The police seem to have become extremely trigger happy of late. They have just shot a man (admittedly from dodgy Flaxmere), but the report of the shooting should set alarm bells ringing at what seems to be becoming a habit:
The man who was shot at Flaxmere Primary School yesterday was not threatening staff or children at the time, police say.
So why was he shot?
A man was shot once by police yesterday afternoon after Flaxmere Primary School went into lockdown. A Hawke’s Bay Hospital spokesperson said the man arrived at the hospital in a serious condition but was now stable.
Initial reports from the school to police indicated the presence of a firearm, however, police say that’s not been confirmed yet.
So why was he shot?
Eastern District Commander Superintendent Tania Kura told RNZ the man had been to the school a couple of times earlier that same day.
With the police station only a couple of blocks away from the school, staff were quick to respond to the incident, she said.
“At that particular time we were initially told [there was] a potential for him to have a firearm as staff were on the way.
He had the potential for anything. Again, why was he shot? It seems that if the police think you have the potential for anything they can now shoot you.
“When they arrived, the man was being spoken to at some distance by a staff member, he took off, and did a loop around back into the school where we think a firearm was presented and he was shot once.”
A Newspaper
You think? It either was or it wasn’t. If there was a firearm we’d sure as hell know about it. Instead, they tell us that they “think” he had a firearm, so they just shot him anyway.
It seems a bit of a coincidence that as the government crackdowns on lawful gun owners the number of incidents involving gung-ho, undertrained Police using guns increases. Correlation? Are the Police more prone to pull out a weapon because they think the perp won’t be armed and won’t shoot back?
They stuffed up big time with licensing Tarrant, approving mass ammunition purchases from him and failing completely to identify him as a threat, so now they appear to be overcompensating.
I think they believe their own hype that the public is tooled up to the max. Therefore they are going armed into confrontations. Once you pull a gun on someone there is no real alternative other than to use it. Otherwise, all you are holding is a really short lump of steel and plastic.
It used to be that the police had a saying “just bring more cops”. And if the guy wasn’t being threatening, cordon and contain, then wait for the Land Shark to arrive.
Right now though it looks like the police have a shoot first, ask questions later policy, or worse are emulating NSW Police with their “Ready, Fire, Aim” policy.
No wonder the public are losing confidence in police. One day these gung-ho Keystone Cops will run into someone who knows what they are doing and they’ll find that running around to armed call-outs wearing earmuffs won’t help them an awful lot.
