2002: Police Ten 7

July 17, 2023

By AHNZ

Today in history, 18 July, 2002, a new form of crime television came to our screens: Police Ten 7 featuring Graham Bell. New Zealand was in one of its periodic Honour Culture eras. Crime was not tolerated, criminals not revered, the Woke took shelter for these times were not for the weak. In the 2020s criminals are tolerated and even fed and coddled. Police Ten 7, despite continued popular success, was canned by TVNZ as Politically Incorrect in 2023.

The show unapologetically screened everyday scenes that glorified Policemen and their authority while filming offenders as they humiliated themselves. Host, retired Detective Inspector Graham Bell, authoritatively rattled off judgmental epithets at the “Vicious Morons and Gutless Goons” in a way perfectly complementing how mainstream New Zealand felt about criminal and deviant behavior during that time of our history.

Outrageous Honor Culture (2002-2008) was a slice in our history that AHNZ has named after the local hit TV show Outragious Fortune which also epitomised low-minded, basic, carnal, abusive Kiwi culture that was sensitive to slight and impatient with intellectualism.  Ref. Moral Cultures, AHNZ 

Along with these TV shows New Zealanders were also embracing primal clashing of armored warriors with axes and swords in the adventure film trilogy Lord of the Rings (2001-03.) Visceral American Western Deadwood and frequently gory and explosive Mythbusters both released in 2003. A man vs. wild Australian show, Crocodile Hunter, aired the same year as Outragious Fortune. In 2004 pop stars Pink, Britney Spears, and Beyonce made a Pepsi advertisement dressed up as Roman gladiators (image below.) Truly, the popular taste during Outrageous Honor Culture was for uncompromising, unsophisticated, swiftly judgmental, Spartan, conduct. No wonder Police Ten 7 (2002) conducted itself as it did or was received so well; It was of this time.

“Originally fronted by retired detective inspector Graham Bell, Police Ten 7 first exploded onto our screens on July 18, 2002 – and it’s been a Kiwi favourite ever since.” – Police Ten 7 celebrates 500 episodes with best moments, bloopers and blowing on pies, Stuff (2016)

“Last year, following protests as part of the Black Lives Matter movement, the American show Cops was cancelled – but TVNZ said Police Ten 7 wouldn’t face the same fate.” – Graham Bell defends Police Ten 7, amid calls to cancel the ‘racist’ programme, Stuff (March 2021)

“So you tell me how Police Ten 7 has gone from being described as a ‘ratings success’ in 2021, to a show that can’t pull enough of an audience in 2023.”

“They started taking the punch out…gone was the Goodies and Baddies language that Graham Bell used to use….Vicious Morons, Gutless Goons, or Lunatic Scumbags. They were now Offenders. Suspects. And the show wasn’t Police Ten 7 anymore it was renamed Ten 7 Aotearoa.”- Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive, ZB (February 2023)

“In 2007 then-TVNZ boss Rick Ellis was slammed for including Police Ten-7 in a list of the station’s programmes that included Māori representation, while speaking to the Māori Affairs Select Committee.” – Police Ten 7 show ‘feeds racial stereotypes’ – Auckland councillor, Stuff (March 2021)

“The series took its name from the New Zealand Police ten-code 10-7, which means “Unit has arrived at job”.” – Wiki

As another example of Honor Culture era policing, consider this article from The Dominion (20 January 1999:) Crims Cop Birthday Wishes as Warning. Although it is news from London this article made the front page in New Zealand and for some years was hung on public display on one of the Interislander ferries (beside a feature about the ferry itself.) It deals with how British police regarded their local criminals which is in the same spirit of Graham Bell and Police Ten 7.

In the article (image, left) London police advertised the fact that they were sending known criminals birthday cards to remind them that jail was waiting! And, that the police knew where criminals lived and their name and date of birth. “We are aiming to transfer the fear away from victims and on to the criminal,” they said.

Such Honor Culture policing style, in London and in New Zealand, would become unthinkable by the early 2020s. It is highly doubted that this article is still posted on one of the government’s ferries. Probably it has been detected by a Woke passenger and complained about and redacted the same way Laura Quin Ogle had evidence of the Wairau Massacre struck from Interislander’s walls in 2023. Ref. 1843: Woke White Woman Cancels Wairau Affray, AHNZ

Before yielding at last, in February 2023, the show had attempted to capitulate. Tongan New Zealander Rob Lemoto became host and to further take the edge off the concerns that Maori and Pacific Island crooks dominated the guest star casting the show was re-named Ten 7 Aotearoa in 2022. Politically Correct language such as ‘suspect’ and ‘individual’ replaced terms like ‘criminal’ and ‘scumbag’. As usual, bilingualism and capitulation turned out to be a precursor to total take-over and cancellation. How many times do New Zealanders have to rediscover that they can’t submit their way into respect and territorial integrity? Ref. 1985: Placing Mt Egmont in the Shade, AHNZ

Prior to Police Ten 7, the very Honor Culture show, there was Crime Watch (1987-96) featuring Ian Johnstone and Carol Hirschfeld. That earlier show belonged to a Dignity Culture time period and as such was presented with airs of civilised, forensic authority. The thing about these Culture eras is that, while they pass away, they do also come back around again. New Zealand is due for another Honor Culture time period in the 2020s which will certainly include a hardening attitude to crime in reaction to the loose rules in a Victimhood and Slave Culture era. The next HC period will create a new audience and a new TV show to follow in Police Ten 7’s bootsteps. It may be that the New Zealand Police Force Service does not have a future (they replaced the Armed Constabulary and will, in turn, be replaced themselves one day) but something will fill that space and they’ll have their own media presence too just as always before.

—
Ref. Political Policemen, NZB3

Ref. A Serco prison officer refused to take his shoes off…and had his tyres slashed; Spinoff

Ref. “ACT is claiming New Zealand is a “dying nation” after it was revealed five youth offenders were given KFC to end a 24-hour rooftop stand-off.” – Newshub (2023)

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