All very unfortunate, but in no way attributable to the police in Kaitaia. Some of those who vented their spleens over recent days owe the Kaitaia cops an apology for that. Not that they'll get one.
The more rational responses bemoaned the fact that Kaitaia no longer has telephone communication with its local police station at night - it can be an issue even during the day - and that is a shortcoming that should be addressed by the police, but won't be.
The centralisation that has taken place within the department over the years, and is gathering further momentum, might look good in a strategic plan but hasn't worked on a local level, and never will.
It might be seen as inefficient, but the ability to phone the local police in the event of a local emergency would seem fundamental to the police role of keeping a community safe.
That's not to say that the current system doesn't work. It usually does. Kaitaia knows, however, from experience, that the system isn't foolproof. And while foolproof is probably an unattainable goal in any field of human endeavour, when the system doesn't work it can have dire consequences.
At the very least, as in this instance, it can lead to unwarranted criticism being levelled at people who do the best job they can and do not deserve censure.
Many of the Facebook responses simply reinforced the perception of social media as the home of the disaffected, the ill-informed and paranoid, however. Some suggested that the police in Kaitaia were working with the Mongrel Mob.
More than one suggested that, somehow, this incident revealed a degree of corruption, while others expressed the view that the police in Kaitaia are hopeless.
Under-resourced and over-stretched they might be, but hopeless they are not. Nor are they corrupt. That anyone can genuinely believe they are - assuming the accusation was genuinely made - suggests that one respondent, who advised some of those taking part in the conversation get off the methamphetamine and deal with their paranoia, was on the button.
The timing of this 111 incident was unfortunate for the police, not least in its timing, following as it did the labelling of Kaitaia as the Murder Capital of New Zealand.
That was one of the more ridiculous headlines even in an age when ridiculous headlines are becoming increasingly common, published by a newspaper that once eschewed sensationalism but has succumbed to the urge to descend to the pack.
Clearly Kaitaia has some serious law and order issues to address, but it is hardly alone in that. Kaitaia has every right to point to the now daily diet of stories about violence and crime in general that have become a staple for the national media.
The woman who made the 111 call said herself that she could have been the victim of "another" homicide in the Far North, and no one could blame her for allowing fear to sow that seed in her mind.
The reality is that people in other communities stand a greater chance of falling victim to random violence than do those who live in Kaitaia, but it is hardly surprising that some people, not least a woman travelling alone on rural roads at night, are somewhat rattled.
The very Far North has absolutely no reason to lose faith in their police, however. The Kaitaia sub-district is well served by committed, brave, professional men and women who do an exceptional job in often difficult circumstances. They need and deserve support, not half-baked criticism that has no foundation in fact.
The real issue is what the community is prepared to do on its own behalf, to support the police and to help protect themselves. Kaitaia has responded positively to specific incidents in the past, most notably after a fatal beating outside the Kaitaia Hotel some years ago and the more recent harassment of a group of school girls in the town's main street.
The problem is that public outrage doesn't last. It doesn't take long for most people to take a step back and decide to leave law and order to the people who are trained and paid to maintain it.
That is as it should be, no doubt, but one contributor to last week's response to the 111 malfunction made a point that everyone should consider:
"Our poor town is taking a hammering; gangs, drugs and other bullshit have been around for years but they never dominated or intimidated the town because we took a stand against it as a community. It's about time we start(ed) doing it again for the sake of the next generation ..."
Well said. Kaitaia has to accept that the police, however dedicated and "well-resourced" they might be, cannot arrest the town out of the violence that has gained such prominence and attracted such unwelcome attention.
They can be expected to keep a lid on offending such as drink driving and burglary, and are working hard to achieve that, but the prospect of arrest is never going to deter the average violent thug, whether he (and most are men) indulges in violence in the home or on the street.
The community itself must play a part in deciding on standards of acceptable behaviour and how they will be enforced. That isn't an invitation to vigilantism, public intervention in violent situations or mass citizens' arrests, but the community must make it clear that some behaviour simply won't be tolerated.
Kaitaia is a long, long way from reaching that point. Take as an example the teenager who, some weeks ago, spat an obscenity at the judge before storming out of the Kaitaia District Court then shaped up to fight a security officer outside the court, with the backing of his family. Once upon a time the security officer would have needed to save the boy from summary justice at the hands of his family. In 2016 his family defends him.
The court will not have seen the last of him.
It is now standard practice for criminals to benefit from active obstruction by others. That's what has to change.
The anti-police attitude that is now so prevalent makes their job harder. And the public response? They're hopeless.
A policeman's lot was not a happy one according to WS Gilbert in 1879. It still isn't.
