One Thread

There is at least one fundamental thread woven through the fabric of recent scandals that seems to have been left out of the dialogue so far.

Whether it's the GCSB shitmagnet, the rape culture flavours of West Auckland's Roastbusters, Wellington's diplomatic thrusts, or other examples of official intransigence, such as the recent night raid on children in a Taranaki marae, there is at least one common thread.

I don't know if there's a Latin name for the principle, but it runs thusly: Citizens can do whatever they like as long as there's no law or regulation prohibiting their actions. The benefit of the doubt lies on the side of the citizen. Reasonable doubt, for example.

Conversely, government officials (military, police or bureaucrat) can ONLY do what the law or regulations permit (acts and omissions, blah blah). The onus is on them to prove they stayed within those regulated margins.

It's a concept that frequently eludes the powerful as well as the powerless. For instance, police union mouth Greg O'Connor regularly spouts that the cops can bend and break rules with impunity for the greater good. He's talking bollocks with a side order of smeg.

It's a lesson that might have to be learned the hard way. Beware the political backlash. Such things tend to over-compensate.

The Intersection of Ford and Cribb

If you enjoyed The Luminaries, Top of the Lake or True Detective (or, at least, its unmined potential), you'll enjoy this 80 page sequel of sorts from the Independent Police Complaints Authority, involving the framing of 17 year-old Maori Shane Cribb by Alexandra Police. The innocent are punished, the guilty walk free, and at the end, nothing changes.

Follow the exploits of Constable Dairne Cassidy, the token female in a cast of cocks. Convicted in court of attempting to pervert the course of justice, she is but one of two anti-heroes. The other being belligerent shit stirrer Stephen Potter (Cribb's girlfriend's Dad). It is Potter's nagging of the IPCA that eventually sees this miscarriage of justice seen to.

It's a sad state of affairs when the best conclusion that the IPCA can produce late on a Friday afternoon is that they found no evidence of police conspiracy. Almost as sad as the vacant recommendations, seeing how the the Policing Act 2008 apparently fixed everything.

If you prefer the audiobook version of the main plot points, tune your ears to Mary Wilson's cross examination of Stephen Potter, or the carefully chosen words of District Commander for Southern Police, Superintendent Andrew Coster.

There's a beer token waiting for ex-cop Dairne Cassidy and bush lawyer Stephen Potter here. Valid at the local Raumati pub. No expiry date.

Bush Toasts Police Cannabis Conservation Efforts

RNZAF's Green Hornet, fresh from seeding the Waitakere Ranges

Police Commissioner Mike Bush today praised Police efforts in their annual cannabis seeding project.

"Every year, the NZ Police spends millions of dollars in an attempt to conserve the endangered cannabis plant. In association with the NZ Air Force, Police locate fertile female cannabis plants, uproot them, and fly them over dense bush land, in an attempt to spread cannabis seeds over as wide an area as possible," said Commissioner Bush to an assembled group of police and selected members of the media.

"The NZ Police has a long and proud history of planting things," said Commissioner Bush as he set alight a Wicker Man full of cannabis. "Normally, possession of cannabis seeds is a criminal offence. There is no statute of limitations on the growing of cannabis. It falls to the NZ Police to fulfill this duty."

"We sow the seeds. Nature grows the seeds. We seize the plants. And so the circle of life is complete," chanted Commissioner Bush from amidst the smoke.

After a few minutes, Commissioner Bush re-appeared.

"I have spoken with TolleyMachus. This year's budget will be bountiful," Bush concluded, before retiring to the lunch buffet and finishing off a platter of sausage rolls.

An Attempt to Tap Dance Where Angels Fear to Tread, viz a viz the APRoWA Corruption

Warning: My middle name is Trigger.

Once upon a time in Palmerston North, there lived a criminal lawyer called Trev. All around the district, he was known as the Baddies' Buddy, because of his art of finding reasonable doubt in unreasonable circumstances.

One day, he defended a man accused of rape. He hinged his argument on the matter of consent, seeing how the alleged victim noted in her statement that she had had to help him in, so to speak, with both hands. Regret after the fact may not be rape.

He hassled journalists to ask him whether his client would be seeking name suppression, to which his reply would be, "No! My client wants his name attached to the statement that she had to use both hands emblazoned across the papers!"

This was back in the '80s, and NZ feminism was barely in its teens. The Matrimonial Properties Act was younger still, and the end of marital rape was barely in its twenties. Clint Rickards was still a well-respected cop.

Feminism as it existed would disintegrate into micro factions by the end of that decade, where the Annabel Chong feminists couldn't abide the dungareed anti-porn feminists, and the libertines fell out with the socialist commune types. Marketeers took the slack, replacing the burnt out earnestness with bling and Britney Spears became the new normal.

In defence of the old man, I would note the old goat was an equal opportunity defence attorney. Years earlier than this, he had used what was arguably NZ's first battered wife syndrome defence in a murder trial from Pahiatua. To plant a seed of the landscape in your brain, imagine a country more ManGodded than Vincent Ward's Vigil, but with added unconsenting sodomy and so forth.

In addition, the presiding judge was Deaf as a Post and Trev managed to harangue NZ's first judicial hearing armed with mikes and speakers. So, give the devil his dues.

Sexual politics is like regular politics, except more polarising, with a comparatively vastly spectrum and infinite combinations of non-awareness due to the super-subjectivity of experience.

It is moments like this that I'm glad that I have a voice for blogging and not a face for radio. Willie and JT are mired, and is Andrew Fagan. For once, Matthew Hooton went troppo on air for the right reasons. I'm typing cautiously, whereas my mouth would have had formal complaints ten minutes ago.

The traditional Kiwi response to sexual politics is to shrug, make a lame joke and forget about it, usually by changing the channel, but also by the time tested "this conversation is over". The same formula is used as a wide-ranging tool to hammer down abortion, suicide, drug reform, and every other contentious issue worth a damn. She'll be right. If it's not broken, etc.

Well, I think the cops finally broke the public trust. Not in my forty-three years in this political animal farm have I witnessed in NZ politics such white hot fury as the APRoWA Corruption is generating (Alleged Pack Rapists of West Auckland. I refuse to name these deviants using their nomenclature). She'll be right is not an option.

What kind of sex education do they teach in Avondale? I hope it's an improvement on the nonsense taught when I was in 5th Form, at a conservative state school where they worshiped Rugby and taught the female anatomy presented as a cross section, exactly like a side of beef or lamb. And as for parental birds & bees discussions, I learned more from my two Dad's porn stashes than I ever learned from all five parents.

I doubt things have changed that much 'twixt schools and parents. Same as it ever was, right down to the Mazengarb cross-winds. As always, the kids learn it from the streets and the school of hard knocks. And the knocks leave cracks.

What does former NZ First Law and Order man Ron Mark think about it all? Is there an ethical boundary between one-off situations of young love and on-going predatory behaviour, and can Police tell the difference?

I doubt it. Rather a breath test checkpoint, where the computer sez yes or no. Rather a cannabis bust, where the perp is non-violent and the body armour is ridiculously overdressing for the occasion, let alone calling in the AOS. And all that is needed for a blue star for the career ladder is a working nostril. A reptile brain is all that is required to smell cannabis, no higher brain functions required. Simple stuff.

The simple stuff has ruined the police. Little wonder their recruitment drives end up overseas, where mercenaries are brought back who have no clue as to the lie of the land.

Police Minister Anne Tolley is genuinely livid for being misinformed by her patched minions over the saga. Her IPCA complaint can run its course, but there's mounting calls for a Royal Commission into Police Conduct. It's an entirely reasonable call. If Margaret Bazley can't get heard, you need to increase the calibre of your weapon.

The furies have awoken is this usually stolid land, and they're banging at the gates of Bullshit Towers, aka Police HQ.  Tokens and trinkets will not do any more. The ladies will be sated. Heads must roll, something big must change, or there will be rioting in the streets. That much is reasonable.

Adding insult to manslaughter

As if it's not bad enough that the cops have shot an innocent civilian and breached confidentiality agreements, the Plodders have to go and short-change the Naitoko family too.

The cops blurted all and sundry details yesterday with what was supposed to be a face-saving press release. Instead, they ended up looking like a bunch of bullies blundering through the delicate fields of raw emotion.

Nothing unusual there, of course. It's just that this time it's no villain they're tickling, it's a bone fide honest citizen's death and the hole left in their family. There's no Garth McVicar pantomime to plead their case in the media. These victims are too brown for that clown, eh.

If I read between the lines of that Police PR shill correctly, it's not a stretch to presume that the AOS button man shot what was believed to be the right man, due to either garbled communications, loud wops from the Eagle chopper fogging the Comms, or institutionalised racial assumptions. In Copthink, what were the odds that the white guy was bad and the brown guy was good?

Anyways, back to the cheap blue line. Aside from the thousand apologies still owed by the cops to the Naitokos, the NZ Police still owe the Naitoko family another three million, two hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars in blood money.

That is the difference between what the cops have coughed up so far, and the $3.5 million statistical value of a human life in NZ (2009 prices). This figure is used to plug everything from Joyce's Roads of Notional Significance through to the Drowning Toll, so I can't see why it isn't used to recompense manslaughter by the state as well.

Maybe Greg O'Connor could be useful for once and have a whip around his union for the shortfall.

What's the Time, Mr Wolf?

The IPCA report on Police conduct over the Tuhoe Terror Raids has been released. Even by it's blinkered terms of reference, it is clear the Police completely cocked up the operation from go to woe.

The report fails to illuminate the pivot that convinced the Police to stop eavesdropping and start arresting people. Logistical considerations for the massive raid seemed to have played a large role. Maybe they thought they'd get lucky with their many fishing licences. The unclear, non-present danger is palpable.

The second major cock-up was calling Mr Wolf and the STG into it. The AOS was overkill as it was, but the cops were so paranoid that they pulled in Mr Wolf, and Mr Wolf is a serious mop up kind of guy. How did the cops justify calling in the wetware? From paragraph 93 of the report:

The information which STG relied upon in formulating the plan included the following:

• the targets possessed numerous weapons including “heavy calibre military style semi-­‐automatic weapons” and were part of a group actively training in military tactics;

• they had received training in the use of rudimentary explosives and incendiary devices;

• intelligence suggested they were prepared to “die for their cause” and use lethal force to achieve their purpose, including sleeping with weapons under their beds to be better prepared for any attack on them;

• the intention of this group was to achieve “an independent Tūhoe nation within the Urewera area”;

• the area where the training camps were situated was rural and some distance from comprehensive medical facilities;

• not all attendees at the training camps had been identified by Police;

No firearms were presented during the raids, although some were recovered during searches. None were “heavy calibre military style semi-­‐automatic weapons”. The rest was fear of the unknown by the Police, where ghosties and ghoulies got them jumpy. However, STG know their lock-downs for serious occasions, and they were the ones who suggested the roadblock.

The third major cock-up was Police knowledge of the confiscation line history, and the subsequent failure to take that into account in the roadblock.

All in all, there's a lot of rotten egg still on the face of NZ Police, and the smell will never go away.

If it bites like a dog

There's a fine line between cops and robbers:

"A gang can be defined as a structured group (of five or more people) that maintains an exclusive membership marked by common identifiers and formal rules that supersede the rules of the state."

- Patched; The History of Gangs in New Zealand, Preface, pg. ix.

Cheap fast food for business-friendly intimidators? Someone's tax is another one's protection money. Either way, the citizens pick up the tab.

Just

Today in Just:

# Serious Fraud Office admits there is not enough evidence to bring criminal charges against Hanover Finance. Interest.co.nz's Deep Freeze List sez that's $465 million down the hole. Tim Watkin puts the gloating in some quarters through the shredder.

# Gardening company owners sentenced to more years in jail than some serious crims and at least one manslaughterer (Tag. You're dead).

# Crewe Murder cops overheard joking about framing Thomas, sez former bar worker Queenie Edmonds. Lol.

# As above, so below. One UK citizen explains what happens to photographers in the UK. Echoes of Peel's Blue Brotherhood of the Crown Patches here, such as the IPCC:



# Going against intuition, I listened to Police Agent Provocateur Graham Bell on The Panel yesterday. Bell's rants usually give me diabetes, but at least the pain was worth it this time. I saw a glimpse of what Planet Bell, the police state, would look like. People wouldn't dance at Paul Simon concerts, satire would be reported to the police so that they can judge its merits, and families would eat dinner at the table and listen to Graham Bell lectures. Hell's Bells indeed.

Female Officers, Nurses to be Offered Testosterone Injections

Women working in the Police, Fire Service, Armed Forces and public hospitals will be offered free testosterone injections from the beginning of July.

Welfare Minister Paula Bennett and Police Minister Anne Tolley joined Defence Minster Jonathan Coleman at a joint press conference this afternoon, where they announced the new policy in a bid to defuse the issue of workplace bullying and harden the chicks up.

"Paula and Anne have been pissing in my ear all year about the lack of culture change within the public services," said Jonathan Coleman.

"After consultation with the police, fire service and doctors union spokesmen, as well as the heads of the armed forces, we can find no evidence of sexual harassment, bullying or intimidation. These brave, fearless women are clearly just hysterical and need to take a chill pill," said Mr Coleman.

"Failing that, the May Budget will approve a new $1 million initiative to offer free testosterone injections to all women working as sworn police officers, those serving in the armed forces, volunteer fire women, and public sector nurses."

The press conference began with former Sex Pistol Johnny Rotten opening the gig with his "Shut up and let the man finish" routine.

Ms. Bennett and Tolley did not speak during the press conference, but sat behind Mr Coleman's raised podium with wet eyes and occasional sobs, which were silenced by dark stares from Mr. Coleman.

Who Defends New Zealand from the People Who Defend New Zealand?

1979 might have been a landmark year for international political relations, but I find 1977 much more interesting for domestic reasons.

God Defend New Zealand became the official national anthem, alongside God Save the Queen. The week after Star Wars was released in theatres, the Misuse of Drugs Act (1975) came into force. Sleeping Dogs hit NZ theatres and sensibilities while Muldoon expanded the SIS, as well as creating what would become the STG, as this delightfully soundtracked potted history clip shows. The GCSB also became fully armed and operational.

It didn't stop there, of course. The Fourth Labour government created their own awful precedents in the 1980's; using Defence Force materiel to conduct police operations by way of cannabis crop raids; installing the Waihopai Valley listening post, one of the costs of a nuclear-free policy.

The lines have become so blurred between the powers of government that they no longer hold each other in check, but have ganged up together, police shoulder to shoulder with the military. meantime, each successive Defence Minister became more clueless than the last, from Frank O'Flynn down to Jonathan Coleman.

Helen Clark attempted to rein in this unaccountable power bloc, as Nicky Hager's book Other Peoples Wars makes plain. She ended up making things worse. Clark ended up giving them a flash new Defence building instead, Castle Wolfensohn.

What started out as formalising legislation of the GCSB in 2003, thereby making it accountable in law for the first time, ended up with Key having the law saying he can appoint a horse for head of the GCSB if he wanted.

Key's government is so in thrall to this seemingly-elegant solution of executive and legislative muscle combined, that they are changing maritime laws to allow the Defence Forces to prevent political protest that would be acceptable on land.

David Farrar and others insist that the Kitteridge report will shed light on Key's evasive tactics, justifying why Ian Fletcher was parachuted into GCSB HQ. I'm more in agreement with Geoffrey Palmer (link here soon), who suggests in this NatRad interview this morning that the whole purpose of military intelligence needs reviewing.

But I'd go further. Sweeping reform in the Defence Forces and Police is paramount. They seem to have completely forgotten who they serve.

Feared and loved by the right people

Today's DomPost editorial looks at the Completely Independent Police Conduct Authority, the little black box that watches the watchmen. It highlights the abyss between David Carruthers' tilt for transparency and the reality that no-one actually knows what goes on in IPCA deliberations.

The curious case of a murder/suicide is held up as an example. The police were allegedly told the plot, yet neglected to do anything about it. Plot aspects differ in the case of Stephen McIntyre, although the ending remains the same. McIntyre's crime was not bloody murder, mere alleged medical cannabis supply.

I'm not even certain whether an IPCA complaint has been launched on that injustice. I'm not sure doing so would make a difference, or worse, earn the complainant a nemesis in a blue uniform.

Police mouth Greg O'Connor still quacks louder than this watchdog can bark in the public realm, and that's skew whiff. The cops plainly do not fear the IPCA enough. Perhaps it needs the gravitas of complete independence as an office of Parliament, like the Ombudsman's Office.


...............

Marie Schroff's Privacy Office could do with a similar boost in prestige, power and jaws. Paula Bennett's big backdoor kiosks may just the the tip of an Identity & Privacy Rape iceberg. Note Bernard Hickey's Poli worry, a service used by many government departments.

There is little sign of National wishing to increase funding for Beverley Wakem and her Om Buddies, regardless of how many more complaints against governmental bias are appearing in the Inbox.

Sure as eggs is eggs the Nats don't want more scrutiny on their rickety blueprints, let alone splash cash on self-criticism. Key's government is so thin-skinned to scrutiny, they still won't fund political satire on NZ screens. Even Muldoon put up with Fred Dagg and A Week of It. Every government from there to here has been heckled on screen. Every one until the Intolerable Mr Key.

Who's defending whom?

I've got mates trying to squeeze Official Information Act requests out of the Ministry of Defence to no avail. National security, national security, blah, blah, sez the Blue Pencil.  At least one of my mates has written to the Ombudsman for help.

What will the MoD release in the way of information, at least without a waterboarding by the watchdog? Who got a dodgeball to the nuts. This is clearly more newsworthy than how much the Defence Force spends on dubious civilian operations or how much the military is used for domestic police actions.

Bad Cops

There was a time when policing was seen as a good job for a young Vogon. All those beefheads from the First XV's who failed the chop at the All Black trials had to find a more realistic career, and for most that brawn-to-brain ratio left them two main choices; the armed forces and the police.

A few years with the army could let a young Vogon travel the world on the public coin. The Singapore Rotation especially was sorely missed by the grunts when it was taken off their options. Since then, Waiouru cabin fever has set in. Unimog crashes, Linton light-ups, cowboy Iroquois flight paths, massive traffic jams to Ohakea air shows. You wouldn't want these people evacuating a public area during a natural disaster or anything. I don't think they'd be up to the logistical challenge.

Becoming a Police was the other option. You didn't need School Cert, and the training course was shorter than most hairdressing certificates. Once initiated into the ranks, you had protection. You were part of a brotherhood like no rugby team ever. Perjury, assault and battery; unless you were particularly careless, all these tools were at your disposal and the only people to judge you would be your brothers. Not the courts, and certainly not the public.

It was only a matter of time for this corruption and hubris to get out of control. And you can thank Helen Clark's Labour government for providing the catalyst. In 2007, the Serious Fraud Office was on death row and due to be replaced by a new Organised Crime Unit. These Supercops would be given unprecedented powers.

It has taken only five years for OFCANZ (as it it now called) to hang itself with its own rope. The police force, as we know it, has been shown to no longer be fit for purpose.

Falsifying documents, contempt of court, fraud, false oaths, deceiving the courts, lying by omission. Planting evidence.

The police are stuck in a power loop. Time for a complete reboot.

Binders of Authority

While the Romneyshambles' latest gaffe gives birth to a new internet meme, there's a few other binders of interest going around.

Binders of Boy Scouts showing a Catholic Church-like burying of historical sexual abuse in the US Scouting movement, colluded by police and other pillars of the community.

Binders of Police; the Attorney-General's office has released an update on how the police are adapting to Margaret Bazley's recommendations brought on by the Louise Nichols scandal. The short answer is very slowly. Police mouth Greg O'Connor sez the police culture cannot change without a lot more money. In the underworld, this is known as a protection racket.

Ah well, at least they haven't tased a blind man after mistaking his walking cane for a samurai sword. Yet. However, the family of the innocent courier driver shot dead by the AOS on the Auckland motorway have been granted access to legal aid to sue the police. So there's some justice, at least.

Carmageddon Police

It's difficult to treat the NZ Herald's new blab that they are dedicated to investigative journalism seriously when they produce fact-free stories based on a cop pulling numbers out of his arse:

"Between 250 and 300 people are still dying annually on the roads but if we had lowered the drink-drive limit when we could have, there might have been 30 or so of those people still alive every year," said Kelly.

A cop wanting harsher laws for the public? Quelle surprise. Sadly, the police's own research shows Supt. Kelly hasn't a baton to lean on. In my travails wading through the Police's ESR report on drunk and other drug driving which I vommed up here, I tripped over this graph (page 17). It demonstrates that NZ's breath alcohol limit of 80 mg is the right call:



If the cops really want to lower the road toll, a more effective method might be to overhaul police pursuit procedures. This carnage is becoming so prevalent, the Otago Daily Times and the National Library have sections of their sites dedicated to monitoring it.

The police response to these avoidable deaths? They want immunity from prosecution for any collateral damage they cause:

New Zealand Police Association president Greg O’Connor says that police need to be exempt from some laws, and that safety will be compromised if criminals know police won’t pursue them, Newstalk ZB reports.

"In car chases and in fact in many things that police do where they're required to do things that other members of the public will never be required to do, they do need protection," he says.

There's your problem. Police think they're above the law.

We Got the Gun

The old man posing with one of his many shotguns in the local paper

I've been transfixed by the justifications submitted in court for the STG and AOS cameos at the Kim Dotcom mansion. Of course, it's all sub judice still, a bit like the Pussy Riot trial, so I'll have to leave the quality of transfixation to your imagination.

Suffice it to say, the AOS get around. They stormed into a fellow cannabis law reformer's house in Waihi not so long ago, resulting in her appearance in court this week. Ann wouldn't say boo to a schmoo, yet the long armoured arm of the law sez otherwise. But my lips are zipped.

Nor can I comment on the imminent trial of Green Cross founder and cannabis law reformer Billy McKee, who is appearing next month at Palmerston North High Court. The authorities consider him such a clear and present danger to the public, they've called up the prosecutor's A-team from Wellington to lead the attack. Best of luck to Michael Appleby, whom I understand will be defending Billy.

What I can say, is that the shotgun-wielding gentleman at the top of this post voted in favour of Homosexual Law Reform. This man killed more animals than Hemingway, a high score manly member for West Coast-Tasman Damien O'Connor will never beat. But as the Labour MP for Palmerston North, happily married to his second wife, he voted in favour of equal treatment of all people in 1985, regardless of their way of life. He believed people shouldn't be criminalised for their private pursuits of happiness.

I have more bias against the institution of marriage than I do with buggery brothers and scissoring sisters. This is partly due to my father's divorce lawyering, but mainly due to direct observation of the illusion of permanence that sanctified marriage promises. If the LGBT's really want to drink that glamorous Kool Aid, go for it. I just hope they return the favour one day and help stop this other disproportionate invasion of the state into our homes.

You are right, Mr Cohen. Pi is the better movie.

Doctor I Like Your Medicine

The Completely Independent and Not At All Conflicted Police Conduct Authority has released its report into the death by cop of bystander Halatau Naitoko. It's recommendations? More rules. The closest the report gets to MORE TRAINING is:

6. review the efficacy of the AOS weapons training

The Police have responded to the resounding slap of the wet bus ticket, noting:

"We are deeply and sincerely regretful for the role we played in Mr Naitoko's death," said Assistant Commissioner Allan Boreham. "The officers involved, and wider police staff, remain deeply affected by his death. It is something no police officer ever wants to happen."

See? Fonzie Syndrome. They add:

The IPCA found it was satisfied that the officers involved properly took immediate action in the face of the threat presented by McDonald. It said their actions in confronting him were commendable.

  Medals all round then.

Shooting the Underdog

Bomber points to a few reasons why the NZ Police should not be armed. The most compelling argument against arming the police I've seen is the dodgy dog that made Eating Media Lunch's New Zealander of the Year:

 Nicked from here, because TV One doesn't seem to have the video available.

With marksmen like these, who needs drunk game hunters?

Little Vigilantes

Undeterred by the recent homicide of hoodie-wearing Trayvon Martin by an idiot with a gun and a badge, NZ Police have set up their first Junior Nark Squad:

"Children are being trained to be the eyes and ears of their Porirua neighbourhoods and encouraged to "nark'' on any suspicious behaviour. The city's first Junior Neighbourhood Support programme has seen the senior syndicate at Holy Family School in Cannons Creek taught how to make their streets safer."

 Because, as all of us know, children cannot ever be wrong or lie. Better safe than sorry, eh. And kids never get bullied for telling on people. The police are really running their budget cuts on someone else's neck with youth rates for volunteer grassing.

Speaking of the vulnerabilities of pride, what do the NZ Police and the Fonz from Happy Days have in common?

Mega City Auckland

You don't have to wait for Karl Urban as Judge Dredd to see a bit of 3D instant justice around these parts. David Fisher continues his gripping look at the MegaUpload saga, this week looking at the military assault on the Chrisco Mansion. Last week's episode here.

The Special Tactics Group, helicopters and a refusal to use door handles characterises the largest domestic assault team since the Ruatoki raids. If it's worth killing, it's worth overkilling, eh. Reasonable force is for commies.