The New Conservative Party has slammed the police for heavy-handed style in a raid on the home of a law-abiding New Zealander.
On January 9, twelve armed police officers raided the home of a young family with a newborn child. Dieuwe de Boer had no police record and no criminal convictions. He had made submissions to the parliamentary select committee on firearm law changes.
What was the reason for police going to the trouble of getting a search warrant and sending twelve officers? It was a photo from a year ago that showed the young father with a lever action .22 – A rabbit rifle.
It was not an assault rifle, not threatening anyone, not militarised, just an ordinary everyday .22 that wasn’t illegal when the photo was taken.
The New Conservative Party said gangs had openly said that they would not hand in firearms while New Zealand had descended to record drug busts at borders, and the public struggled to get police to attend to burglaries.
“Yet somehow twelve armed officers are justified in searching through a law-abiding citizen’s house for a .22. This is not good policing, this is not efficient use of resources. This is political puppetry of the police force and must stop. What is wrong with a simple phone call asking if he still had the firearm and if so why had he not handed it in?” asked the New Conservative Party. “Five minutes for one officer rather than one hour for twelve.”
New Conservative expressed alarm that the police are being utilised politically as the person was a conservative blogger and there was no other reason to target him.
“Police are losing their hard-won respect with law-abiding New Zealanders when ordered to attend such cases, with not only the absolute waste of resources, but the clear abuse of power.”
New Zealanders were losing their freedoms and its democracy.