President's Column - Slaying of Senior Constable Len Snee
“I reflect on the words of one officer I spoke to following the funeral. He said he was bloody angry because Len was dead and he knows nothing will change.”
It seems unbelievable to be contemplating my third column within 10 months where the topic is the murder of a member carrying out his duty.
Derek Wootton and Don Wilkinson’s deaths had the feel of one-off events, which just happened to have occurred close together.
Senior Constable Len Snee’s deliberate slaying in a nice suburb at ten in the morning, while carrying out as routine a piece of policing as is possible, within months of the two other killings, elevates the tragedies into a whole different spectrum.
Underlying commentary in the past has been that we do a dangerous job, and it is inevitable that an officer will be killed or seriously hurt occasionally.
It’s now not occasionally, it’s common - as is getting threatened and assaulted, with and without weapons.
As reported last month, ironically two days before Len’s death and the serious wounding of Senior Constables Grant Diver and Bruce Miller, 43% of sworn staff reported being attacked at least once in the past year. One in five were injured in attacks.
As I travel the country, I hear many ‘bloody near’, and ‘near miss’ stories.
Against that backdrop, it’s probably surprising there have not been more deaths. Do we still remember our female colleague in Howick beaten unconscious earlier in the year, just to name one incident?
We have had public and parliamentary inquiries for less in the past. While we appreciate the outpouring of sympathy from public and political commentators following these deaths, especially Len’s, I can’t help but wonder where these commentators would be if Len or Grant or Bruce had shot the offender in Napier.
While careful not to politicise the event, I did take the opportunity during interviews in the wake of the shootings to challenge the media and other commentators to think about their response when we take essential action to defend ourselves.
How many of us have the spectre of Constable A in Waitara looming large over us when dealing with violent offenders? The reality is, using lethal force can be as life-changing for a police officer as being seriously injured by an offender.
Now that the adrenaline and emotion of the Napier incident has subsided and life ‘normalises’, I reflect on the words of one officer I spoke to following the funeral. He said he was bloody angry because Len was dead and he knows nothing will change.
He’s right.
How many deaths will it take before New Zealanders decide that what we are currently doing is not working, either for police or the public?
Three violent deaths of police officers in ten months is evidence of that.
I haven’t heard calls for a summit, or a Commission, or even a review, the sort of response we always hear when politicians believe they need to be seen to do something.
I wonder how many of us will need to die or be seriously injured before we reach that threshold?
George Orwell said: “We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.”
I conclude by wondering how safe our public can feel in their beds knowing it is their protectors who are having so much violence visited upon them. It renders redundant the mantra ‘safer communities together!’
