Collins: Need to rebuild fear for law

Police Minister Judith Collins. File photo / Greg Bowker

Three attacks on police officers in as many days have sparked calls for greater respect for the law.

In the latest attack last night, an Oamaru police officer was knocked to the ground and repeatedly kicked by a carload of people after the vehicle's driver failed a breath test.

It followed an attack in south Auckland on Friday in which an off-duty officer was beaten unconscious by a group of youths after he tried to break up a fight, and a second attack near Whangarei on Saturday in which an officer's lip was chewed off by a suspected drink driver.

Police Minister Judith Collins said she would consider a law change to better protect police officers, but rebuilding respect for the law should be the first step.

"What I've asked to find out is whether or not the law is being properly applied, that's one side of it. But actually we'd rather stop the attacks in the first place, and I think it's extremely important that we start to rebuild the respect and fear for the law that we expect," she told Radio New Zealand.

In last night's attack, the officer stopped a vehicle on Thames Highway, Oamaru, about 8.10pm in a routine alcohol testing stop.

The driver failed the test but refused to accompany the officer for more testing, charging at him with raised fists, police said.

The officer used pepper spray to subdue the driver, but five passengers brought him to the ground and kicked him repeatedly in what police called a "disgusting and appalling" attack.

He was hospitalised for injuries to his face, elbow and knee.

Police were questioning the six people from the vehicle.

Meanwhile, the off-duty police officer John Connolly beaten unconscious when he tried to break up a fight near his house in Tuakau, south of Auckland, was recovering in Auckland's Middlemore Hospital.

Police said they were continuing the process of interviewing witnesses to the incident on Friday, in which Mr Connolly suffered serious injuries as he and other residents attempted to intervene in a fight.

He was set upon by a group of youths, and the injuries he received included a fractured skull, multiple facial fractures, a collapsed lung, a broken jaw and a broken ankle.

A 15-year-old schoolgirl tried to fend off the teenagers and dragged Mr Connolly to safety.

The teen, who declined to be named, told The Herald on Sunday she and her cousin were threatened by a group of about 50 people who were asking for fights.

"The cop came up and told us to break it up," she said. "Then they just ended up gang-bashing him. I was trying to fend them off. Me and my cousin and my sister tried to pull everyone off him. It all happened so quick ... then they took off and left him lying in the middle of the road.

Most of the group knew Mr Connolly was a police officer, she said.

Counties Manukau district commander Superintendent Mike Bush said yesterday police had a good idea who the offenders were, and all 30 or 40 people present would be interviewed.

In the second attack, an officer's lip was chewed off by a suspected drunk driver, sending his colleagues scrambling on their knees to find it.

The driver was stopped in Kamo, on the northern outskirts of Whangarei, about 11.15pm on Saturday.

He became aggressive and attacked the constable, who received serious facial injuries after being bitten, Whangarei District Inspector Clifford Paxton said.

"A significant portion of his lip needs to be reconstructed," he told the New Zealand Herald.

Reo Rangipohewa Uerata, 29, had appeared in Whangarei District Court on six charges relating to the incident, including assault, resisting arrest and disfigurement by grievous bodily harm.

He was also charged with driving while disqualified, refusing to allow police to take a blood specimen, and threatening grievous bodily harm to a second officer.

Uerata is due back in court tomorrow.

Christina Gibson, who lives on Kamo Rd, said "there was so much screaming" during the attack.

"Not long after there were policemen shining their torches around on the ground in the grass, obviously looking for it (part of the lip). It was too dark to see how much damage was done."

- NZPA