Editorial: Long arm of the law over-reaches itself

Mark Dawson, editor of Wanganui Chronicle

I have often worried that we live in a society where officialdom has gone mad.

Further evidence that we are in danger of warping into some form of over-regulated totalitarian state, at the mercy of those with "the power", was provided at the weekend.

It came courtesy of the police in Whangamata who decided to enforce a beach booze ban ... and then some.

They apparently had the right to search the vehicles of those using the beach and confiscate all alcohol — even though nobody was drinking it.

Hamilton man Michael Wilson and his pals had a swim at the beach before heading home. In their van were two boxes of vodka cruisers they had just bought to drink later that night. The boxes were still sealed but that didn't stop the long arm of the law from taking them.

A couple of German tourists who had stopped at the beach for a shower suffered the same over-zealous fate.

Clearly no law was being broken. I do not know the wording of the local bylaw but, presumably, it is in place to stop people drinking on the beach rather than just parking there on their way to somewhere else.

What did the police action achieve other than proving they were killjoys and making people miserable? There is no suggestion their fervid application of the rulebook prevented any misdemeanours or transgressions that day.

A police spokesman said people were still allowed to buy alcohol. But they had to take it straight home — "You can't deviate". How utterly ridiculous.

We rely on the police to use a most valuable tool called discretion. They are expected to have some innate sense of what's wrong and what's right and apply that discretion accordingly. That wasn't happening in Whangamata where, incidentally, the "lawbreakers" were also pinged with a $250 fine.

The German tourists said they won't be back, and who can blame them.