John MacDonald: I was wrong and the police were right

I was wrong and the police were right.   

After yesterday’s events, I’ll admit that I was wrong when I said over the last few years that the police were pussy-footing around with Tom Phillips.  

That instead of waiting for him to come out of hiding with his three kids, they should've been more gung-ho on it and gone after him.  

Yesterday changed all that and proved to me that the police did do the right thing. Even though it dragged out for years, they did the right thing waiting.  

If they hadn’t, there could very well have been more than one person dead at the end of it.  

Something my thinking hasn’t changed on though, is the shameful way people have obviously been helping Phillips to stay in hiding for nearly four years.  

The police have pretty much said that this has been happening, and, if you talk to anyone familiar with the community there, they’ll tell you the same thing.    

And that person or those people —however many there are— should be ashamed of themselves.  

What has amazed me while this whole thing has been dragging on is the number of people prepared to defend Tom Phillips. In some people’s eyes, he’s been a father who just wanted to do the best for his kids.  

A father driven to the brink by the system. 

I’m not blind to the complexities of situations like this and I know there will be a lot to it that we don’t know about – a lot we don’t need to know about.  

But how anyone could think it was a good idea to support this guy, I’ll never know.  

Because without their “help”, those kids could have been back safe long before now. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Canterbury Morning's Podcast with John McDonald
from News talks'b.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
I was wrong. I was wrong and the police were right.
After yesterday's events, I will admit that I was wrong
when I said over the last few years that the
police were possely fooding around with Tom Phillips. Then instead
of waiting for him to come out of hiding with
his three kids, they should have been more gung ho

(00:33):
and gone after him. That's what I had been saying.
Yesterday though, changed all that and proved to me that
the police did do the right thing, even though it
dragged out for years. They did the right thing waiting
because if they hadn't. If they hadn't, there could very

(00:55):
well have been more than one person dead at the
end of it. And I know that because Lance Burdette,
who was the ex police negotiator who's been one of
the go to people for media all of this. I
heard him telling Heather yesterday before the two missing kids
had been found, that if one or both of them
shot at the cops with a gun, then the cops

(01:15):
will probably do what they're trained to do in situations
like that. In situations such as the one the police
officers found himself in in the early hours of yesterday
morning when Tom phillips time was up. Here's our police Commissioner,
Richard Chambers justified the approach taken by police when he

(01:36):
spoke with Mike a couple of hours ago.

Speaker 3 (01:38):
We knew that we were dealing with an armed, a
dangerous and a very motivated individual in mister Phillips, and
we had to be very very cautious about the approach
that we had taken. You know, that played out yesterday
morning in a way that we suspected it could, which
is not something that any of us wanted. But our

(01:58):
assessment of the situation over the last four years has
been spot on and that was shown yesterday morning when
we confronted mister Phillips. He shot one of my staff
and we had to return fire. And we have always

(02:19):
been concerned that that may be exactly what occurred, and
of course that may also involve the children.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
He also shared a bit more information about what Phillips
and the kids have been up to all this time.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
We believe they have been moving around. The terrain in
this area is challenging and they've been on the move
and they were deep in the bush about two kilometers
away from where the shooting occurred yesterday morning, and we
also had information that there were further firearms at this
camp site. So again, yes, it took us a while

(02:51):
to ensure the safe certaviory of the children yesterday, but
we had to take that approach because we knew that
there were firearms present and we could not we could
not risk anything plan out that might compromise the safety
of those children, all my staff.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
So the police were right. I was wrong. Something though,
that my thinking hasn't changed on is the shameful way
that some people have obviously been helping Phillips to stay
in hiding for nearly four years now. The police have
pretty much said that, said that this has been happening,
and if you talk to anyone familiar with the community
out there, they'll tell you the same thing, and that

(03:27):
person or those people, because look, I've got no idea
how many people we're talking about here, but however many
there have been, they should all be ashamed of themselves.
And I know I'm not alone in thinking that. Conversations
I've had with people yesterday and overnight they've said the
exact same thing. But what's amazed me while this whole

(03:49):
thing has been dragging on, is a number of people
prepared to defend Tom Phillips for what he's done. You know,
in some people's eyes, he's a father who just wanted
to do the best for his kids, a father driven
to the brink, driven by the were driven to the
brink by the system. And of course I'm not totally
blind to the complexities of all this, and I know

(04:10):
that there will be a lot to it that we
don't know about, a lot to it that we don't
need to know about. But how anyone could think it
was a good idea to support this guy, I will
never know. And even though what happened yesterday comes down
to Tom Phillips's actions after the quad bike he was
on hit those road spikes and he was confronted by
the police in the dark, even though he chose to

(04:33):
react the way he did with fatal consequences, anyone who
has been helping him stay hiding should not get off
scot Frey because without them, those invisible people, without them,
those kids could have been back home safe long before. Now.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
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