Police Commissioner Andrew Coster had better watch his back because it looks like the government wants to make him the scapegoat over this out-of-hand protest. 

From what we’re hearing, the Beehive is whispering against him to undermine him, and – this is always a dead giveaway – journalists are writing columns blaming him using info that can only have come from those within the Parliamentary building. 

To be fair, Coster definitely deserves some of the blame for that protest growing to the size it has: he let the tents go up without stopping them, he publicly threatened to tow cars when he had no ability to tow cars, and he only put cordons up and cops on the streets to stop intimidation today, when he should’ve done that two weeks ago. 

The worst-case scenario for him is that he has to resign like the Ottawa Police Chief did last week for exactly the same reason: badly handling their convoy protest. 

I don’t think a lot of us would mourn Coster’s resignation, would we?  

I suspect plenty of us would be happy to see an end to his softly-softly approach to policing over this pandemic: he tolerated the iwi-led checkpoints, he tolerated flagrant breaches of level 4 rules and he tolerated gangs holding tangi while the rest of us stayed locked down. 

This is just the latest example of him allowing rule-breaking. 

The question now is, will the government’s blame shifting campaign work and will he be forced to quit?  

At this stage I’m leaning towards no, for two reasons:  

First, it’s hard for the government to cut the guy for doing the job exactly the way they wanted him to. 

Remember, they chose him specifically for this style of policing. The job should’ve gone to Mike Clement, but the PM hand-selected Coster instead because she apparently liked his progressive approach to policing. 

Secondly, he doesn’t look like he’s going without a fight. 

He deliberately gave an interview to Q+A yesterday – the very show he knows politicians watch – and he used it to blame government decisions for making the protest worse. 

He wouldn’t say what, but I’d take that as a threat to the government that he could yet elaborate. So, if the squeeze went on him, he could squeeze back. 

Plus, he’s now hardened right up on the policing front and told the coppers not to tolerate anything which should stem further criticism. 

Long may that last. 

Whether he stays in the job long term or not, here’s hoping they’ve all learnt a lesson and this is the last time we ever have to witness the Cuddles Coster soft approach to policing.