Decadence in N.Z. ‘might lead to police militancy’

Press, 31 October 1977, Page 1

Decadence in N.Z. ‘might lead to police militancy’

PA Wellington A new decadence masquerading as liberalism was leading to the disintegration of New Zealand society, the Commissioner of Police (Mr K. B. Burnside) said on Saturday.

Harmful permissiveness had crept into New Zea= land society under the guise of “progressive” thinking, he told a meeting of the Loyal Orange Institution in Wellington. The resultant anarchy could force policemen to become militant so that they could protect their position. Mr Burnside said. Mr Bumside’s address has come soon after his ruling that policemen may not live in de facto relationships because it will discredit the police. “Few would doubt that we have become more liberalistic in our view about sex,” he said in Saturday’s address. “I contend that it has not been a good thing.” More than 17 per cent of children were now bom out of wedlock.

“Does not that suggest that our sex-education theories have come unstuck?” Mr Burnside said. “There is no doubt that the greater the clamour for sex education, the higher the illegitimacy rate has risen.” Elements in society

which were difficult to identify were slowly dragging standards down, he said. Examples of low standards included doubtful art and literature, pornographic films, lax social and commercial codes, and the explicit reporting of sex crimes and sadism. “I find it hard to believe that many people would pride themselves upon the presence in their own towns and cities of the pseudo sauna parlours as monuments to moral laxity.” Many people were fearful of growing violence in the community — “and in spite of a preoccupation with the rehabilitation of the offenders as opposed to their victims, there has been no drop in the crime rate.”

Some people believed that brutality could be effectively countered by various forms of nenal kindness — but others doubted the success of such methods, Mr Burnside said. Some social crusaders who said they were seek-

ing “freedoms” were, in reality, seeking increased social licence, he said.

“I believe that we in this country are all too oblivious to the fact that we are allowing the sludge of social anarchy to be trampled into our lives — and society — on the ■boots of less-than-justifled liberalism.”

Mr Burnside said that as a policeman he had a better opportunity than most people to see the imperfections of society — and he felt a duty to impart to others what he saw. Policemen were finding it increasingly difficult to maintain the “middle ground” in a society which had many questions and few answers.

“Many of them are becoming disillusioned. They are disillusioned by the fact, and the paradox, that they are subject to abuse or innuendo for no other reason than that society cannot make up its mind about its own ground rules.” Policemen frequently

met violence as they sought to carry out their duty, Mr Bumside said. “It is a comforting commentary on the traditional stability of the police as a group that they have made only tentative approaches to militancy as a means of solving their problems. “But there may be a day when policemen turn to militant actions to compensate for being so consistentlj’ the meat in someone else’s. sandwich,” said Mr Bumside. “As Commissioner of Police, I have sought to deter policemen from any deep consideration of militanci' as a course of action. In future, I may need more public support to maintain our traditional position.” Mr Bumside said he hoped that the police would form only part of a future multi - pronged attack against the sources of criminality — an attack in which all elements of society were welded together.