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Senior police believe
the sort of "dark-humoured" comments which led a colleague to quit an
inquiry into police conduct are probably repeated every day around the
country. Pieter Roozendaal, a
28-year police veteran, yesterday quit the inquiry into what a judge called a
"sick" police culture in South Auckland after a trial which found
Senior Sergeant Anthony Solomona guilty of assault. Solomona has yet to be
sentenced. Mr Roozendaal quit
after revelations he was investigated and exonerated for jokingly asking a
prisoner in the 1980s if he had "had his beating yet". A senior policeman, who
would not be named, said today much was said every day by police under stress
which was intended to lighten the mood for both police and others and was not
intended to offend or hurt. The officer would not
comment on Mr Roozendaal but said many "dark-humoured comments"
were made by police under stress throughout the country. "They are not
meant to take out people's personal tragedy. They are just a way in which you
put your own shields up to cope with the things you do. "But my God if
some of those come back to bite you, which you use as a form of protection,
it makes you think, my God where is the world going to." The officer said it was
a comment made in fun and in jest. Another senior officer said
throwaway comments such as Mr Roozendaal made were made every day but it was
his choice to step down from the inquiry. "He has decided to
make sure he has got a clean slate and doesn't want anyone to say 'hang on a
minute,' so it was not a bad thing on his part," the officer said. Mr Roozendaal had been
seconded from his complaints investigation role in the North
Shore/Waitakere/Rodney district. Police Commissioner Rob
Robinson's office last night released a statement saying the incident in the
1980s involved inappropriate language. Mr Roozendaal had
accepted he had used the words which were construed as "inappropriate
humour". Mr Roozendaal asked to
stand down from the South Auckland inquiry led by retired High Court judge
Sir David Tompkins. North
Shore/Waitakere/Rodney district commander Superintendent Roger Carson said he
had "absolute confidence" in Mr Roozendaal's role as manager of
police professional standards. |
