Death in Nelson

 I'm back, but for how long I don't know.

The news recently has been full of the death of a Nelson Policewoman. I didn't know this Policewoman.

I first make this disclaimer: Over the approx 30 years in dealing with the NZ Police regularly - as part of my job - I have never yet met a Policewoman who I either respected or liked.

100% of policewomen I've dealt with were bullies, usually too lazy to get out of their own way and a disgrace to the uniform. Most males, and all older, experienced males I met were the opposite.

Nelson was one of the places I worked.

Despite this disclaimer I don't believe killing Policewomen is right - it is wasting too much of the tax-payer money used to train them.

I digress.

Reports of the incident have been strictly censored and I (we?) don't know a lot of details. Part of the censorship is the police-requested court-ordered suppression order that includes the ethnicity of the vehicle driver.

I wonder whether this is simply to emulate big cities overseas that see much racist violence and pretend Nelson has similar characteristics or whether the perpetrator is of the protected race?

Worldwide we are seeing far more use of the motor vehicle as a deadly weapon.

In that Nelson may be a pioneer of sorts. In 2001 I moved to Nelson temporarily after a contract fell through.

The first night I was there a man was deliberately run over - in the same carpark as the policewoman was killed.

That man, luckily, wasn't killed and, later, became a regular customer.

Back to the point; The suppression of details and history makes me wonder whether this was a drunk/high aggrieved member of the public or something more organised?

Something we should ALL be concerned about.