Originally Posted by
BlackPeter
Again - I am not saying that I agree with all of these things, though some of them are just your interpretations and perceptions, not facts. Little one can do about that.
However your proposed remedies would make things worse (like in the US), not better.
I prefer better.
Just take your third point. US police killed last year nearly 9000 people. Many of them innocent bystanders of a crime, accidental killings and trigger happy cops (like killing an unarmed women in her nighty who called the police for help) or people who didn't constitute any threat to the police at the time of killing.
While I don't support Poto Williams - I do agree with her that regular arming of our police would not make things better for anybody (unless for undertakers and gun shops).
While many of our police are responsible people (who still can make mistakes) - we do have in NZ (not different from other countries) as well some absolute ar*eholes in uniform (and I do know some of them) - no need to give them a weapon and a licence to kill, isn't it?
If we really want to get rid of gun violence - easy: Require all guns to be registered. Make sure that only people with a solid character check are allowed to possess arms and - search all gang quarters on a regular basis and punish anybody keeping illegal weapons severely. This (the searching) is something which probably even our army could do (under police control) - they must have learned something useful in Afghanistan - and would help them to stay up on their toes after mismanaging our MIQ facilities.
No need for normal police to be armed.