Police, defending the innocent? Yet again

**Scuba_Steve** · 11th May 2011, 08:14

& the

still wonder why people are losing respect

Originally Posted by NZ Herald

A business owner is vowing to fight charges of assault and kidnapping for tackling two people who allegedly stole from his business.

Clemence Drilling owner Dave Clemence - whose business yard in Kaiapoi, north of Christchurch, has been repeatedly targeted by thieves - was charged after an incident on April 8 when he and his workers caught and held down two men believed to have stolen diesel from the firm.

Mr Clemence earlier told the Northern Outlook newspaper his workers had held the men down while he called 111 and chased one of them down after he broke free.
He was later asked to make a statement to police and the charges were laid.

"It's unbelievable. Kidnapping? We dropped them off to the police."

Full story here

**unstuck** · 11th May 2011, 08:57

Guys were a bit overboard with their restraint or something,threatening the theives or whatever, as you would,well i would anyway. There are some bad attitudes out there amongst the police but i have found(and i have had a bit of experience with them) that they usually dont kick off for no reason.Only my opinion though.

**mashman** · 11th May 2011, 08:59

Feckin insane. My heart goes out to Mr Clemence wether he gave them a slap or not... what was he supposed to do, "no, please, take my stuff, I don;t mind"... pathetic.

**mattsdakar** · 11th May 2011, 09:05

Originally Posted by Scuba_Steve

& the

still wonder why people are losing respect...

I'm sick of ignorant dorks like yourself posting police bashing comments on here without the facts.

The Clemence guys caught the badies and gave them a beating..justice, yes...but people just can't take the law into their own hands. Now the badies have made an assault complaint which the police are obliged to investigate.
Why should that make the public lose respect of them???

**Kickaha** · 11th May 2011, 09:12

Originally Posted by mattsdakar

The Clements guys caught the badies and gave them a beating..justice, yes...but people just can't take the law into their own hands. Now the badies have made an assault complaint which the police are obliged to investigate.
Why should that make the public lose respect of them???

Because we're meant to be able to bash the bad guys if we catch them and they're not meant to be able to use the law to their advantage, simple really

**Scuba_Steve** · 11th May 2011, 09:13

Originally Posted by mattsdakar

I'm sick of ignorant dorks like yourself posting police bashing comments on here without the facts.

The Clements guys caught the badies and gave them a beating..justice, yes...but people just can't take the law into their own hands. Now the badies have made an assault complaint which the police are obliged to investigate.
Why should that make the public lose respect of them???

and here you are with ALL the facts right? knowing for sure he gave them a good beating & they we're delivered to the cop station battered & bleeding right? right? lest you be one of these "ignorant dorks" you speak of

**Ronin** · 11th May 2011, 09:40

Originally Posted by Scuba_Steve

and here you are with ALL the facts right? knowing for sure he gave them a good beating & they we're delivered to the cop station battered & bleeding right? right? lest you be one of these "ignorant dorks" you speak of

Well, they did require hospital treatment so that is a fairly good indication. Remember. The police might not 'want' to charge but they have very little choice sometimes.

A few years ago here a gang member tormented some poor sod for months with stand over tactics and extortion. The night he threatened the guys family was just to much. The guy went home, grabbed his shotgun and when the gang member came out of the pub blew his head off. The police more or less shook his hand, thanked him and then he went to prison for quite some time.

**imdying** · 11th May 2011, 09:47

Originally Posted by Scuba_Steve

and here you are with ALL the facts right?

And yourself? Ignorant dork...

**Virago** · 11th May 2011, 09:51

As always, the true facts will come out later - in the meantime there's plenty of time for outraged fury to be vented...

It seems highly unlikely that the police would lay charges of kidnapping for simply taking the culprits to the police station. But if they were taken somewhere else first, and given a good beating, then the charge is valid.

We'll see, eh?

**oldrider** · 11th May 2011, 10:00

Originally Posted by Ronin

Well, they did require hospital treatment so that is a fairly good indication. Remember. The police might not 'want' to charge but they have very little choice sometimes.

A few years ago here a gang member tormented some poor sod for months with stand over tactics and extortion. The night he threatened the guys family was just to much. The guy went home, grabbed his shotgun and when the gang member came out of the pub blew his head off. The police more or less shook his hand, thanked him and then he went to prison for quite some time.

As my age increases so does the value of that result ... there's not that much life left for them to take!

If I could just remember where I left my cartridges!

**Virago** · 11th May 2011, 10:00

Originally Posted by Scuba_Steve

Police, defending the innocent? Yet again

Aren't they supposed to defend the innocent?

**scissorhands** · 11th May 2011, 10:23

Only state sanctioned departments can do anything like medical, justice, education, religion, food supply, etc

Heaven forbid you can take ANY MATTERS in to your own hand

Wait till hunting and fishing becomes an illegal activity unless sanctioned by the state.

Shouldnt have given them the bash.... maybe one in the stomach

**Edbear** · 11th May 2011, 10:41

Just a couple of salient points that some may have missed...

"...injuries to the two men - who are now facing burglary charges - were "consistent with the claims of assault".

He told the Herald yesterday police felt they had sufficient evidence to charge Mr Clemence. Members of the public offering opinions on the case were doing so without all of the facts, Mr Barnett said."

Funny that, people giving their opinion without all the facts? How unlike KB...

Now if I caught someone in the act of stealing, I might try to stop them and that may result in injuries. I guess few would sympathise with the alleged thieves, either, but the Police have to uphold and enforce the law, and as the article goes on the mention, in other cases the courts have sided with the defendants and dismised the charges. So in this case the Police may have decided that the assaults were serious enough to lay charges, but will allow the courts to make the judgement, (where judgements are made), rather than the officers.

**Scuba_Steve** · 11th May 2011, 10:44

Originally Posted by Ronin

Well, they did require hospital treatment so that is a fairly good indication.

Not always nowadays, they send you to hospital for almost anything for fear of being done on it later. But yes this wasn't in the herald report (media accuracy again) so maybee he did go to far or maybee they were just sustained in the tackle which I can only presume was onto gravel.

Originally Posted by Virago

Aren't they supposed to defend the innocent?

Thief's aint innocent.

He didn't kill them, torture them or put them on life-support in my opinion the thief's got what they deserved & the dude should be left to get on with it.

It's getting to a point where it will be illegal to defend yourself, someone else or your property. As apparent with the Detective Sergeant's comments

Barnett said a kidnapping charge could include "just detaining someone".