ACT, Labour and National all got their pants in a twist and completely misrepresented what Tamantha Paul actually said about the police.
She said:
“Wellington people do not want to see police officers everywhere, for a lot of people it makes them feel less safe, because ... it’s that kind of constant visual presence that tells you that you might not be safe, therefore here’s heaps of cops.
She was not talking about the police in general as these politicians would have you believe but about the heavy patrol beats which could intiminate some members of the public, and how they diverted police attention from other things. "The cost of those beat patrols is that it’s taking resource away from actual genuine family violence callouts and sexual violence callouts.”
Talking to ZB, Paul said the comments came from a number of conversations she had with Wellingtonians who were concerned beat patrols were tce callouts.
“I think it’s reasonable to want to address the drivers of crime rather than having police officers at the bottom of the cliff responding to those drivers of crime.
“It’s more poverty in our communities, more drug use in our communities and greater mental health need. That’s what drives crime. If we can attack those drivers and focus our resources there, then there isn’t going to be a need for beat patrols in the first places.
Hipkins misses the plot
Labour's Hipkins said, “Tamatha Paul's comments were ill informed, were unwise, in fact, were stupid”. Asked specifically what was stupid, Hipkins said, “it was those comments where she was saying that people felt safer with seeing gang members, patched gang members on the street, compared to seeing police on the street”.
But it was not Paul who made that comment, said Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. “I think that people may be confusing the comments of two of our different Māori MPs there.”It was Green MP Kahurangi Carter in July last year.
ACT
ACT Police spokesperson Todd Stephenson said Paul had “spent so much time hanging out with radical left-wing student groups that she’s got law and order completely backwards”.
National
The Prime Minister said Paul was in "la-la land".
But none of these leaders actually addressed what Paul had said.
She was, hower, not uncritical of police.
"I'm not surprised that people are upset that a young, brown woman is being critical of an institution that has let her and her communities down for a very long time," she told RNZ.
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