Picture a bad look for police

There are often times and particular incidents where you simply have to pause to wonder what the people involved were thinking.

Such is the case with the uniformed police officer who apparently decided it would be a smart idea to pose over a patrol car with a gun held to his head at a weekend fundraising event.

The image, which made its way on to various social networking sites, shows the officer being pushed over the car with his hands held behind his back by one man, while another points a gun at the officer's head.

The picture was taken at the Cannonball street rally held in Auckland on Saturday. Police have confirmed the picture's authenticity and that it appeared to be taken with the officer's co-operation. They have described the image as "not appropriate", but otherwise are remaining tight-lipped.

Some on the internet have queried whether the image is of a real officer or a hoax.

What's not in doubt, however, is that the picture is a bad look for the police, an organisation which, above all others, relies on the respect of the general public.

That respect has taken a blow in recent years through several high-profile incidents, and fun or not, this latest picture does nothing to help rebuild that level of gravitas.

It's also horribly insensitive to the families of those police officers who have been killed in the line of duty, at a time where violence against police appears to be becoming more prevalent.

Whether the person with the gun to his head in the photograph is a genuine police officer or not, his actions in posing in this manner are childish, stupid, and utterly unbecoming of the uniform he is pictured wearing.

For something which reportedly now has over 800 million users worldwide, social networking website Facebook cops a lot of flak.

There are concerns people spend too much time on it at the expense of their own lives, fears over online stalking or cyber bullying, and privacy issues.

In some cases, the concerns are valid, and there's no shortage of horror stories of people, teenagers in particular, having unpleasant run-ins online. So it's good then to see the site occasionally amplifying the better aspects of human nature, rather than the negative.

After Wanganui mum Emily Murphy posted a picture of her son Matt's stolen scooter on the website, other users got together to organise donations to buy the 12-year-old a new one. The users were from an "items for sale in Wanganui" group, so it's a fair bet the people responsible for sorting out a new scooter for Matt are locals.

Good on them - how nice it is to see people prepared to shell out from their own pockets in order to help someone other than themselves.

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