Chris Cahill is the police union boss, and he’s been busted lying about firearms before, so much so that media have had to retract his claims.
Now he’s been busted again. His credibility is shot to pieces now. Pun intended.
Chris Cahill, President of the Police Union, launched his latest scaremongering campaign in our media last December.
This time Chicken Little was warning about the horrific number of Police officers facing guns in the hands of criminals that year.
Radio Live reported his claims that 1 in 8 of the 12,000 cops in New Zealand had been threatened with a firearm in the last 12 months. That is 1,500 police officers.
“For frontline officers, a staggering 1 in 5 have been threatened with a firearm”. That is: 2,400 incidents if you do the math. Radio Live didn’t. We did.
Huge, outrageous claims, sounds alarming. So, what is reality?
Well we have finally got the real numbers from the real Police. There were actually only 18 incidents during that period. With only 12 prosecutions resulting. In three cases Police were fired on. Thankfully without injury.
Almost every case would have preventable simply with the threat of a serious penalty.
Many would have involved replica guns or airsoft toys, reported as real firearms. Likely none of these incidents would have been perpetrated by licensed owners. Also likely – many of the offenders would already be serving non-custodial sentences at the time of the latest crimes.
The Union’s snake oil salesman says its 2,400 – It is actually 18.
Liar, liar, pants on fire.
Why would ANY media still make themselves vulnerable by using the crooked Union’s figures? Their credibility is utterly shot. The Otago Daily Times has had to apologize for using their numbers.Radio NZ has also lost a Broadcasting Standards complaint for the same reason.
Cahill had told the Otago Daily Times (Also other media) that 20,000 firearms are stolen in New Zealand each year.The real figure? 527. With police recovering 866– to finished the year in credit. Like the many years before.
Cahill is presenting at a gun control seminar in Wellington next week. He literally could not even get ten words into his introductory biography without more than doubling the annual number of our firearm importations. He claimed “Over 50,000”. It’s really 24,553 to service our 250,000 licensed shooters.
The lies never stop.
The Police Association has refused to comment on this latest embarrassment. Why would they? The New Zealand media simply act as their mouthpiece and never hold the crooked union to account. That needs to change.
Then perhaps our news teams can ask why of the last 100 burglaries where firearms were stolen only 8 offenders ever stood before a judge.
I hope the Minister of Police is looking at this.