Wed, 16 Feb 2005
Law & Order
No call for IRD and NZ Police to merge
"The timing of the Police Union Organiser's tired old claim of organised crime gaining foothold in NZ via drugs is
transparently political," says Libertarianz spokesman on Law and Order Robert Palmer. "And the IRD hardly need
encouraging to be thuggishly overbearing - the death of Ian Mutton and the subsequent Parliamentary Inquiry showed
beyond doubt that the IRD cannot be trusted with police powers."
"O'Connor resurrects his Police Conference speech of 2003 at a time when his minister is on the ropes for poor
performance. This change of subject approach from O'Connor is timed fortuitously with Headmistress Clark accusing the
children of bullying disabled George in the playground."
"It just doesn't wash," says Palmer.
Mr O'Connor misguidedly calls for an inter-agency response to methamphetamine and is specifically calling for the IRD to
get involved to remove the profit from crime - "a call that will cause the self-employed across NZ to smile ruefully,"
notes Palmer. "Unlike many others, we have not forgotten the IRD's power and yearning to drive people under."
However, Palmer suggests the best way to both remove organised crime from NZ and to effectively increase police numbers
is to legalise all drugs, as called for by the former Head of Scotland Yard's Drug Squad when he toured here last year.
"It's both moral and practical," says Palmer.
ENDS