Two police officers suffered injuries after they were pelted with rocks and bottles while attending the scene of a large car meet in Levin overnight.
Video / Supplied
Police Minister Mark Mitchell says there’s been a drop in respect for police over the past six to seven years and they have become “punching bags” - and he wants to fix it.
More than 200 cars were at the gathering, with around 30 police staff deployed to the centre of Levin pre-emptively.
Manawatū area commander Inspector Ross Grantham said police were put at serious risk due to “aggressive behaviour”, with two officers hurt when they were pelted with rocks and bottles when they tried to intervene.
Skid marks from cars doing burnouts during a car meet in Levin. Photo / Supplied
Six cars were impounded and two people arrested, and Mitchell told Hosking more people would be arrested.
The Police Minister said he planned to talk to Transport Minister Simeon Brown about the legislation regarding impounding cars - which he believed meant people’s cars were seized but then given back after a period of time.
”I want to seize the vehicles and keep them. I think that would be a real deterrent if these boy racers realise that [if] they come out, they’re actually going to lose their vehicles.”
He was uncertain whether there were greater penalties for attacking a police officer than a member of the public, but said it “feels like” when people became officers they became “punching bags” without the rights other people had.
“I want to get our police back to a point where these idiots that come out and break the law - whether gang members or boy racers that terrorise communities - understand that they can’t behave like that towards our police.”
Police Minister Mark Mitchell says police have lost respect in society and are treated as "punching bags". Photo / Marty Melville
Mitchell said there were “handwringers [and] academics” claiming that police couldn’t enforce laws because gangs were too strong.
”I completely reject that. We just have to get back to a point where the gangs understand that our police are controlling the streets, that they do respect them - because they know that if they take on the two police officers…the cavalry is coming over the hill and we’re just not going to put up with that any more as a society.”
Horowhenua mayor Bernie Wanden told Hosking police in Levin couldn’t have done much more. Previous boy racing events had been managed but in this case, “some people came with the intention of trying to incite and inflame violence”, and had succeeded.
His community was outraged at the “senseless behaviour”, especially given some of those responsible were not local, Wanden said.
Car meets were common around the bottom half of the North Island, with organisers picking a town and boy racers arriving, but he believed this was the first time it had escalated to such violence.
Despite it not being Levin’s fault, the incident did not reflect well on the town’s reputation, Wanden said.
