Greg O’Connor defends decision to pick Labour
Former Police Association boss Greg O’Connor has denied being ‘‘a Right-wing fascist’’ and come out in favour of legalising medicinal cannabis.
O’Connor, Labour’s candidate for the Ohariu electorate in Wellington, made the comments on Labour-aligned blog The Standard.
They come after critics – including The Daily Blog’s Martyn Bradbury – slammed him for his stance on arming frontline cops. Bradbury said O’Connor’s appointment Labour’s ‘‘final mutation National lite’’.
Bradbury said the appointment was also a ‘‘smart move by Little and his ever-broadening church’’ as it would give poor, workingclass and migrant communities the sense their fear of crime was being addressed.
O’Connor, president of the Police Association for more than 20 years, said the comments made for ‘‘interesting reading’’. was into
‘‘The theme running through much of the discussion seems to be that I’m a right-wing fascist who makes [North Korean dictator] Kim Jong-un look like some sort of pinko liberal pacifist.’’
However, Labour was ‘‘the natural choice for me as a political party’’ and he was not a ‘‘Kiwi Putin intent on world (or even Ohariu) domination’’, he said.
In his post on The Standard, O’Connor came out in favour of pharmaceutical medicinal marijuana, labelling it a ‘‘nobrainer’’.
Doctors could already prescribe morphine-based products and could therefore be trusted with cannabis-based products, he said.
He also addressed the issue of arming police, saying it was inevitable unless New Zealand ‘‘got on top of the illegal gun situation’’.
If nothing changed, there was likely to be a ‘‘serious and preventable public loss of life’’ due to because of a shooting, he said.