Shearer slams Key on Edwards parole release (not)

17 comments on “Shearer slams Key on Edwards parole release (not) ”

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1. Sable 1

   12 August 2013 at 11:51 am

   National’s whole “political bandwagon”, like most far right wing parties is based on being tough on crime. That is costing the taxpayer millions and millions building institutions to lock people up in for offenses that could have best been resolved using a lighter hand combined with home detention.

   Serious offenders and the less destructive are treated like dirt and offered nothing that even remotely looks like proper rehabilitation. As a result New Zealand in general has a horrible track record on imprisonment and offending per head of population when compared to many other countries.

   As to what politicans or jurnos have to say, well really its all grandstanding and bullshit. Keys and Clarke both felt the answer is more jails not less. National is exacerbating these problems too be following a social policy that favours increased inequality and cruelty towards the poor and mentally ill. That is the weak and vunerable Keys promised to protected when first elected.
2. Red Rosa 2

   12 August 2013 at 12:07 pm

   The US situation is simply staggering. 40 years of ‘law-and-order’ policies, basically since Nixon was elected in 1968, now have 2m Americans incarcerated and 5m under some sort of judicail supervision. Counterpunch says (not yet posted publicly) –

   ” California has over 36 prisons throughout the state, built over the period of the last 40 years. In that same time period, California has built one new university. The extent of the crisis was evident in 1997, when two scholars wrote an article entitled, “Singapore West: The Incarceration of 200,000 Californians.” At the conclusion of their article they lay out a Table which compares the number of people incarcerated in California to 7- European nations (Finland, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, Italy, France, and the United Kingdom). California had more people in prison than in all of these countries combined.

   And the same article points out that privatization has created the ‘prison-industrial complex’, as the prison corporations seek to maximize the number of inmates, and hence profits. This is another point to ponder.

   http://www.counterpunch.org/
   • Mike L 2.1

     13 August 2013 at 12:23 am

     Yes, the US incarceration rate is horrendous —the highest in the world by far. So much for a country which considers itself a human rights exemplar for the rest of the world.

     With 5% of the world’s population it has 25% of the prison population. Many prisoners are punished with lengthy prison sentences for relatively minor crimes.

     Michelle Alexander talks of what she calls the “new Jim Crow” —about one in three African American men will be in prison at some stage of their lives. This is an excellent presentation
     
3. One Anonymous Knucklehead 3

   12 August 2013 at 12:10 pm

   Well said R0b.

   The National Party cannot afford a reasoned discussion about penal policy, since it would have to then acknowledge the links between crime and inequality, or confront Dame Sian Elias’ pointing out that longer sentences increase the crime rate.

   Instead it allows scum like Capill and Garrett to drive policy.
4. Rogue Trooper 4

   12 August 2013 at 1:22 pm

   then, there are always the lyrics to ‘Crime Of The Century’.
   -SuperTramp.
5. ghostwhowalksnz 5

   12 August 2013 at 2:01 pm

   The interesting bit was that this sort of stuff was widespread news, printed and broadcast.

   Now that National is in government, not news anymore thanks very much.
6. Treetop 6

   12 August 2013 at 2:21 pm

   I am so pleased that little Gabriel was found and that someone did not ignore his crying, (crying is what probably saved him). Gabriel could have fallen asleep and this would have exposed him to the unforgiving cold, as he was lightly clad.
   • Binders full of women 6.1

     12 August 2013 at 7:46 pm

     Ditto! And the cops get so much flak esp around their perceived macho streak and all the pursuits.. yet it was recent police grads out doorknocking in the rain that looked in the shed and heard the cry. You are right- the cold could have been fatal. Imagine the joy/relief those cops felt when they gave the little tyke that first hug 🙂
     • Populuxe1 6.1.1

       12 August 2013 at 11:27 pm

       Poor little bugger. Glad he’s back home with his mum
7. tc 7

   12 August 2013 at 4:19 pm

   Wouldn’t hurt to point out the fact that Nat’s haven’t addressed the issue, in fact made it worse though would it.

   The view from the moral high ground may be nice but it may also be a lonely place with no authority.
8. grumpy 8

   12 August 2013 at 4:47 pm

   Never mind, the right wing blogs are doing his job for him. Keeping the general population safe is always a fraught task for the left. The need to balance the rights of the perpetrator is just too tough on their tender sensibilities.

   Key has not responded to the mandate given him at both elections and will suffer as a result – but from the right, not left.

   This topic fuels the “Rise of the Crusher”.
   • chris 8.1

     12 August 2013 at 5:24 pm

     “This topic fuels the “Rise of the Crusher”.”

     Dog help us if Crusher gets anywhere near close to leading the Gnats… it doesn’t bear thinking about.
     • Matthew Whitehead 8.1.1

       13 August 2013 at 7:13 am

       Yeah, the best that can be said is that it lowers the odds for a National government if she takes over, (because she’s far more likely to turn the centrists away from National) but if they do get in, they’d be even more horrendous than usual.
9. millsy 9

   12 August 2013 at 11:52 pm

   I dont know about anyone else, but punching a bloke 40 times resulting in his death seem to be murder to me.

   Had he been convicted of murder (as opposed to manslaughter) then that little boy would never have been kidnapped. But I guess there is a general assumption that if you are gay and like picking up young men you deserve what you get.
   • Mike L 9.1

     13 August 2013 at 12:13 am

     But I guess there is a general assumption that if you are gay and like picking up young men you deserve what you get.

     The jury might have believed he (Edwards) was provoked by McNee.

     Provocation was allowed as a defence at the time. As it still should be, if any consideration is given to natural justice.

     However when that pretty little white girl got murdered they knee-jerked and did away with the provocation defence.
     • Psycho Milt 9.1.1

       13 August 2013 at 6:38 am

       The jury might have believed he (Edwards) was provoked by McNee.

       That’s exactly the point: 12 ordinary New Zealanders believed that an unwanted touch from a gay man was sufficient “provocation” to beat him to death. It would be nice if the fucked-uppedness of that was the reason we no longer have provocation as a defence, but of course it wasn’t considered anything like as serious as the Sophie Elliot case, which caused much more outrage because it involved a pretty young woman being murdered, not some old poofter.
       • Matthew Whitehead 9.1.1.1

         13 August 2013 at 7:15 am

         I dunno, I like to think at least some of us are capable of being outraged at two things at once. Granted, it’s probably not the majority of people who were behind the removal of that defense, but we can work on that.

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