I saw this video recently, in which a couple of New Zealand police officers came to interview a man, but declined to proceed when he refused to stop recording them. One of the police officers was armed with a sidearm, which I understand is rather unusual for New Zealand police officers. They mentioned that he had been “identified” and it seems to perhaps be related to something he posted on Facebook.
Does anyone know more of the back story (perhaps what the man posted on Facebook)? Does anyone else find the situation disturbing, even a little? Or is this sort of thing more routine and mundane in New Zealand than I realized? Are the laws in New Zealand regarding filming a police officer similar to USA’s? Do police there use bodycams routinely / ever?
I’m not disturbed at all. The officer was clear that they were doing some sort of investigation related to the Christenchurch massacre. He may have come by to discuss details of an ongoing investigation. I can only speculate. Mr. Bush (the man talking to the police) seemed unusually upset, but it is his right to turn down their request or continue recording. In my opinion, the police did not act out of line.
I’m not going to go into a deep analysis of the guy’s facebook page, but he’s some flavour of conspiracy theorist with issues with some odd collection of main stream policy positions and the politicians who support them.
Since the police didn’t want to list the details of the reason for their visit on camera, I find it reasonable to assume those reasons aren’t published anywhere either.
I find it entirely plausible they didn’t want to give the guy material for his conspiracy theories, beyond the unavoidable element of talking to him. I assume they are doing a bunch of these and prioritize speed and minimum resource use over the risk of upsetting someone by showing up unannounced on a Sunday.