Last night the police were asked to help a mentally ill person in Hawke's Bay. They were meant to help him. Instead, they killed him:
A man - who police had been trying to locate because of fears for his safety - has been killed after crashing into a truck while fleeing officers in Hawke's Bay.
Police had been trying to find the man most of Thursday after concerns were raised about his welfare.
Police located his vehicle on State Highway 5 at Eskdale at 9.40pm last night, and signalled for him to stop.
He did not and a pursuit was initiated.
"After a short period of time, the vehicle crossed the centre line and collided with an oncoming truck," said Hawke's Bay Acting Area Commander Inspector Jeanette Park.
"The driver of that vehicle — a silver Mitsubishi stationwagon — died at the scene."
Its a perfect example of what is wrong with police pursuit policy. Rather than exercising any judgement - which in this case would have been to back off and try to contact them later - the police behaved like mad dogs in pursuit of a small furry animal. And the results were as predictable as they are tragic: they killed the person they were trying to protect.
The police have to stop killing people. This policy has to change. As for how, The Side Eye shows us the alternative, and it is a lot safer and more humane. The problem is that our police force is not interested in safety or humanity. All they want to do is kill.
