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‘Trust us, we know what we’re doing’ is, sadly, not a motto that sits comfortably in the perception of NZ Police by the general public; think more, ‘Heavy-handedness is our thing’.
So when the NZ Herald announced front-page on the 29th of December that police had set up a new unit which is, as we speak, “monitoring” our social-media proclivities, we should all be very concerned. Worse, when the raison d’etre for the impingement imposed on our privacy is couched in utter gobbledygook:
“The team provides a dedicated capability that assists in the understanding and collection of information from online sources”
our concern should be doubled, or perhaps squared.
Another of this government’s little stink-bombs released in the slow-news period when public attention is minimal, and this one smells the most.
Police have no place, whatsoever, intruding in the privacy of the New Zealand public’s individual activities without due cause.
They have zero right to go fishing, yet that is exactly what they are doing. Claiming some sort of prerogative as a result of reviews into the last year’s mosque atrocity, the police justification is baseless in light of the very clear-cut message from the Royal Inquiry published earlier this month:
“We hold no evidence that the individual, in any of his communications prior to 15 March 2019, sought to motivate or recruit any person living in New Zealand or overseas to commit terrorist acts.
Was the individual part of a gang or group? No, he was a lone actor.”
There are other agencies, far better placed than police, to assess suspicious activity, and indeed the unhinged Aussie murderer did appear on their respective horizons and was dismissed as low-risk (for, at the time, logical reasons). In short, as the Royal Commission stated, there is nothing, short of introducing a police and surveillance state, that might have been done to prevent the despicable act.
So what do the Police powers-that-be do? Bypass democracy, bypass accountability, bypass oversight and introduce their very own, very special NZ Police surveillance state.
Colour me disgusted.
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