law and “order”

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It’s not OK

Written By: - Date published: 8:30 pm, August 13th, 2009 - 54 comments

You may have noticed the article on Stuff about a ‘senior political figure’ in court today. A woman is seeking a protection order against him. [Deleted] Whichever party they belong to, if it is established in the court proceedings that he has behaving violently or threateningly towards this woman, he will have to go. Domestic […]

One law for all?

Written By: - Date published: 12:30 pm, August 5th, 2009 - 46 comments

Are you? a disgraced former minister who resigned from Parliament in shame? a National MP who rents from a National minister (Judith Collins or Anne Tolley for example), claiming that expense back from the taxpayer while the minister simultaneously rents another place, again on the taxpayer’s tab? a private citizen who dares to publicly oppose […]

Youth Court Judge speaks out, sky doesn’t fall

Written By: - Date published: 3:08 pm, July 31st, 2009 - 14 comments

A couple of weeks ago Justice Minister Simon Power slammed Chief Justice Sian Elias for commenting on possibilities of change in the criminal justice system. He was unimpressed that the Chief Justice would dally into the realm of policy when it is the job of judges to apply the law, not to make it. Setting […]

The Herald soils its pulpit

Written By: - Date published: 9:16 am, July 31st, 2009 - 52 comments

Thundering from the pulpit is a fine old editorial tradition, and The Herald has often held forth on the rule of law. Starting with the basics: The law must be upheld… The law matters, as The Herald feels perfectly comfortable pointing out to those it feels need the advice: If the law is enforced impartially […]

Apologists

Written By: - Date published: 3:00 pm, July 29th, 2009 - 58 comments

Picture this: Anchor “and now we go live to whatsherface outside the High Court in Christchurch to tell us the latest in the Weatherston trial” Whatsherface “the prosecution is saying that Weatherston committed a grave breach of the Crimes Act but, look, I know of this other guy who killed someone and he was never […]

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 […]

The reform that wasn’t there

Written By: - Date published: 8:05 am, July 24th, 2009 - 36 comments

Justice Minister Simon Power: I believe we need to have an open debate about the way in which sexual violence cases are conducted. In this regard, I am currently considering potentially far-reaching reforms, including:…Making evidence about previous sexual relationships between the complainant and any person inadmissible without prior agreement of the judge. umm… Evidence Act […]

Provoking change

Written By: - Date published: 2:45 pm, July 23rd, 2009 - 13 comments

Good interview with Labour’s Justice spokesperson, Lianne Dalziel this morning on her private members Bill in the ballot that would remove the defence of provocation (audio on the rnz site, including an mp3 version).  It looks like there is a real momentum for change with ‘the Crimes (Abolition of Defence of Provocation) Amendment Bill’ going into the member’s […]

Keith Locke on tasers

Written By: - Date published: 11:45 am, July 20th, 2009 - 11 comments

Green MP Keith Locke investigates the claims of safety for tasers, and finds that other countries are concerned that the devices are not as safe as we have been told.

Elias is right, will we listen?

Written By: - Date published: 10:32 am, July 18th, 2009 - 44 comments

The rednecks have predictably got themselves into a tizzy over Chief Justice Sian Elias’s comments on the need for judicial reform. I think you should read the speech for yourselves. It is an expert in the field discussing how the justice system is failing. Failing both victims and offenders, and the taxpayer. I’ll put in […]

Simon says

Written By: - Date published: 10:28 am, July 17th, 2009 - 61 comments

Chief Justice Dame Sian Elias has kicked off a debate on whether our justice policy is working [PDF  link]. Her view is that the frequent failure of punitive sanctions demands a rethink. Her analysis is supported by over 40 years experience in the criminal justice system and in the TV3 clip (below), her views seem […]

Crusher Collins to launch McPrisons

Written By: - Date published: 8:47 am, July 16th, 2009 - 18 comments

Crusher Collins to launch McPrisons(TM) Clearly envious of the regular stream of complimentary Happy Meals arriving at Paula Bennett’s Parliamentary office (Paula tells us she has already managed to collect seven out of the eight of the new Ice Age figurines), Crusher Collins has attempted to go one better than Bennett’s McJobs scheme with a […]

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 […]

Knee-jerk wins again

Written By: - Date published: 8:32 am, June 22nd, 2009 - 90 comments

Does anyone understand why prisons are so expensive to construct? They’ve got to be secure They’ve got to be safe for the prisoners and for others They’ve got to live up to the basic conditions that are set by a civilised society (and I hope we want to be one of those) They’re designed to […]

F*ck tha police…

Written By: - Date published: 9:31 am, June 16th, 2009 - 18 comments

…that seems to be National’s plan as it moves to cut 10% of the police vehicle fleet (why are so many of National’s cuts 10%?). Given the politicking National and its front-groups did on law and order last year you’d think that the last thing they’d do would be make it even harder for them […]

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 […]

If you’re gonna cut, make it clean

Written By: - Date published: 11:28 am, June 3rd, 2009 - 97 comments

How titillating. Worth has resigned and he won’t say why. ‘Personal reasons’ eh? Heard that one before. Key’s not talking either. He describes it as a ‘private reason’. Got to wonder what’s in the Tories’ heads on this one. Don’t keep a secret unless you really need to. Bad look. The public has a right […]

Berating the Herald

Written By: - Date published: 10:53 pm, May 19th, 2009 - 19 comments

from Beck Vass: “With an average jury trial taking at least 12 months, and judge-alone trials taking just six months [that’s actually from charging to end of the case, not the length of time in court], trial times would be halved, reducing the trauma for victims and backlogs in overloaded courts. Mr Power said his […]

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 […]

All the misinformation fit to print

Written By: - Date published: 10:45 pm, May 18th, 2009 - 3 comments

The Herald are currently running a poll asking ‘[s]hould people facing charges punishable by less than three years imprisonment be able to be tried by a judge alone?’   The only problem with this question is that currently unless the defendant elects otherwise all such charges if possibly punishable by more than three months jail […]

Power on Q+A

Written By: - Date published: 10:51 am, May 17th, 2009 - 9 comments

On Q+A this morning, Justice Minister Simon Power flew a kite on some possible changes to the justice system. The first was raising the severity threshold at which defendants can elect trial by jury. Currently, if you are tried for a crime with a maximum sentence in excess of 3 months on prison you can […]

The Defence Act is a dead letter

Written By: - Date published: 2:25 pm, May 15th, 2009 - 17 comments

No Right Turn wrote a post on an important point of governance that needs more discussion. Reproduced with Idiot/Savant’s permission. Last week, we saw unprecedented scenes in Napier, as NZDF LAVs were deployed to assist police in dealing with an armed gunman. At the time, I was rather curious – the Defence Act includes strict […]

The real apology

Written By: - Date published: 9:44 am, May 15th, 2009 - 34 comments

The PM’s office Melissa Lee has released an apology for her ‘crims on the motorway’ comments. Well, not a genuine apology – ‘it was a heated debate’ is the line, which TUMEKE! exposes as a lie and not an excuse anyway. On Red Alert, Trevor Mallard (who is taking to blogging like, um, a duck to […]

Act creates Wanganui fashion police

Written By: - Date published: 10:33 am, May 7th, 2009 - 54 comments

Last night, Chester Burrows’ bill allowing the council of Wanganui to ban people from wearing the insignia or symbols of any organisation they decide to call a gang was passed. No-one seriously believes banning patches will hurt gangs so we’ve just given a council tremendous unchecked power for no good reason. As Idiot Savant puts it: […]

Where would you get that idea? 2

Written By: - Date published: 12:04 am, April 8th, 2009 - 21 comments

Well, Granny Herald breaks the news: “NZ’s murder rate halved in past 20 years”: New Zealand’s murder rate appears to have almost halved in the past 20 years despite an overwhelming public belief that crime has got worse An overwhelming overwhelming public belief that crime has got worse? Where would we the dumb old public […]

Garrett lying to his own supporters

Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, April 7th, 2009 - 25 comments

Not content with lying to the New Zealand public, ACT MP David Garrett has now been busted lying to his own supporters about his Three Strikes Bill. In the email to supporters last Friday: [Garrett] claimed that if the “three strikes” bill had been in place in May 2008, 78 lives wold have been saved, […]

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 […]

It’s the men in black

Written By: - Date published: 1:31 pm, April 1st, 2009 - 10 comments

The SIS has made its yearly attempt to scare the crap out of MPs and get more funding. Apparently, New Zealand is under constant threat and only the SIS can save us. Lucky they were there to hunt down those hippies in Aro Valley and Maori sovereignty activists in the Ureweras who were on the […]

Rehabilitated?

Written By: - Date published: 11:58 am, March 29th, 2009 - 9 comments

On Q+A this morning, Judith Collins couldn’t defend prisons for profit but she sounded quite reasonable when talking about the need for more rehabilitation. She even criticised Labour for longer sentences that are leading to overcrowding in the prisons. Good sentiments but, funny, it doesn’t sound like the Judith Collins we know. 19 July 2007 […]

Three strikes and you’re garrotted

Written By: - Date published: 12:10 pm, March 23rd, 2009 - 16 comments

The Toad’s ‘interview’ with ACT’s David Garrett is so good we had to steal it. Like all good parody, it’s easy to believe it could be real. An interview with ACT Party Law and Order spokesperson David Garrotte Toad: David, for many people, you first came to public attention when you appeared drunk on Eye […]

Friday quiz – late edition

Written By: - Date published: 1:34 pm, March 21st, 2009 - 27 comments

Imagine two incidents when a person is at home and they hear someone outside their house. In the first incident, they grab a knife and head outside. In the second incident, they grab an air rifle and go outside. In the first incident, they see two taggers running away and chase them. In the second […]

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