorists not to flee police: "The message is don't run. It is not worth it."
Tougher penalties had been introduced, and while education was also needed, it often had little effect. "It's difficult to educate them [fleeing drivers] because, frankly, they're ... utter morons, and they leave this utter devastation in their wake."
Inspector Malcolm Johnston of Christchurch said the number of drivers fleeing police had risen alarmingly in the past decade.
Although a large part of the public backed the police, there had been a shift in the behaviour of some people who believed they were entitled to run. "I think we just need to get the pendulum swinging back and stop deflecting the blame from where it should be rightfully and squarely put on, which is the shoulders of these fleeing drivers."
Mr Johnston said the officers involved in Thursday's accident were devastated. "The accident happened right in front of their eyes. We join the police to make a difference, we really do, and to have a tragedy like this happen in front of them, you know, I wouldn't wish it on anyone."
Thank you to Judith Collins for calling it as so many New Zealanders are thinking; those who run from the police are indeed "utter morons", and deserve to be condemned. The gentleman sitting in the ambulance above is, in our humble opinion, right at the top of the Moron Scale. We wonder if the enormity of his stupidity is starting to sink in yet.
3 comments:
Three pursuits resulting in collisions in 24 hours, nearly 1500 pursuits and 10 fatalities so far this year.
Too many young men watching 'Wildest Police Chases' and all with a win by the common denominator, the blue team.
Draw your own conclusions IV2 but 'gung ho' comes to mind.
Execute with extreme prejudice.
That'll stop it happening again.
My info is that this person whom I have named Kuri Tutae is one of a group of some dozen or so trouble makers that I, in a position with a local government sponsored committee spent thousands of dollars that came from a fund, part of the prime ministers department funding, in an attempt to turn youths going down a road to self destruction, around some 7 years ago. My justification to spend the money was that it was no cost to ratepayers, was a pilot program aimed at getting the target group to finish school or enter tertiary training, give them self respect and motovation to see their behavior was leading to self destruction, introduce some discipline to their chaotic lives and find an alternative to "punishment' to make a difference.
I guess I may have been captured by a messaianic appeal by the leader of the group that ran the program that he and his supporters could turn them around. I am unaware of the outcome for all, but some are still near enough to my orbit to see some positives but the result for this little bastard is what we hoped to avoid. One other I am told will be a beneficiary, probably for his natural with a badly damaged limb from a drug/alcohol impaired driving incident.
I am left feeling that my original gut reaction when this program came before me, that the outcome would be one that ended in tears and my agricultural based solution of a culling would be better for all.
I am totally gutted and have a feeling of helplessness in ever finding solutions to turn many of these people away from their path to destruction.
I want the police to continue to remove them from the roads and support the change from "police Pursuits" to "manslaughter by fleeing drivers" carrying a punishment aligned to what a similar conviction for murder would attract.
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