This is an example of a society gone mad. I would like to see a government who had "the balls" to attack the real problem . In my view, a lot of these scum bags have had no decent home life. What about looking at the so called parents and caregivers and dish a bit out to them ? RESPONSIBILITY. It's in the dictionary ,guys.Hit them in the pocket for a start.

Those students from the Tuakau school who stood and watched that poor young man being kicked and viciously beaten and encouraged the others should be ashamed of themselves. So should their so called "parents." How do they treat their off-spring when they police tell them their "little darlings were part of that" ? I hope we don't hear peer pressure is the cause because that is a cop out.( no pun intended).

How could any decent human being be witness to that and do nothing?

As far as I'm concerned if you attack the police, emergency service personnel, elderly, or child your sentence should automatically be doubled. Attacking people on duty protecting us and the helpless is just cowardly and wrong.

I have to disagree. Foe a long time now it has become almost acceptable to question police and how they carry out their duties. The media has made it their special mission in life to drag police down to the lowest of the low. It was only a matter of time before incidents involving attacks on police became almost common place. Not that long ago an attack on police was as good as a bullet, because everyone was out to catch you and if you died whilst resisting, all the better. Now we question police tactics, question whether they should have adequate protection, question whether they should chase that burglar/rapis/whatever because they have exceeded the speed limit by 20km, question how they talk......the list is endless. Its time to wind back the clock, treat police as the line that defends society from all manner of scum and therefore offer them the respect and admiration they deserve and its time to demand that anyone assaulting a police office be targetted for maximum effect. Moddie coddlers, it really is time for you all to go back to wherever you came from and leave policing up to the police.

Who would become a cop in NZ these days?

Police are accused of being tax collecters everytime they give a ticket out (why would they be tax collecters, they don't get the money!) when the fact is if you don't break the law, you don't get a ticket. If you drive a registered vehicle at 50km then what would they ticket you for?

Police have to go through a stressful enquiry if they ever have to produce a gun when the fact is if it has got to that stage, it is pretty serious.

More enquiries are held after every "pursuit" when if people just stopped rather than thinking they can outdo the Police, they wouldn't crash and die.

The fact is, NZ has a bunch of idiots making life hard on the Police who are just doing their job - which is dictated by the Govt. I support anything that will help protect the Police so we don't end up with all our Police deciding they don't need the stress.

I suspect the problem is we have always had all these low-lifes but now the media plaster them over front pages and headline news and we feel as though we are surrounded by them when in fact their numbers are few. We call TV1 news 'crimewatch' in our home as most of the stories deal with crime and non-stories by a gormless young reporter standing outside a crime scene telling us nothing we couldn't work out for ourselves. Perhaps it's time we dropped that awful PC word 'inappropriate' and started saying this behaviour is wrong. We could also lift our standards of civility. You stopping calling our Minister of Police a silly nickname (you must be the last one who thinks it's funny, Colin) might be a first step in raising some respect for others, the loss of which is at the root of much of this violent crime.

As you say Colin, it's lack of concern for others that breeds this anti-social behaviour. The "what's in it for me?" attitude so beloved of Rortney Hide and Bludger Douglas and their ilk. The disgusting prejudice against "beneficiaries" (but not rich business bailout bludgers) is a case in point. As I've said before, the only answer this government has to the problem is private prisons run by their clients. I bet some moron says we should get tough on the thugs, presumably to make them tougher thugs.

Colin, you've nailed it with this one. Sad way to run a government, but hey, you guys keep running this crap for them. More Pavlovian than Orwellian, really.

I suggest all Police should carry tasers. But I am not sure if a policeman/woman is attacked by a group, whether he/she will be able to use the laser many times?

There already exists a specific offence of assaulting a Police Officer. Section 10 of the Summary Offences Act 1981 says:

"Every person is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or a fine not exceeding [$4,000] who assaults any constable, or any prison officer, or any traffic officer, acting in the execution of his duty"

That's only assaults at the minor end of the scale and I don't believe there is a similar provision in the Crimes Act, but judges are already able to take into account any aggravating feature they see fit. I strongly suspect that the fact the victim was a police officer would be one of those features.

Of course, the fact a victim is a police officer is not explicitly stated as a feature that MUST be taken into account, but inserting it as one would probably just be a formality.

It seems to me that our current Ministers have a habit of making statements without talking to their officials first...

Colin, let's debate your last statement "Increasing penalties for attacking cops isn't going to stop that". How do you that? You're pretty cock-sure, so you must know something we don't.