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Would we be asking the questions of Police Commissioner Richard Chambers if we hadn't been dealing with McSkimming and Coster and Co.?
From my dealings with Chambers, he is exactly the sort of person who the Police need leading them.
He is one of those appointments that when it's made, you get it, unlike the Coster appointment.
When it was made you saw Ardern's fingerprints all over it and history shows how that all worked out.
From all Chambers' actions so far, he not only had to right the direction of the Police broadly, but tidy up a god-awful mess that, if you believe headlines, has shaken the public's faith in the entire force.
I don’t actually believe that for a moment. Police, at 15,000 strong, are not rotten, the same way the bad apple in a corporate doesn’t mean the whole business stinks.
But as a result of the mess, Chambers felt it necessary to share the speeding ticket news. He was going 112km/h, which as far as I know was actually 111km/h. Not that that excuses it, it just keeps getting misreported.
Then he's down Oriental Parade with Kash Patel having a dip while there is a tsunami warning. He thought it was lifted, but it wasn’t.
He rang the appropriate people and said sorry and then he was in front of the Parliamentary Select Committee having his minister, Mark Mitchell, heap praise on him, as well he might.
The point being, are we microanalysing people in public life?
And if we are, is it useful?
And if it isn't, which I doubt it is, do we put people off going for top jobs in the public service?
Can you be a decent operator and completely incident free? Are any of us completely incident free? Is 111km/h even a thing?
Mea culpa – I go 111km/h every weekend in the country, probably more. A lot of people do.
Do I take tsunami warnings seriously? Not really.
Do I take atmospheric rivers seriously? Not really.
New Zealand overreacts to most things, driven by the digital media who live for clicks.
So there you go. I doubt I'll make Police Commissioner.
What I also know is I can't be bothered with the myopic gawking over matters of little or no importance.
Chambers is clearly a more patient man than I am. But as I say, he seems the real deal and the man for the job.
How about we let him get on with it and give the nonsense a rest?
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