So, the police's definition of "reasonable force" now includes pushing a compliant young girl over and smashing her front teeth in:
A police officer accused of assaulting a 15-year-old girl during a party in Auckland in February has been cleared of any wrongdoing by an internal investigation.
[...]
An internal investigation was carried out by police, who today released their finding that the officer alleged to have inflicted the injuries had acted appropriately.
"After a lengthy and very thorough investigation involving interviews with more than 80 people, including eye witnesses, residents, scientific experts and police officers at the scene, it has been established that the officer concerned used reasonable force given the circumstances faced by police at the time,'' said Counties-Manukau District Commander Superintendent John Tims .
Its a well-established principle that no person should be judge in their own case, and this once again proves it. And the victim isn't just this young girl, but our entire justice system. People need to be able to trust the police, but their partiality in their own cases, and their willingness to excuse their own crimes makes that impossible.
