In an interview with Jake Tame on Q+A, outgoing Police Commissioner Andrew Coster reflected on the highly charged 2022 anti-mandate protests that shook New Zealand’s Parliament, admitting it was one of the few times in his career that kept him awake at night.
The 23-day occupation ended in violence, with clashes between police and protesters amid fires on the Parliamentary green.
The toll was not only physical, with officers suffering injuries such as torn tendons and dislocations, but also emotional. More than a third of the police staff involved in the riots were referred to support services to help process the “mental strain” of the experience.
“I would wake up at 4 a.m., mind racing,” Coster told Tame. He emphasized the weight of responsibility in his role during such a pressurized situation. “Only Police, the commissioner, will carry the responsibility for the way that situation is managed.”
“…when we brought response to resolve it with force, it was the most measured, professional, balanced approach you would see anywhere in the world.”
Coster stood by the approach the police employed. “If we had charged in there at the start, guns blazing, we would still be managing the fallout of that in our communities today,” he explained.
A review by the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) found six instances of excessive force used by police during the protests. While Coster acknowledged these findings, he maintained that the police only escalated their response “when necessary”, adding that their approach brought about “the safest resolution that could have been achieved.”
We see and saw the lies Coster.
You dehumanized the protestors in the public eye before using force. You could have put the onus on the politicians discriminating against a minority of the population to go out and talk to them before you would move them on. But you went jackboot.
Only problem for you is, only your closest supporters believe your s***. The Police can GFT until there is an apology.
Absolute load of lies.
Yeah right, lets put that statement from this corporate state puppet on Tui billboards up and down the country shall we.
Fascinated, but predictable, that all perpetrators of the COVID scandemic categorically refuse to accept ANY self reflection, any self analysis or indeed any form of impartial critique. Period. They have all sold themselves to the Devil
…”refuse to accept ANY self-reflection…”
That is what psychopaths do, along with sociopaths operating under delusions of grandeur…!
“… measured, professional and balanced..” what a load of bollocks. Nuf said. 😡
He’s a bullls***tter, he’s gaslighting the public like so many who have been elected and have their noses in the trough of the public coffers.
I hope karma gets him and all the others, especially the phoney dames and knights, total tossers who lie to the public for their own benefit.