This week another police officer was struck by a vehicle, this time in Huntly. The officer suffered moderate injuries. 

It comes after the horrible New Year's Day incident in which Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming was killed and another officer injured after being struck by a vehicle in Nelson. 

Police Minister Mark Mitchell said on the Mike Hosking Breakfast this morning, Police and first responders are increasingly dealing with violence. Not just here in New Zealand, but globally as well. 

It's good to hear Mitchell, alongside Paul Goldsmith, is planning to bring new legislation into the house in the first quarter of this year to bring in tougher sentencing for violent behaviour towards first responders and prison officers. 

It would have been better if it had been included in Goldsmith's sentencing reforms, which had its first reading in Parliament last September. 

Those reforms too are to ensure criminals face tougher consequences and victims are prioritised. 

This new legislation aimed at offenders towards first responders will not just impose tougher sentences, but also clearly define emergency service workers, and require sentencing to be cumulative rather than concurrent. 

It's aimed at being a preventative measure, but something tells me offenders will get the message through experience rather than media headlines. 

We owe our first responders as much support as possible. 

They go to work and deal with a level of risk the rest of us don't have to confront. These laws show we as New Zealanders appreciate their work and are prepared to do what we can to protect them.

I hope the work to clarify who is a first responder - generally thought of as police, paramedics, and the fire service - is extended to hospital emergency staff, and possibly even other health workers. 

The need for this legislation, this growing anger and agitation experienced by many in public facing jobs - especially those in retail - makes you wonder what has happened to us as a wider community. 

You rarely go into a shop without signs telling you kindness is appreciated, or that they will not tolerate abusive behaviour. 

Is this a post-Covid thing? Have we just got more angry with the world? Is it a need to be seen and heard?

We seem to have forgotten that the consequence of anger is often more damaging than what made us angry in the first place/ 

Hopefully the least these tougher laws will achieve, is help bring that back into perspective. 

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