John MacDonald: Why the Tom Phillips report doesn't surprise me
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I’m not the least bit surprised by this Tom Phillips cock up.
Because we are a country that has made turning a blind eye a national pastime.
So, if we do that ourselves so often, why should we be surprised when the Police and Oranga Tamariki do the same thing?
We’re a country where there’s been no shortage of people lining up to portray Tom Phillips as something of a national hero.
I don’t know how many people have said to me over the years that he was “just doing it for his kids”. That he was frustrated with the Family Court process and just wanted to protect them.
So, again, if that’s what some people think, then why should we be surprised when the Police and Oranga Tamariki appear to have thought the same?
As you’ll be aware, it’s been found that the Police missed several key opportunities to catch Phillips, including one time when a local picked him up in their car and tipped off the cops.
They were about to send someone out. But they got diverted to another job.
Which is understandable. It happens all the time. I get that the Police have to prioritise things. But to leave it and only follow it up way down the track when the chance had been lost? That’s indefensible in my book.
Other findings include the Police failing to act on firearms warnings and Oranga Tamariki dismissing family concerns about the wellbeing of the kids.
The Government has apologised. Oranga Tamariki has admitted it made mistakes. But the Police are pushing back, saying it was a complex situation.
When Phillips was shot dead by the Police a year ago and we started to find out more about his set-up and what he’d been up to, I was very quick to admit that I had been wrong and the Police had been right.
That I had been wrong saying over the years that the Police were pussy-footing around. That, instead of waiting for him to come out of hiding with his kids, they should’ve been more gung-ho on it and gone after him.
I admitted that I had been wrong because I believed that, if they hadn’t taken their time, there could have very easily been more than one person dead at the end of it.
What I didn’t know a year ago, though, when I made that admission, is how much of a shambles it had been behind the scenes.That it was known how much alcohol he was drinking. As much as a bottle of vodka and a box of beer a day. That he was such a heavy drinker that he’d started making his own vodka.
That, before he disappeared the first time, he’d gone into town to buy booze wearing an army-style full-face gas mask and had been banging on about the end of the world.
That family members had raised concerns about the safety of the kids. But nothing was done.
Just the stuff we can talk about makes it scandalous enough. Add in the stuff we can’t talk about because of suppression orders, and it’s an outrage.
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