Manhunt

The all-day manhunt yesterday in the central North Island ended at a road block without incident.

This was fortunate when you consider there was a car chase, a police car rammed, the cops allegedly shot at, the police car stolen, dangerous offenders on the run.

Some of the accused face serious charges, including attempted murder of police officers.

One of the accused, Dolphy Kohu is a criminal with form. He has a string of convictions including robbing a dairy with a sawn-off shotgun and firing a shotgun at a family. Unfortunately the three strikes rule wasn't in force when Kohu committed aggravated robbery, otherwise he would've been in jail.  He now comes under the three strikes law and if convicted he goes away for a very long time.

Interesting to note that Labour and the Greens want to repeal the three strikes rule, so that would give criminals like Kohu a break. This is surely out of step with public opinion.

Another thing that the public want I believe is for our police officers to be protected. The officers involved in the incident yesterday were not protected. They had no option but to run when shot at. The officers under fire were defenceless. 

This is a conclusive example of impotent police policy.

The policy of having firearms locked in the boot of a patrol car is nothing but a PC response from negligent police bosses and politicians.

They're negligent because they know, that a gun locked in the boot, is no protection for cops. Just having access to a gun doesn't cut it. You can't predict the unpredictable. Cops should therefore be carrying a gun routinely to defend themselves.

Its only a matter of time before another cop gets shot and killed.

Clearly, it could have happened yesterday.

Montgomery

PJ Montgomery has stuck it to Grant Dalton in his book,  Peter Montgomery - The Voice of Yachting.

Dalton has held a long grudge against PJ for no obvious reason.

Dalton's grudge goes way back and its entrenched. Silly stuff like PJ calling the 1993-94 Round the World race two separate divisions, which it was, but Dalton wanted it to appear as one big race.

Dalton's chip on his shoulder extended to PJ having a close relationship with Sir Peter Blake and Brad Butterworth. Kind of sad really.

The part in the book that resonates with me was the gutless decision by TVNZ to dump PJ from their commentary team after being pressured by Dalton. The ultimatum was PJ goes and TVNZ gets the television rights. The same  ultimatum was issued to this station but we had a boss with fortitude in Bill Francis who told Dalton to take a hike. The upshot of that was Dalton gave the radio rights to some obscure station that had no listeners. Team New Zealand's loss.

Keep in mind that PJ was recognised internationally as one of the greats of yachting commentators. Still is. Its remarkable that TVNZ buckled. TVNZ's Americas Cup coverage since has been mediocre as a consequence. It has lacked that vibrancy and excitement that a pretty pedestrian sport like yachting needs. PJ brought yachting alive.

PJ Montgomery IS the Voice of Yachting.

Its inconceivable that Dalton would let some petty grudge negatively influence the profile and coverage of the Americas Cup.