Is it good enough that the victim of a nasty assault in Christchurch has had to hound the police for four weeks to find out what’s going on with their investigation?

This is someone who lost several teeth in the assault which happened in broad daylight inside The Palms shopping mall.

Is it good enough?

He and his family don’t think so, saying today that it’s left them feeling like they’re the bad guys, when all they’ve wanted is to know what’s going on.

I’ll come back to his story. And another one.

But is it good enough? I don’t think it is.

But even though Canterbury Police have ditched their restructuring plans which would have had less cops based in areas like Amberley and Culverden and more cops based in growth areas like Rangiora and Rolleston, I don’t see things changing anytime soon.

The police obviously didn’t bank on Federated Farmers getting fired up and organising public meetings, which led to 1,000 submissions against the proposals, which have now been ditched.

But while Federated Farmers and people in places like Amberley and Culverden will be happy, it doesn’t solve the problem for everyone else in Canterbury.

The problem being: there’s not enough cops.

Which brings me back to the guy who was punched in the chops in broad daylight by a woman at The Palms four weeks ago.

Matt Sherwood is his name. He’s a baker —he runs his own business— and he was at the mall selling his products when a woman he didn’t know put her groceries down on his table.

He said “g’day” to her and she muttered something. But then went and opened a can of drink that started to fizz everywhere. All over Matt’s stall. And, within seconds, she was yelling “f*** you man” and she hit him in the face.

He lost six teeth and has been to the dentist multiple times, which has cost him thousands of dollars.

But the bit that has left him really frustrated is the way he’s had to hound the police for information.

He’s saying today: “Every single sort of point we get to, it’s just like it’s forced. I feel like I’ve done something wrong all the time. I would have liked some sort of timeline, and just to keep up with stuff and (have them) contact me and tell me the time frame.”

The exact same story for someone else we’ve heard about. This person was assaulted in a public place, called the police the next day, and had to chase them for two weeks to get an initial phone conversation.

After that, they had no further contact and after following up repeatedly, was eventually told by a police officer that they were “needy and desperate”.

They felt that, as the victim, the onus was on them to chase the police, instead of the police coming to them. Which has left them feeling that their experience was minimised and that they weren’t a priority.

This is nowhere near good enough, in my book.

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