ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
Probationary Constable Darcy Buxland told our reporters he spent most of Friday afternoon cleaning his service Glock 17 and crossing the 9mm bullets so they’d have more stopping power should he need it.
The Betoota Heights Local Area Command was spearheading the police presence at a small music festival on the outskirts of our desert community this past Saturday and the 29-year-old policeman wasn’t taking any chances.
Darcy told our reporters that police would be targeting the Dress To Impillpress Festival this weekend gone, with a focus on minimising harm to Betoota’s young people by rolling out an anti-social number of drug detection dogs and a
“That’s not unlike any festival we have in our community,” he said.
But when asked why he chose to carry a taser, firearm, telescopic baton, handcuffs and capsicum spray on his person while undercover, Probationary Constable
“When people take drugs, they lose control,” he said.
“So I carried my Glock as a last resort. Just in case I needed to shoot an out-of-control 19-year-old girl through the brain if she became aggressive. If she didn’t respond to me or any other officer simply arresting her using our hands. Or at the very least, after being capsicum sprayed then flogged in the head like a seal cub with my baton,”
“The gun is always the last resort.”
However, the threat of terrorism was also a key factor in Darcy wearing his gun to work while undercover at the festival.
“Imagine if some “New Arrival” got in a van and drove it through the crowd of people? You’d need somebody like me, a good guy with a gun, to shoot the bad person in the upper torso until I’m out of bullets.”
“Police will not apologise for making the community safer.”
The Advocate reached out to the organisers of the Dress To Impillpress Festival but none were willing to go on the record, fearing retribution from the local government and police.
More to come.
