Police U-turns

I don't really like having a go at the police but after the incident in the Buller Gorge last year you would think that the cops maybe would be taking more care with the way they handled their cars in traffic.

On the way down to Wellington on Sunday I was following a police car (one car ahead of me) when the cop all of a sudden decided that they were going the wrong way and needed to do a U-turn.  This was in reasonably heavy traffic with two lanes going both ways.

To start the manoeuvre the cop simply pulled across into the opposite lanes - no indicator, no flashing lights or anything.  Unfortunately two lanes were not enough to complete the turn and so by the time I went past the car was in reverse and I was wondering if I was about to be rammed in the side by a cop car.  Additionally, all of the traffic in the opposing two lanes had to stop otherwise they'd pile into the cop car - wonder if there were any nose to tails?

Anyway, the cop didn't hit me but I wonder what he would have done if it had been another member of the public pulling the same kind of stunt?  Probably be sentenced to life imprisonment or something.  The thing that most annoys me is the no indication/Christmas tree lights etc to warn other motorists and that the cop thought that it was perfectly ok to do that sort of thing.  Be nice if they could set better examples out on the road...

Oh, and to top it all off, while we were parked outside Wellington Motorcycles a mufti cop tried to back into the bike bike between Brian's & my bike and a parked car.  There was not enough room for a mini let alone a commodore!  He eventually worked this out and drove off without knocking our bikes over - phew!  Must have got his licence out of a weet-bix packet...

C'mon guys!

More on Graeme Burton

Seems Graeme Burton has recovered enough to be charged with a total of 25 offences. Has had one of his rat bag mates come in and try to visit him, then leave saying he's gonna get the cops that shot Burton and vandalise a cop car outside the hospital. Now the cops are after another scum sucker - maybe they'll get the chance to put his one down.

http://stuff.co.nz/3925729a11.html
http://stuff.co.nz/3925179a11.html
http://stuff.co.nz/3924335a11.html
http://stuff.co.nz/3926677a10.html

Oh, and another parolee is on the run - lock ya doors:

http://stuff.co.nz/3924996a11.html

And still more, in the Dominion today, news that another scum ball charged with firearms offences has jumped bail and the cops are looking for him. How the hell did he get bail? What's wrong with our judges?

Scum Bags on Parole

There's not a lot more I can say after Andrews effort.

Yes Graeme Burton was truely a mad bastard and in hind sight the parole board should have known better. We will probably never know the information they had to base their decision on. It's just a bloody shame that other people had to get hurt in the process. Innocent people minding their own business.

The only real question I have is why the cops shot him in the leg. Now I've done a bit of hunting and have learnt that the best way to make sure your target goes down is to aim for "the big bit" ie the chest. It's much easier to hit a big target than a small one.

I would have also thought that an offender carrying a gun can still shoot back after being shot in the leg. He sure as hell ain't going to shoot back if hes been shot in the chest.

Now I wasn't there in the heat of battle but surely these guys have been trained for this type of situation.

The latest rampage

Great, another pscho let off the leash to wreck havoc in the community! Over the past week another convicted murderer (Graeme Burton) out on parole has been on the run and finally has only been caught after killing another innocent person. I've decided, for this blog to list the good/bad, lucky/unlucky aspects for those involved:

The Killer:

- Lucky: to get out of jail after only serving 14 years for killing someone in a drug-induced rage.

- Unlucky: the police were chasing him as soon as he breached his bail conditions (great).

- Lucky: had a good stash of weapons and didn't mind breaking into other peoples' houses to get more or more money etc.

- Unlucky: to get chased into some bush.

- Lucky: to run into a guy on a quad. Kill the guy, steal quad.

- Unlucky: quad won't start.

- Lucky: some mountain bikers turn up. Assault one, shoot and injure 2 more (didn't really know how to safely handle firearms).

- Unlucky: the word got out to the police and the armed offenders turned up and popped him.

- Lucky: Only wounded in the leg. Police poor shots - supposed to aim for chest area.

- Unlucky: Lost his leg (boo hoo).

- Lucky: was talk he may be eligible for some sort of ACC payout.

- Unlucky: after a bit of hoo hah in the news - no payout.

- Lucky: he'll never have to work again in his life - will be in prison for a couple of years (probably get parole again) and when he get's out will probably just end up on a disability pension.

http://stuff.co.nz/3921945a11.html

http://stuff.co.nz/3922189a11.html - the excuse

http://stuff.co.nz/3921702a11.html

http://stuff.co.nz/3922739a11.html

http://stuff.co.nz/3922951a11.html

The Public

- Lucky? to have a parole system that looks after the baddies

- Unlucky: every now again convicted scumbags reoffend which means more innocent people are harmed when maybe they should have been better protected.

- Lucky: the cops got the man

- Unlucky: before they got him, he killed 1 person and injured a number of others.

- Lucky: the cops shot him

- Unlucky: they made a has of it the guy's still breathing and we're paying for his hospital bills.

- Lucky: he should get locked up for a while

- Unlucky: we're still paying for this and he wont be the last...

http://stuff.co.nz/3923106a10.html

The Police

- Unlucky: they have to pick up the pieces when the justice system fails

- Unlucky: weren't able to get their man before he killed again and will take some flack over this

- Lucky: got there man without any cops getting shot

- Unlucky: poor shooting

- Unlucky: some cop has to be investigated to see if the shooting was warranted

- Lucky: should be open and shut case

- Good: the cops are pretty good at getting these morons.

Parole Board

- It's all bad...Let a maniac out to kill again

- Unlucky: probably haven't got the powers to really help keep public safe.

- Lucky: according to the news tonight only 7% of parolees get re-convicted in their first year out of prison. Probably takes justice system over a year put them back into prison so they end up in the 2nd year's statistics???

- Weird: they say that it is asking for trouble to release hardened criminals without parole as a method of making sure they are rehabilitated correctly into the community. Fine, but why let them out early on parole? Let them do their time first and then put them on parole.

PS: Don't want this blog to look anti-police - great work getting this guy. Shame about the shooting accuracy.

Defending our Patch Part 2

On the news tonight - the guy charged with possessing a firearm without lawful, proper or sufficient purposes after shooting a maniac with a machete has had his first day in court. He has decided to face trial by jury with both himself and his father saying that they are going to fight the charges all the way. Good for him - let's hope he gets some justice...

His father has been pretty outspoken about the case and has made some good points, particularly:

The court case is ruining their lives (very stressfuly for the family etc) and that they are having to fund the defense themselves while the scumbag with the machete got legal aid.

It is good to see that they are receiving a lot of support and some donations etc from members of the public and in particular the Sensible Sentencing Trust. The SST has also got a pettition going around - hope I get the chance to sign it.

After seeing part of a 60 minutes doco on this (where the cop making the charges was made to look like a bit of an idiot) it seems that the reason that the charges were made was because of the way that the gun had been stored. The cops seem to be more worried about a gun around people who know how to handle them (gun retailers) than the high likelyhood that the nutter with the machete could have killed someone. I'd say they're already regretting pressing the charges - talk about bad PR...

I'm not really sure what to do if some scumbag breaks in to my house tonight and wants to kill me - do you fight back or just lay down and die so as you don't make any trouble? If I had a gun, there's no question I'd use it - first shot in the cretin, the next into the roof for a warning shot, whoops did I get that around the right way?

See more here: http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3890625a11,00.html

Defending our Patch

A guy walks into a shop, demands money, threatens to kill the manager with a machete.

The manager then defends himself and shoots the guy with the machete.

The guy with the machete gets the necessary medical treatment. (free of charge)

The shop manager gets charged and hauled through the courts.

What's wrong here?
Of course I'm talking about the guy who held up an Auckland shop a couple of months back and was shot by one of the guys working in the shop.
Shouldn't we have the right to defend our own property from unwelcome visitors. Especially ones that are waving a machete around.
It doesn't matter that the manager of the shop had a loaded pistol in his desk. The point is he was defending himself against an intruder who was threatening to harm him. If he had wacked the intruder with a base ball bat, would he be in the same situation?

Yet again this is a case of our society looking after the wrong types of people. The real victim here is the guy from the shop. He was the one minding his own business when some shithead tries to have his head off.
What would you do?
Stand there and let it happen?
No, you would fight back. This guy happened to use a gun.

Good on him, we wish him the best of luck with his case.

Where do I start

Bit of a rant, Jesus, where do I start!!

How about this?

In the paper the other day I see the coppers have been nabbing people for crossing the double yellow line in the Manawatu Gorge. This in general I don't have a problem with, it is a double yellow and the law is that it shouldn't be crossed, fair enough. The gorge is a bit dodgy for passing and a bit accident prone.

What gets me is that the police where hiding in the bush above one of the corners and photographing offenders. To me this is underhanded. I understood they were not allowed to deliberately hide in order to catch motorists out.

Then some senior officer states in the paper that it is not revenue gethering. Bullshit it's not, sure people are breaking the law. But we all break one law or another on the road everyday and this is just a quick easy way to raise funds. They do it in one form or another everyday.

How about going out and dealing to some of the real shit heads in our world.

Don't get me started on them.

That's all for now.

PS. I was not one of the offenders.