Written By:
notices and features - Date published:
10:00 am, November 5th, 2013 - 36 comments
Categories: police, Satire -
Tags: rape culture
Scott at Imperator Fish has kindly given us permission to syndicate posts from his blog – the original of this post is here.
A message from the New Zealand Police
The New Zealand Police take sexual violence very seriously, and so we are disturbed by reports of a gang of young Auckland men stupefying and raping girls and young women.
We are also very disappointed with these young men for naming their alleged victims on social media sites.
It is not okay to rape someone, and in the ideal world we would like to see a lot less raping. But we also have to be realistic, and we need to acknowledge that boys will be boys. That does not mean that the New Zealand Police condone the alleged behaviour of the young men involved in this gang. On the contrary, their behaviour is very discouraging.
There is never any excuse for this sort of thing. We will take a hardline approach towards anyone we think may be involved in this rape group. Where necessary we will issue formal warnings to the individuals involved, and as a last resort we may even arrest someone.
Officers investigating this matter have now spoken to the young men involved, and have urged them to put a stop to their raping.
To those young men who may be thinking of raping someone, we urge you to use good sense and judgement, and to consider possible alternatives. Consider the possibility of undertaking a proper and respectful courtship with your subject over time, followed by the consummation of a fully consensual sexual relationship at the right place and time.
As an alternative, prospective rapists should consider speaking to a counsellor or support person, in order to get the help they need to make the right decisions.
But if a sudden stop to raping should prove too much for these young men, we urge them to at least consider a reduction in their rape rate.
Rape is a terrible crime, and the trauma suffered by those involved can be overwhelming. That is why we are hopeful that the young men concerned can be discouraged from engaging in further rape activity, and that these rapists of girls and young women can over time become valuable and contributing members of our community, uncrippled by the trauma of guilt. To have a child caught up in a rape must be every parent’s nightmare, and our sympathies go out to the families of these young men.
In conclusion, the New Zealand Police would like to see an end to this business. We urge the young men involved to stop raping so many people.
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Rape is a crime of anger, not sexual urges.
“Boys will be boys” so they masturbate and try to get laid.
They don’t rape, unless they are full of anger.
Anger? Why just anger? Isn’t that just a supposition that is part of the education of rape workers. I think the emotions are wider than anger. They result in the total denial of the being of the raped, of their right to be anything but a vessel for a lust strengthened by power. It’s a huge emotional response to the power of controlling someone and forcing them to serve the commands of the rapist. If full of anything they could be said to be full of triumph, lust and derision towards their victim who they dehumanise.
Even ministry collins said we have to be careful to not wreck the lives of innocent men.
I wonder, what percentage of all girls or women raped were proven to be lying? Unless we get this figure we will consider to disproportionately protect rapists to spare the largely mythical innocent men
Apparantly very difficult to measure due to the underreporting of sexual violence.
However the Crown Prosocution Service in the UK recently did a study of all cases over a 17 month period. They found the rate of false reporting to be about 0.61 of a percent (35 out of 5,651 cases)
http://www.cps.gov.uk/publications/research/perverting_course_of_justice_march_2013.pdf
Clever bastard.
1 pm, Tuesday, Nov. 5
A member of my family teaches at a public high school adjoining the school zones this gang comes from (Green Bay and Kelston).
As of this writing not a single word has been said to her faculty or students about these rapes. No warnings. No preventive strategies. Dead silence!
Hey, NZ Police. What are you going to do?
Eventually the police had to go public as these in denial boys need to be stopped and held accountable for serious offending. Those perpetrated against require all the support they need and they cannot be rushed into making a complaint. Adults need to be visible for them and to be available for those offended against and those who have done the offending.
The police and rape crisis need to go into every college in Auckland and discuss the crime of rape. I have to consider revictimising those who may be at an assembly, unfortunately the students at the school probably know what has happened to them already.
Staying silent will change nothing.
It is hard to say to a 13 – 18 year old (assuming female, even though males could also have been raped) do not protect the offender, you are not to blame.
Treetop, Police didn’t go public. TV3 broke the story, then and only then did Police have anything to say on the subject.
Not worded well by me. Not good as TV3 are doing the job of the police as they notified the public. Strange how those who know factual details will talk to the media but not the police.
Often, they go to the media after they find themselves getting nowhere with the Police (or other authorities). They get fed up with nothing happening, as clearly was the case here, and feel that their only option is to make it public in an attempt to make some progress…
Dame Bazley was naive to think that she could fix the ugly underbelly culture which operates within the NZ Police.
Will have to wait and see what the next Police Commissioner does as Marshall’s three years are up next April. Marshall has dropped the ball regarding not doing more. At no time in NZ history has it been easier to gather information to aid law enforcement to stop serious genuine crime.
I presume this was put together ironically. It just sounds too far out to be a real police message but I know some bloggers make it hard to tell the difference.
Still it could be factual. I have hear police blame young offenders for ending up injured or killed after a car chase. If only they hadn’t stolen the car, if only they had stopped when the siren was turned on, they wouldn’t be dead today. It could be regarded as showing excessive zeal that people got hurt or died in the effort to catch them and recover replaceable stolen property. But some offenders don’t get pursued, they are not chased by police in car or on foot. They are interfering with young women, not cars. Property is valuable, people aren’t. Is that the message we take from observation?
Scott Yorke 23 hours ago made the comment.
Thanks Treetop, I don’t know Scott Yorke. So I’ve a bit of catching up.
I don’t know him either I just pushed the link above (just below the heading under “here”). I do not know if he has he own blog, D.T.B seems to read his comments.
And he was being sarcastic. He usually is.
And he is a brilliant satirist. The sarcasm is often what he DOES NOT SAY. In this case the young girls and women who are the victims. In this police “message” it’s all about the rapists and nothing about the young girls – indeed all women – who are the victims of rape/abuse whatever form it may take.
Says it all.
A big thanks to Scott Yorke.
Yes sarcasm apparent although unfortunately I could imagine the police saying something like this. He could have also added in something about the girls and their parents and how they need to be better behaved as I sure the police are dying to say this as have many on social media blamed the victims. JT and WJ to name but two of the more well known.
Just for once I think National and the Police have it right. You can not simply arrest someone without sound reason or evidence.
Yet what I’m seeing here is a mob mentality, the pitch forks and flaming torch brigade throwing common sense and the law out the window and giving in to hatred and hysteria.
The law is there to protect us not just from harm but also to keep us “civilized”. This is why I’m so outraged by Keys spy laws and other legislation that undermines the principle of rule of law.
I very much doubt my comments will do more than fuel the outrage of the more rabid posters on this site but I hope those who are sensible enough to see past the hysteria will temper their comments with reason.
I have to say too that Labour have left a bad impression in this instance. They should know better than to use a criminal investigation to score political points but there you are anyway. My instincts not to trust them were clearly not misplaced.
I think boasting about doing these crimes on FB is evidence enough to warrant the police starting an investigation at the very least. I really don’t think that, under such conditions, they need to be waiting for a complaint.
So let’s imagine that the Police prosecute these guys. If they manage to get past defense lawyers saying ‘don’t be ridiculous, you don’t have any evidence’, they get to court, the guys plead not guilty and say they were only making it up and the Police have no witnesses, no victims to come to court and no evidence, only some FB stuff. Jury can’t convict, guys are acquitted, “innocent”, loads of Police time and tax-payer money wasted. This is why Police don’t bother without statements. Same thing happens for child abuse, btw, which is why saying “what about cyfs?” is pointless–cyfs don’t prosecute child abuse. Same thing happens with domestic violence too, largely. Not condoning it, just saying Police need statements. People say stuff in jest all the time on social media about all sorts of things–be pretty bad if it meant you got convicted for it without evidence. Go on, label me a ‘facilitator of rape culture’.
I just cannot believe there is no law to stop young men boasting about having sex with under aged women who they alledgely drunk. Sorry, in the history of the law, men have been bragging for centuries, and its nowhere to be seen, its just not done. Its like we’re all a lynch mob because we’ve been lynching every man that every spoke about their conquests.
The problem here is that Police do have room to investgate they just haven’t.
The problem here is minors must have gotten the alcohol some where.
Minors must have had sex somewhere.
Parents must have known, or even provided, said drink and bedroom.
Police have photos, videos???, so they know where the rooms were. Boys seman in an underaged girls room is going to be pretty much a water tight case.
Even if this is just two idiots mouthing off about things that haven’t happened, parents still can sue them civil for slander, have them pay reperations, have their cars sold to pay for damages, etc. etc.
That’s nothing can be done just doesn’t stack up in the history of the law. It has nothing to do with how society found out about it, its been published, its wrong either way, whether true or not, and someone can act.
It’s definitely true (no case for civil slander), it’s definitely morally reprehensible, it’s very sad, for all involved, it’s technically illegal (underage sex) but, again, Police rarely prosecute in the case of underage sex (many girls under the age of 16 choose to have sex with their boyfriends and this is not criminalised) and it’s possibly not going to result in any prosecutions (unless a girl makes a statement or unless the Police do something they would not normally do, under the political pressure public knowledge of this case has brought). Police don’t have videos, the sex did not happen in the girls’ homes, the males in question provided the alcohol and likely did not get their parents to buy it, parents of at least some of the girls were powerless to do anything as the girls kept running away to return to these guys most weekends and were out of their parents control. Boy’s semen in an underage girl’s room is very much NOT a watertight case anyway. Man, I don’t even have a tv to watch those bad forensic crime dramas and even I can see that that would not be evidence. The issue of ‘consent’ is very relevant, and very complex, here.
No, consent is not available in cases of sex with minors. And foreign seman near any child is a cause for great worry. As to civil proceedings, these young men made claims, until its proven they raped someone, their words are slanderous, if they wish to prove otherwise I’m sure the country will welcome them coming forward.
Thanks naturesong
so less than 1% of reported rapes are found to be false but falsifying claims is cited by the minister as being “balanced” against victim justice.
it would be funny if it werent so sad… still think women have achieved equality BM
Blackstones formulation states:
“All presumptive evidence of felony should be admitted cautiously; for the law holds it better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent party suffer”
It’s an important and longstanding principle, and one I believe is valuable in civil society.
Correct me if I’m wrong but you are forwarding the following: “it is better that ten innocent men suffer than one guilty man escape”?
This would put you in the company of Bismark, Pol Pot and Wolfgang Schäuble.
Making this change to the legal system is a pretty frightening prospect.
It also tends towards the views of the sensible sentencing trust, who confuse retribution with justice
Speaking of the Sensibles, McVicar & Co have been strangely silent on the whole affair. Do they only speak out if a sentence has actually been passed? Or is it a case of assent through silence?
>>Even ministry collins said we have to be careful to not wreck the lives of innocent men
How does that square with the new tests and database to test all public servants re sexual devaition and sack those who don’t measure up?
It doesnt but it shows you the electorate she cares about.
sable
Apparently only about 5% of charged rapists are found guilty notwithstanding only 0.61% of reported rape accusations are found to be falsely made… you need not worry about the innocent being found guilty thats well protected by our laws. Bottomline… in he said she said … he gets believed… thats a society wide problem because women serve on juries too.
I am glad there is some outrage, but it will pass and girls and women will continue to be sexually assaulted on a daily basis.
Naturesong
no, I am saying that collins was worried that the falsely accused were in danger in sexual assault law enforcement. I was showing how misplaced her concern on that score is.
5% of accused rapists are found guilty.
the innocent are not being wrongly convicted in this area. Having secured that part of justice, her and our focus needs to be on how to alter the balance currently overwhelming in favour of the accused rapist.
that 95% of accused rapists go free is a huge failure of our system and a mirror held up to reflect societys attitudes toward women and sexual assault.
as a complete aside, innocent is largely overridden in most peoples minds by ” no smoke without fire”.
I apologise.
Seems I had mistakenly got it in my head that this was your comment:
http://thestandard.org.nz/its-not-just-about-cyber-culture-judith/#comment-721925
I was wrong, it wasn’t, and other posters have replied to that comment appropriately.
I agree with blackstones formulation particularly in relation to capital punishment but it is largely a myth overridden by peoples desire to rush to judgment. Have worked in law over 25 years… its a good notion but rarely seen in practice.
Could the cops not use the Mental Health Act to have these perpetrators assessed as harm is being done to others.
Ask any person who has been sexually assaulted how raw the psychiatic assessment for ACC can be?
In my case this needs to be redone four years later and I have to put this to one side due to a more pressing health condition.
PTSD can be described as a fuse blowing, it is not mental illness it is mental injury.
Would be hilarious if only it wasn’t so accurate.
Wouldn’t be so bad if Scott York was funny,
Probably just a wee bit too subtle for your underdeveloped mind? At least that is what I heard you saying.