It appears the New Zealand Police are soft on serious crime. The U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, travels to New Zealand this weekend and I’m ashamed to say she’s able to without a promise from the NZ Police that she will be arrested and charged with war crimes, including torture and the “supreme international crime,” initiating a war of aggression.
While a $5000 bounty for the citizen’s arrest of Rice might be viewed as a stunt, what other option do decent citizens have when a bunch of submissive softies run your police force; happy not only to show how weak they are by tolerating such a visit but by actually protecting her?
A formal complaint has now been lodged, so it will be interesting if the NZ Police can demonstrate any knowledge of justice. The least they could do is follow the UK’s lead and pretend they have the balls to enforce the law and then botch it up! Somehow, however, I don’t think even that will happen.
People like Condoleezza Rice may be safe in their own country, with such a compliant population, but they should not be allowed to travel to others without fear of being brought to justice.
Comments
I don’t think you can blame the NZ Police for being soft on this issue.
The NZ Police work for the Government & the good of NZ. It is my understanding that decisions like this are made by the Government so it should be the PMs decision to prosecute. If it was indeed her wish to arrest Condoleezza Rice I’m sure the NZ Police would act accordingly.
Gotta disagree Brad. It’s not the PM’s decision as to who gets prosecuted, it’s done according to the laws of the land.
As Steve alludes to Brad, the scenario you describe is actually a police state. In a civilised democracy it’s the obligation of the police to enforce the law, not to carry out the personal wishes of a country’s Prime Minister, and the international laws covering war crimes are the highest laws there are.
The plain truth is that the police did not act in accordance with their obligations.
i personally believe that the police are put in a position that they have to be soft due to overcrowded prisons, the problem with this though, is that they seem very poor at prioritizing as to who they really want/need in thier prisons.