Disturbing

Yesterday's Sunday news had more details of Tiki Taane's arrest, blaming it on a stupid police officer unable to distinguish between Taane's real name and his stage name. That's bad enough, and an example of how one police officer having a bad day can ruin yours - but it also had this outright disturbing statement from Police Association president Greg O'Connor:

NZ Police Association president Greg O'Connor agrees the lyrics were not the main reason for the arrest.

He said Taane's arrest was the result of "an episode of events".

"Any attempt to isolate the words and chants as the problem would be to minimise the event considerably. O'Connor says people in a position of power need to be responsible.

"We had another police officer seriously assaulted last week," he said.

"People like Tiki Taane need to be aware they are role models to certain sectors of society. They need to be aware of the impact they have on people."

What O'Connor seems to be saying is that Taane shouldn't be prosecuted for what he actually did, but because someone else, somewhere else, attacked a cop. In other words, Taane is to be a scapegoat for the anger of the police.

Whatever you call that, it isn't justice. And if O'Connor is truly representing his members on this, then I think we have a real problem in our police force.