Written By: rocky - Date published: 4:27 pm, June 10th, 2009 - 21 comments
Cameron Slater (WhaleOil) gets it wrong again in his post about me today. On the upside he managed to write his post today for once not using any disgusting names. Anyhow, to clear up the issue once and for all, here are my political affiliations. I was misquoted in the Herald article that Cameron Slater […]
Written By: Guest post - Date published: 2:59 pm, December 20th, 2008 - 48 comments
Let us assume, for a while, that Broad didn’t know the detail of SIG’s activities with Gilchrist If his staff were doing their job he knew about the story before Saturday, but let’s pretend they didn’t and the Police weren’t asked for comment until um… midday Saturday. Unlikely I know, but let’s give him the […]
Written By: Tane - Date published: 2:24 pm, December 17th, 2008 - 16 comments
Gordon Campbell raises a good question in his latest Scoop column – are the Police also using paid informants to spy on mosques? According to the original Sunday Star-Times article, the Police informant Rob Gilchrist was getting $600 a week for his information. This is a substantial amount, and more than enough to entice anyone […]
Written By: lprent - Date published: 3:00 pm, December 16th, 2008 - 66 comments
On discovering that her boyfriend had been spying on her and her friends for the police, and the consequent violations of her expectation of privacy, my niece Rochelle had quite enough tolerance of the police. That is sufficient cause to get seriously annoyed, and it is generally unwise to seriously annoy geeks. So she has […]
Written By: lprent - Date published: 11:49 am, December 16th, 2008 - 23 comments
Yesterday, Howard Broad made statements about the targets of the SIG (Special Investigation Group) to National Radio. Interview with Howard Broad on his actions. I’ve seen some of the e-mails when Rochelle Rees discovered them. From them and his statements, I get the impression that the police commissioner is and has been kept out of […]
Written By: Guest post - Date published: 8:02 am, December 15th, 2008 - 46 comments
Aside from all the democratic, political and moral issues raised by the Police’s behaviour, there is a fundamental lack of humanity in their actions. Yeah, perhaps the Police do have a role in preventing the graffiti of billboards (apparently they used their informant to try to track down a group that graffitied a red meat […]
Written By: lprent - Date published: 1:17 pm, December 14th, 2008 - 35 comments
No Right Turn has written in his cogent style on the police spy issue. With the kind permission of No Right Turn, I’ve quoted it in full below. Because the police operate independently of the government at the operational level (as they should), the “mission” creep is always going to be a issue. Unfortunately the […]
Written By: lprent - Date published: 11:34 am, December 14th, 2008 - 28 comments
Nothing is quite as important to a democracy as activist groups that engage in peaceful protest for change. In the past these are the groups that have worked for extending the franchise (including to woman), establishing the rights of workers in employer/employee relationships, the abolition of slavery, campaigned for sewerage systems and clean water reticulation, […]
Written By: lprent - Date published: 10:28 am, December 14th, 2008 - 30 comments
My niece Rochelle Rees has uncovered some unsavory practices operated by element of the NZ Police directed at peaceful protest groups. You can read them either by buying the paper, or by these links to articles from Nicky Hager. Police anti-terror squad spies on protest groups Who the police were spying on The activist who […]
Written By: lprent - Date published: 11:32 am, September 15th, 2008 - 78 comments
Well it turns out my niece has been having fun and done an effective google bomb on John Key. I’ve just been watching her TV3 clip when I wrote this post. Rochelle shows her experience with the media in expressing her opinion. This is something that belongs in the Tips on campaigning. I’ve had something […]
The current rise of populism challenges the way we think about people’s relationship to the economy.We seem to be entering an era of populism, in which leadership in a democracy is based on preferences of the population which do not seem entirely rational nor serving their longer interests. ...
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