08-Feb-2010 14:05
What I was doing last week... but more on that later...
...blow me down, big news of the day last week here in NZ, during what must have been a "there's nothing happening in the world today, so lets make this the headline act" day, was that a couple of the local constabulary took part in a school fund-raising day by giving kids rides in their cop cars, a mere 14 months ago.
Way back, when I would have been one of those little 'uns who would have loved to get a ride around the paddock in a cop car, we had a saying, it went something like this... "tell tale tit, your tongue will split, and all the little puppy dogs will have a bit".
Turns out our "tell tale tit" is a parent, David MacGregor, who filmed the police on his mobile phone as they took kids for rides and did skids and doughnuts around a grass field where other children and parents were standing.
I am not a boy racer, but the closest thing I can see in the video to a bloody doughnut is the Mr Whippy van... they would be serving ice cream cones I assume and maybe they sell the dreaded doughnuts also. However at least Mr Whippy's ice cream cones would have some substance in them, namely ice cream. Mr MacGregors "doughnuts" have absolutely no substance to them at all, because they don't exist.
The cars stir up dust, making it look like they are speeding, the sirens sounding adds to the drama. But guess what happens when you drive on dry fields and turn corners or drive in a tight circle, your wheels kid up dust, a far cry from a doughnut. If you take a look at the video you will struggle to see a skid of any sort. It is possible the only skids present that day may be the skid marks in the complainants underwear, if there were any.
My biggest concern would be that the ice creams would be covered in dust. Mr Whippy should have had a word to those nasty police.
Bloody hell do we want kids to grow up thinking that maybe, just maybe,...some cops could be ok people. Well guess what I bet every kid there that day came away thinking those two cops were cool.
We regularly hear that New Zealand and much of the developed world has become overly politically correct, I will cast my vote for you, Mr MacGregor, to be the leader of the global PC party for this week. No doubt some other do gooder will come along and dethrone you next week.
I fully understand you may truly be concerned for the children's safety, I have raised 3 children myself, but is this really worth the hassle it will now cause mate. For a start some of my taxpayer money will now be spent on an internal investigation tying up police resources. Good luck to the next school that wants to get the police involved in their fund-raising activities.
The video was taken 14 months ago, Mr Mac has some excuse about his phone memory finally being full so he needed to download it, and he had only just figured out how to load the images onto his computer.
Question; would the leader of the PC party Mr Mac, use a PC or a Mac. Advice: if you don't have one get a Mac, your phone will love you for it.
Now Mr Mac, why did you not front the constabulary at your local station or contact constabulary HQ a little closer to the time of the event if you were so concerned? Maybe you could have even been really brave and approached the police officers in question on the day and asked them to slow it down a little, there's a daring idea!
Mate either not a lot else happened in your life over the intervening 14 months or you really are just a nasty tell tale tit type?
Meanwhile I got asked to be a crew member on a beautiful old ketch for a 5 day expedition spanning our local long weekend holiday. The trip had us motor sailing from Tauranga to Great Barrier Island for a couple of days then heading here to Auckland. I have decided to post a couple of photos, absolutely bloody glorious is about all I will say.
(Click here to view Bruce's Tauranga to Great Barrier Island photos)Mr MacGregor please understand how privileged and downright blessed you are to be living in this astounding corner of the world, and try to stop raining on other peoples parades.