New Zealand top cop and MP Ross Meurant ruffled a few feathers while he was in his prime. That’s his style. This book tells it as it is, well as it was anyway. He says it’s fiction but what you expect he would say? Replace a couple of characters names with real people and what Chris Trotter says makes perfect sense, “There’s only one way to tell the truth about the country he loves – write fiction”. A good read indeed.
I always read the last chapter of a book first, then the penultimate chapter if I still don’t “get it”. Most of the time I don’t need to read the rest, well in long format anyway. Not this book however. I tried this, was none the wiser so started at the beginning and worked my way through chapter by chapter. I needed the context in order to appreciate the thrust of the ending. No problem with that though. Ross has done a good job nonetheless.
He interweaves the story of a young man growing up in the north of New Zealand into a series of characters and events that tell us about the somewhat dodgy life he led when he worked in the New Zealand Police; the even more dodgy life of a high profile politician mate of his; and the underworld of another criminal who got away with murder, yup – literally.
While there is a personal story being outworked as we read the semi-suspenseful narrative, the book shares a lot about corruption and power games and contains some really beautiful descriptions of how power corrupts. Leaving the storyline for readers to flesh out, the plot involves a here are a few gems:
Here we have an insider’s take on the way the Police culture is outworked. Yes I know that this is fiction but it is thinly disguised and IMHO the whole reason that the author writes here is to share the reality of life in the force. This thinking (that the end justifies the means, or that it is sometimes okay if we just participate in a little bit of evil) denies the power of a greater authority that uses truth. It is ultimately arrogance that causes us to stretch the truth because we think that we can get away with it.
This is not a New Zealand thing – nor is it a Police thing. It is a widespread global temptation. When we do speak the truth we give the Truth opportunity to rule; the chance to do His thing. This requires faith that there is a God and that He can do His thing if we only but believe Him and do what He tells us to do. Sure it may cost us, Sure we may allow crooks some latitude and some may get away with something, but as the book Out Of The Inferno also teaches us by one of the central character’s anti-the-system bias, we can cause much greater pain when we hurt the vulnerable.
I’ve used this section here because I like the words “the rule of police” being “mightier than the rule of law”. In my book Corrupt Cops UNMASKED!! – How to deal with Police Corruption, I share the power that comes from fear. It is a controlling power. It is designed to enslave and to empower the people with authority. Ross calls this thinking the “rule of police”. It is an apt phrase.
And here we have it again but systemised. A tight team implies tight control; obedience; teamwork and it denigrates independent thought totally. It is the difference between globalism and independence; personal responsibility and personal accountability. Delegation of decision-making up the tree always empowers evil as this consolidates power and wealth. Godliness takes the reverse approach instead trusting that there is a higher power who is good and who does care and if we all do what He wants us to then things work out better for us all in the end.
The backstory here was that this character had seen trauma and wanted revenge. She saw her role within the police as her way to achieve this and Ross has woven his analysis that 20% of the NZ Police force being corrupt (or corruptible) into this character’s thoughts. I am loathe to undo or to counter his take here, but it is my analysis that across the board 10% are incorrigibly bad, 10% are [usually] always good and that 80% are in the middle would more match reality. In education we call it the bell curve. Measuring or quantifying this is though an arbitrary matter at the end of the day. There will always be those at either extreme – those who will turn anything they touch into gold and those that exude evil the moment they simply walk into a room. The large bulk of the people in any geographical group are able to be manipulated up or down depending on the circumstances and What’s In It For Them.
I would not call Ross Meurant a conspiracy theorist, more a pragmatist with ample life experience but this quoted section, spoken by a minor character in the book to one of the three “heroes” gets pretty darned close if you ask me!
And again I conclude the snippets with the full-on conspiracy reality. Power. Politics. Wars and . . . money! Oh did someone also mention Winston?
I think I’ll go away and give up writing now – others are doing it for me!
BTW. How did you like 8 hours without Facebook the other day? Is there any possibility that the FB techos couldn’t get into their server rooms to investigate WTF happened because, well, um . . . their swipe cards didn’t work? I wonder what that really means about who the people are who really control global affairs? It is my take that this was one of many warnings issued by the US Military to those fighting to remain in control. I suspect that the COVID-19 thing will disappear the way that Sandy Hook, Ebola, Hillary Clinton, Bill Gates and 9-11 all did – and very shortly too!
As I have been saying since 2010, get out of debt and stay out – regardless of your lifestyle. Prepare for a reduction in connectivity – phones, Internet and transport with disruptions to many core services – food, power, fuel, distribution systems, banking and also at a global level. Blame ET, Biden, Cindy or whoever but please do not blame me if you are sitting there without power in the dark without candles and having to raid your neighbour’s pantry for food to feed your family.
Traumas aplenty for the next few months methinks . . .
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