The Standard » crime

Falling prison numbers

James Henderson — Mon, 21 May 2012 23:18:56 +0000

It's an interesting fact that the one area in which National is going against its traditional approach and moving towards what the experts advocate is prisons. And I think I know why. In education, health, welfare etc National's ideological positions correspond with cutting spending. But 'lock em up and throw away the key' costs. When Bill English called prisons a "moral and fiscal failure" his emphasis was on "fiscal".

The thinner blue line

Zetetic — Sun, 20 May 2012 23:16:58 +0000

National is going to cut 125 police staff. They're not sworn officers but who's going to pick up the work they were doing? Sworn cops, of course. Course, tying up cops with paperwork will help the crime stats drop. And with the navy so underfunded half its inshore patrol vessels are being mothballed I bet illegal fishing instances drop too. Funny that.

Sinking homicide rate justifies murder spree – PM

Zetetic — Wed, 09 May 2012 00:21:01 +0000

The Government's 'sinking lid' on homicides means that John Key can personally garotte 3-5 enemies and the overall number of killings will still decrease, a smiling Prime Minister told journalists today. "On current trends, the number of murders is dropping by half a dozen a year. Which means no-one should mind if I bump off a few annoying arseholes" said Mr Key

NRT: Strapping the chicken on prison privatisation

The Standard — Mon, 07 May 2012 23:01:56 +0000

Despite keeping prisoners in prison too long and an escape, Serco's private management of Auckland Remand has been judged a success by the Government because it has met all the standards set for it. Sounds reasonable. Until you look a layer deeper and discover that the standards Serco has to meet are much worse than what Corrections already achieves.

Decriminalising pot?

Anthony R0bins — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 01:32:06 +0000

With pot related arrests down by half over the last eighteen years, the police have been accused of "decriminalisation by stealth". It's probably time to have the debate properly.

Banks’ secret donation from the ‘wide boys’

Eddie — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 18:19:08 +0000

John Banks has had a miraculous change of heart on pokies. He used to say gambling bosses were "wide boys" who "sucked" the people of this country dry. Now, he's rubbed up against John Key and become 'relaxed' about more pokies. Maybe the $15,000 undeclared donation from SkyCity helped. A donor Banks was legally required to disclose but didn't. Labour's laid a complaint. Update: donation has been referred to police.

Pokies: the crack cocaine of gambling

Zetetic — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 22:09:00 +0000

A sad story in the Herald today of a man who got hooked on pokies. It has destroyed his family and relationships. He's started ripping off clients at work. All to put money in the machines that SkyCity profits from. SkyCity has so many ~~addicts~~ customers it says it needs more machines. SkyCity is a cancer. We shouldn't just stop its expansion. We should excise it.

Joyce’s dirty deals: money laundering at SkyCity

James Henderson — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 23:05:24 +0000

The Greens have revealed that criminals are laundering millions of dollars through SkyCity, taking their gambling losses as the price of coming out with clean, untraceable money. The Government's sleazy 'law for sale' deal with SkyCity would only make it worse by allowing more anonymous, higher stake gambling on the pokies. Instead, we should be clamping down.

Advice on pokies

Anthony R0bins — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 19:20:41 +0000

"Prime Minister John Key says hundreds of extra pokies at Sky City Casino will not increase gambling addiction". Key is lying and he knows it. That's why the Nats won't release the official advice they have received on this topic...

Juking the stats?

James Henderson — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 23:50:16 +0000

The recorded crime rate has been dropping for two decades now mostly due to changing demographics. More good news this year with a 4.8% drop, mostly attributable to a 21% fall in Canterbury. But something's a little off in these numbers. The number of offences recorded has fallen, yet the percentage solved has fallen even more. Shouldn't less crime mean more resources to solve the ones that do happen?

We need “operation 9″ to suppress the bookies

lprent — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 23:37:10 +0000

Evidently the people at iPredict don't like being called "bookies" or being described as "opening a contract" on someone. We are now being targeted by this shadowy organisation.

Perhaps it is time that the police exerted themselves as the entertainment for the media and started operation 9 against this subversive organisation

You know you’re in trouble when: The bookies open a contract on you

lprent — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 21:28:50 +0000

You know that bookies sense when there is blood in the water and they'll create contracts. I don't gamble but the interesting contracts today in my mind are "Judith Collins to cease being a Minister before 1 June 2012", "An ACC official ....to be found to have leaked Boag email", "Beehive staffer to be found to have leaked Boag email", etc. And a politician is definitely in trouble in NZ when they start talking about defamation :)

Ambrose should sue as Police & Key fail Laws 101

Eddie — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 18:10:28 +0000

When a government figure says someone broke a law when there has been no conviction they are effectively imposing an extra-judicial punishment by defaming them. Key and the Police cannot be allowed to serve up extra-judicial punishments to whomever they choose by branding them a criminal and then not taking them to court to prove it.

Tough on crime

Anthony R0bins — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 20:22:07 +0000

New Zealand has one of the highest rates of imprisonment in the world, and an international study has just highlighted the fact.

Rortwatch: closing prisons to justify Wiri

James Henderson — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 20:15:44 +0000

1,200 prison beds, 1 in 8, are empty plus the 1,300 bed reserve. Prisoner numbers are projected to keep falling. So, why are the Nats spending a billion dollars on the Wiri private prison? And where will they get the prisoners? By closing existing public prisons. Rather than upgrading what we have more cheaply they'll let a foreign company make a profit off locking people up.