New Zealand drops plans for armed police patrols

It is Election Year

Totally unnecessary! The people in New Zealand were very friendly people without any hostility!

How can you punish the whole population because of a single foreigner's  malicious actions!

Brenton Tarrant is an Australian, racism and bigotry runs high in his country!

Anyone who says a country should make a sweeping change like that because of one incident from one foreign nutcase should not be anywhere near political power.

NZ Police Commissioner: "How the public feels is important -- we police with the consent of the public, and that is a privilege,"

Elsewhere: Dominate!

Its Electioneering wait until after the election if adern is Voted in ( hopefully not ) then she will deploy the arms.

By the way cops in NZ are already armed, its just that they do not normally open carry unless their is an incident in progress that they are active at.

Cars have lock boxes in the trunk for larger weapons and many have lock boxes under the front seat for hand guns.

Many detectives carry concealed hand guns, this myth about unarmed NZ police is that Myth.

Good for the New Zealander’s. And no it is not electioneering as if you read the article it is clear the decision was made by the police and announced by the Commissioner of Police in response to public reaction to the trial. That’s why you hold trials, to get a response.

And no it is not electioneering as if you read the article

There are those of us who do not believe everythign we are told. You quite sure the Commisioner talked to no polticians about this? Also throwing it up knowing you will shoot it down makes the public think those in charge are really working when they aren't really. That this ever became a conversation is horrific.

"trialled armed patrols"

Well, that young officer in the photograph is certainly armed.

For a regular patrol that type of weapon could be a little overdone in my view.

Gary

Unfortunately the NZ Police Commissioner is a left-wing political appointee, but in general it is best that police are not armed, unless they absolutely have to be. NZ is starting to have more and more issues with gangs and other criminal behaviour given the soft on crime record of the Ardern government.

@elephant

There is racism and bigotry worldwide but I disagree with your comment it runs high in my country.

I find your comment offensive.

While under normal daily conditions NZ may not need armed patrols, they certainly have swat units. The question is IF another incident occurs, can the unarmed officers who arrive first on scene hold off further actions by the perpetrator(s) until the swat units arrive?

With Citizens disarmed by Law (most weapons), and now the regular police being disarmed --that 10 min or longer wait for an armed police-person will be a LONG wait if faced by an armed criminal. Exactly how criminal like it.

Sorry, I prefer my police to be armed to protect lives and property as quickly as possible.

NZ Police Commissioner: "How the public feels is important -- we police with the consent of the public, and that is a privilege,"

Elsewhere: Dominate!

Pretty words. Look for a video of the NZ SWAT team raiding Kim Dotcom's house, and it's pretty clear that they act as proxies for the USA and Hollywood, and dominate when ordered to.

Carl N Jpn Gcjp

With Citizens disarmed by Law (most weapons),

Most semi-automatic firearms, some pump action shotguns, some tubular magazine firearms and certain large capacity magazines were banned. Other long guns and handguns are not banned. For now.

and now the regular police being disarmed

Cops in NZ do not routinely go armed, but as Bjorn posted above, they do have access to firearms, in their cars.

These ARTs were a trial only, which will be discontinued.

BigYen

Good point about New Zealand's race relations, particularly as they pertain to the police. NZ saw its own protests in solidarity with the BLM movement in the US.

Compared with 'Pakeha' (or white New Zealanders) Māori are six times more likely to be handcuffed, 11 times more likely to be subdued with pepper spray, six times more likely to be batoned, nine times more likely to have dogs set on them, ten times more likely to be tasered and nine times more likely to have firearms drawn against them by police."

https://www.google.com/amp/s/theconversation.com/amp/black-lives-matter-outrage-must-drive-police-reform-in-aotearoa-new-zealand-too-139965

Also, "(b)etween 2009-2019, two thirds of all those shot by New Zealand Police were Māori or Pasifika." And these armed response teams "were conducted in areas with a disproportionate number of Māori people."

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12335829

Good idea. Won't be politically correct to do so at this time.

Well nice to know that they did this trial run, so that way they know that it doesn’t work. And considering what’s going on in the US, not just with Michael Floyd, I say that some police forces at least should definitely be disarmed in the US. I don’t know about other countries, but in some parts of the US, yeah.

JCosplay, agreed, along with the population.

Maybe it's the American in me, but there's something intrinsically attractive about an empowered woman holding a Bushmaster M4.