Deborah Coddington: Words not so funny with so many attacks on police

Who will Tiki Taane contact when he needs the police? Photo / Supplied

It is difficult to comment on Tiki Taane when his fate is still to be decided by the courts for allegedly singing "F*** the Police" at a Tauranga nightclub when police officers were doing a routine check of the club.

But the message on his Facebook page warranted challenging. "Freedom of speech is a human right," it claimed. Quite, but context is everything and that freedom does not extend to shouting "fire" in a crowded theatre. Sensible musicians would think of that before choosing lyrics which provoke police officers doing their jobs.

Even one of Taane's supporters, who thought the police might have over-reacted, admitted the song might have been a "poor choice".

I often wonder who the writers and singers of songs like this call when their houses are burgled or families are attacked. Do they look at their ravaged property, or shattered loved ones, shrug and say, "Let them get away with it. Don't call the cops. F*** the police"?

I doubt it in Tiki Taane's case. His sister and manager, Nina Kaye, says her brother has "always been a good boy, he's never got in trouble before".

So this episode was a one-off; something which occurred in nightclub fun.

But not all wayward youths who run amok, and are subsequently described by their families as good boys, could claim that.

Are we seriously expected to swallow the line, for instance, that Lachan Kelly-Tumarae, of Flaxmere, Hastings, who allegedly pointed a loaded shotgun at police twice before he was killed was a "bloody good guy"? That's what his uncle told media.

This, despite police confirming Kelly-Tumarae had "some previous dealings" with police and his uncle confirming he had gang connections in the past.

Nonetheless, police were getting "too trigger happy", the uncle said.

The reason Kelly-Tumarae was in Hawke's Bay and not Christchurch was apparently because Ken Ring predicted another earthquake. So it's Moon Man's fault, too.

Well, who believed Ring's hocus-pocus in the first place?

If you run around with a loaded shotgun in a car (breach of the Firearms Act), which you allegedly took from someone's wardrobe (breach of the Firearms Act), then present it at police two times, chances are you're not going to live happily ever after.

And all those armchair pundits who say the police should shoot to wound have no idea how hard it is to hit a jittery target in the knee, thigh or arm, let alone when your own life is under threat.

As the former boss of the Armed Offenders Squad said: "No one wants to shoot anybody. It sticks with those boys forever, whether they were right or wrong."

Put bluntly, good boys don't put themselves in situations where they're going to be shot by police.

Lately, there have been some savage attacks on cops.

Recently, when Japhet Simiona was jailed for trying to chop up Senior Constable Bruce Mellor, Simiona's sister, Debra Graham, said he had carried out this gruesome crime because he knew it was either "get locked up" or "get away".

What sort of twisted logic is that?

Simiona was pulled over for erratic driving and when Mellor turned his back he was savagely attacked with a machete.

As Simiona drove away with his 14-year-old accomplice, he noticed Mellor was still moving so stopped, returned to finish him off and stood over him yelling, "are you dead yet?"

So how many cops was Simiona going to chop to pieces before he thought he'd escape jail?

But he's a good boy no doubt - the family aren't ashamed of him.

The only mitigating factor was that Simiona was sexually attacked as a child by his own father. One hopes he has been brought to justice as well.

It's all a bit hopeless, really, when you wonder what the Simionas of this world will be like when they're released.

He's only 18. Will he get any education or training or will he just become a better-trained criminal?

My guess is the latter, sadly. We have to lock them up, but prisons don't work. And I suppose, in the long run, for all my objections, at least their families still love them. It would be worse if they were totally abandoned.