crime

Categories under crime

Wee gripes: doublethink

Written By: - Date published: 11:32 pm, July 30th, 2009 - 31 comments

If you read Kiwiblog or listen to talkback radio (basically the same thing – smart guy baiting reactionaries for his political ends) then you’ll have noticed the latest line on Bennett. It boils down to ‘remember how Labour did similar things to Bennett? Like Dalziel and that Sri Lankan girl. They were bad and evil […]

Bully State

Written By: - Date published: 3:23 pm, July 29th, 2009 - 42 comments

NZPA reports: An MP from government confidence and supply party ACT today told prison officers who spoke out against private prisons that they had hurt their future job prospects. David Garrett’s remark came hot on the heals of accusations yesterday that the Government attempted to intimidate and silence people. Those claims were sparked by Social […]

Nats grandstanding on legal reform

Written By: - Date published: 3:17 pm, July 24th, 2009 - 21 comments

Today we saw Justice Minister Simon Power get a front-page story for proposing a ‘reform‘ of the justice system that is actually just existing law (one wonders whether there’ll be days of recrimination coverage in Granny arising from that). In a few months, we’ll see National table a Bill to remove provocation as a partial […]

Justice, provocation, and the media

Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, July 23rd, 2009 - 38 comments

Provocation is a partial defence to a charge of murder. It reduces murder to manslaughter if the jury accepts that actions of the victim would have caused a ‘reasonable person’ to lose self-control. The problem is that it is clearly being abused in some circumstances, like the Weatherston trial, to drag the victim’s name through the […]

Says it all really

Written By: - Date published: 3:21 pm, July 22nd, 2009 - 37 comments

You pricks decided what you were going to do and you’re not listening to me or anybody else. . . You people are not even interested in the people who are going to be living within the environment of a privatised prison. I actually hold you in f. . .king contempt From the select committee […]

A National disgrace

Written By: - Date published: 9:25 am, July 15th, 2009 - 13 comments

Judith “Crusher” Collins, postergirl for uncompassionate conservatives, proudly announces in her latest press release: “Prison numbers set to be highest ever”. Odd thing to be proud of when what it really shows is a justice system that’s failing. Our rate of incarceration – the second highest in the western developed world – should be a national […]

Political violence

Written By: - Date published: 3:30 pm, July 10th, 2009 - 15 comments

A Nelson man attempted to buy a gun to shoot Nick Smith. Details are scant. What could have been a nasty situation looks like is has been well-handled by the Police and DPS. It must be one of the gnawing worries of being an MP. You and your family are exposed to people who blame […]

Elucidate

Written By: - Date published: 10:15 am, July 3rd, 2009 - 28 comments

The woman has dropped her criminal complaint over Worth. Says she is satisfied now the scumbag has lost his career. Police are expected to drop the investigation.  Now, can we (pretty please) know why a minister in our government lost his job? Can Key, just for a day, pretend to give a damn about transparency […]

‘Crusher’ running scared

Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, June 17th, 2009 - 13 comments

I’ve never been the biggest fan of Clayton Cosgrove, but he’s sure got ‘Crusher’ Collins running scared on her cuts to police vehicles. Yesterday in Parliament she refused to answer a question as the Minister of Corrections, telling Cosgrove he should take it up with the Minister of Police instead. The Minister of Police, of […]

Rhetoric & Reality 3: Crime

Written By: - Date published: 11:57 am, June 8th, 2009 - 19 comments

One of the most tedious and predictable right wing electoral tactics is to try and whip up a frenzy of fear about crime, especially violent crime. Mix in some “fear of youth” dog whistling for extra impact. Last election National were guilty as usual. The rhetoric: Key: I am extremely worried about the youth crime […]

Should Key have appointed Worth at all?

Written By: - Date published: 11:55 am, June 7th, 2009 - 104 comments

On Q+A this morning, Phil Goff was asked by Paul Holmes for more detail on why John Key wasn’t surprised when he took the sexual harassment complaint against Richard Worth to him. According to Goff, Key said that he had been aware of rumours of similar activity by Worth and that was one reason why […]

Wait, didn’t he say ‘women’?

Written By: - Date published: 10:51 am, June 6th, 2009 - 50 comments

There’s still a lot of confusion on the Right, in particular, about the sequence of events in the Worth saga, so I’ve tried to reconstruct it below (btw, thanks to John Armstrong for using his time machine and advising us “The [Dover] Samuels case had negligible impact on the new [Labour-led] government’s subsequent fortunes. The same […]

Question time

Written By: - Date published: 8:35 am, June 4th, 2009 - 44 comments

John Key’s making a real hash of this latest Worth scandal. There was the secretive way he went about things yesterday, which is just not acceptable from a Prime Minister in New Zealand. He wasted several opportunities to correct his mistake and give full details during the day. Yet the story is still coming out. […]

“Confusing and might be taken the wrong way by some”

Written By: - Date published: 9:34 pm, May 21st, 2009 - 50 comments

Duncan Garner had to do a balance piece against David Shearer because he has been at the forefront of covering the implosion of Melissa Lee’s campaign. Garner says someone “deep within” Lee’s campaign pointed him to an interview where Shearer says keeping employment high, particularly among migrant communities is important because when people don’t have […]

Simon Power needs to do some research

Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, May 19th, 2009 - 15 comments

Simon Power talking on Q+A on Sunday showed a abysmal ignorance about how matters operate in his own portfolio. He blamed lawyers and juries for slowing the court system down. My experience in courts says that he is wrong – it is usually the police slowing things down. The lawyers agree here. He is correct […]

Veitch saga shows it really is no longer OK

Written By: - Date published: 10:18 pm, April 19th, 2009 - 22 comments

I know it’s not The Standard’s style to follow the media in the disgusting practice of turning real people’s lives into soap opera but there is a political aspect of the Veitch saga that is worth commenting on. 30 years ago, a story like this would have been swept under the carpet. Family violence was a private […]

Statistical crimes and the media

Written By: - Date published: 1:44 pm, April 11th, 2009 - 8 comments

You might have noticed that there was none of the traditional beat-up over crime when the crime statistics came out last week even though reported crime was up 1.2%. The reason is pretty obvious. The right is on power now, so National, the Sensible Sentencing Trust, and the Herald have no interest in trying to […]

Submit!

Written By: - Date published: 3:00 pm, April 2nd, 2009 - 1 comment

From No Right Turn. The Law and Order Committee has called for submissions on the Corrections (Contract Management of Prisons) Amendment Bill. Two copies, by Friday, 22 May 2009, to: Law and Order Committee Secretariat Parliament Buildings Wellington The bill would allow prisons to be privately managed. In the process, it would remove private prisons […]

A healthy dose of reality on prisons

Written By: - Date published: 12:37 pm, March 30th, 2009 - 10 comments

Peter Williams QC was on Breakfast this morning giving a refreshingly frank assessment of the problems with our prison and justice systems – specifically how *not* to solve them: Our prisons are a complete and absolute disgrace but they’re not going to be helped by privatisiation. Worth watching.

Lord Ashcroft woz here

Written By: - Date published: 4:33 pm, March 25th, 2009 - 17 comments

Boing Boing reports that: The London police have bested their own impressive record for insane and stupid anti-terrorism posters with a new range of signs advising Londoners to go through each others’ trash-bins looking for “suspicious” chemical bottles, and to report on one another for “studying CCTV cameras.” It’s hard to imagine a worse, more […]

Tapu Misa on private prisons

Written By: - Date published: 12:14 pm, March 17th, 2009 - 32 comments

From Tapu Misa’s latest column: National thinks that… [t]hrough the magic of “competition” we’ll get a first rate penal system, and private providers will make a profit without our having to spend any more money. Given the lack of strong evidence for this proposition, this seems to be based squarely on faith and ideology. But […]

See no evil

Written By: - Date published: 12:33 pm, March 14th, 2009 - 2 comments

I’ve been meaning to write something about the private prisons bill for a couple of days as it’s a recipe for barbarity. But I’ve decided there’s no way I could do a better job of it than I/S has at No Right Turn, so I’m just going to repeat his whole post here. (hopefully he […]

Sensible Sentencing Trust and GEO Group, a deafening silence

Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, March 11th, 2009 - 33 comments

Yesterday Tane did an excellent post speculating on links between the Sensible Sentencing Trust and GEO Group. GEO Group derived from the notorious Wackenhut Corrections and it now wants to run privately run and publically funded prisons in NZ. In the US, the GEO Group supports organizations preaching almost exactly the messages as the SST […]

Sick

Written By: - Date published: 9:54 pm, March 10th, 2009 - 48 comments

ACT MP David Garrett is quickly becoming a sick joke. Asked today about the fact more prisoners will be assaulted or raped by their cellmates if the Government brings in double-bunking, he replied: “The fact is if you don’t want to be assaulted – or worse – by a cellmate, avoid prison by not committing […]

Melting point

Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, March 10th, 2009 - 5 comments

The Ecologist Film Unit’s second release documents how espionage, news manipulation, legal threats and even violence have become the knee-jerk response of Government and big business to the increasingly vocal concerns of environmental protesters in the UK. Ahead of next month’s Climate Camp at Kingsnorth power station, this exclusive and powerful film exposes the extraordinary […]

Private prisons and the ‘tough on crime’ lobby

Written By: - Date published: 10:25 am, March 10th, 2009 - 31 comments

One of the features of a privatised prison system is the potential for corruption of the political process by the commercial interests of private prison operators. Thanks to Tom in the comments it’s come to light that GEO Group, the company formerly known as Wackenhut and main contendor for National’s privatised prisons, has funded ‘tough […]

Centrist? Bullshit.

Written By: - Date published: 7:39 am, March 9th, 2009 - 90 comments

The Herald has the scoop that National is looking to privatise New Zealand’s prison system. Add David Garrett’s savage three strikes law and you’ve got a real money spinner. But what lucky firm will get to cash in on it? Turns out it’s Geo Group. You might not be familiar with the name but that’s […]

“Not a good look”

Written By: - Date published: 8:51 pm, March 3rd, 2009 - 12 comments

I have to agree with Idiot/Savant on the Graham Thomas issue. The idea that there is no written information on the matter is right up there with “he must have walked into a door”. Collins’ response however, is disgraceful. “It’s not a good look” she says but other than that it’s an employment matter. Here’s […]

Act MP caught out

Written By: - Date published: 12:56 pm, February 25th, 2009 - 44 comments

Rethinking Crime and Punishment Director, Kim Workman, has caught Act MP David Garrett being less than honest about how many extra prisoners his draconian three strike law world create (the answer is about 14,000). In a particularly aggressive media release yesterday Garrett claimed Workman’s figures were false. Unfortunately for Garrett, Workman’s OIA request on the […]

On ACT’s three strikes policy

Written By: - Date published: 11:42 am, February 18th, 2009 - 14 comments

ACT’s infamous three-strikes-and-you’re-out policy will get a first airing in the House tomorrow when the Sentencing and Parole Reform Bill is introduced. Violent and sexual offenders will face harsher penalties each time they reoffend – a first “strike” will earn a warning, a second will get a no-parole jail term, and a third a life […]

Sold out

Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, February 16th, 2009 - 26 comments

According to the Dom Post Judith Collins is preparing legislation to reintroduce private prisons into New Zealand’s corrections system. The arguments against privatisation are manifold and many of them have been covered at The Standard before. Bottom line for me is that the right to take an individual citzen’s liberty comes from a compact between […]

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