crime

Categories under crime

domestic violence (14)
police (249)
prisons (103)

Protecting criminal cops

Written By: James Henderson - Date published: 8:56 am, October 26th, 2012 - 14 comments

Detective Inspector Grant Wormald and his Organised and Financial Crime Agency appear to be a rogue police unit that thinks it’s above the law. They acted illegally in the Dotcom raid, they had GSCB illegally spy on Dotcom, Wormald appears to have perjured himself, and, now, there’s the illegal fake prosecution that has led to 21 accused criminals going free.

Time for Greg O’Connor to resign

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 8:04 am, October 25th, 2012 - 52 comments

All Police are tainted by the illegal, unethical actions of the few, which the Police Association under Greg O’Connor endorses, defends, and tries to cover-up. O’Connor’s latest outrages are dismissing a report into systemic sexism and sexual abuse by Police as a “ritual humiliation” and justifying Police laying false prosecutions.

Time to help HELP and survivors of sexual abuse

Written By: QoT - Date published: 5:41 pm, October 19th, 2012 - 14 comments

Following on from the funding shortfall at Wellington Rape Crisis, now it’s Auckland’s turn. The HELP Foundation take 12,000 calls a year, and despite government promises to assist them … yep, they’re in trouble. More info and account details to make a donation in this article – please note at this point the donation account is only open […]

Banks suppressed Police statement

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 7:40 am, October 17th, 2012 - 48 comments

Remember how Banks’ Police report came out and the statement he gave to the Police was blanked out? And remember how Banks said it was the Police’s choice, not his? Yeah, well that was a lie. Even on the most generous reading of Banks’ words, he was trying to mislead the media. What’s Key’s rule? “A Minister who lies or misleads about his actions would lose his confidence”

Local Bodies: Our Vulnerable Less Safe Under National

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 1:25 pm, October 16th, 2012 - 7 comments

Dave Kennedy (bsprout) at Local Bodies writes on crime statistics and the vulnerable in our society.

“Privacy assured!” Politics, the police & surveillance

Written By: karol - Date published: 11:45 am, October 16th, 2012 - 27 comments

Public trust in the police is at a new low. But what of the trust in our government? How much collusion is there between the police, government, spy agencies and foreign governments? However, citizens are also using the technologies of the surveillance society to hold the government and state authorities to account.

From cock-up to cover-up

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:30 pm, October 6th, 2012 - 49 comments

The narrative that the Government has tried to sell, and which has been largely accepted to date, is that the GCSB’s illegal spying on Dotcom was a cock-up. They claimed that Key wasn’t briefed, when he was. The Nats also claimed only a change in immigration law in 2009 protected Dotcom. Now, we know that’s rubbish. Cover-up it is.

Second chances

Written By: QoT - Date published: 7:00 pm, October 4th, 2012 - 77 comments

People who think Mike Tyson should be allowed into NZ keep talking about “giving him a second chance”. But that doesn’t actually mean what they think it means …

NRT: Convenient amnesia

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 1:00 pm, October 3rd, 2012 - 115 comments

What can one say to the latest. No Right Turn says…..
“So, having told everyone that he wasn’t briefed about the Kim Dotcom spying fiasco until September, it now turns out that John Key was told about it back in February. ” … “That whistling noise is the PM’s credibility shrinking even further. His amnesia is just too convenient here to be believed”

Updated: Added links to his next two posts.

Planet Key receding from reality at light speed

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 7:03 am, October 3rd, 2012 - 37 comments

Law enforcement on Planet Key must be a strange business: “Mr Key says he called in the police on the teapot tapes because he wanted to find out if there had been an offence. He argues Dotcom is different, because his Government has already admitted what it did was unlawful.” So, what do the Planet Key Police do they do when they catch a crim? Tag him and let him go?

Update: Breaking news – we all expected this didn’t we – Key was briefed on the Dotcom case in February.

‘Children of the Poor’ 1934 – 2012: Social Security for the Future?

Written By: karol - Date published: 11:04 am, September 30th, 2012 - 176 comments

Split Enz once sang, “History Never Repeats”… Or does it? Destructive prejudices separating ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ poor have been around a very long time. When the likes of Paula Bennett pander to such ill-informed vindictiveness with punitive social welfare reforms, they will damage large numbers of children – our future citizens.

Where are the resignations?

Written By: James Henderson - Date published: 10:12 am, September 30th, 2012 - 87 comments

John Key refuses to accept any responsibility for what his spies get up to. The only point of democratic responsibility for our spies doesn’t monitor them and won’t take the blame for failing to do so. He won’t fire a corrupt, lying minister, either. The rot is spreading to the public service. There has been not one resignation, not a single one, due to the Dotcom debacle.

Neazor report proves inadequate cover for Key

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:23 am, September 29th, 2012 - 83 comments

Labour has written to Key calling for a much wider-ranging investigation into the Dotcom spying affair than Neazor’s narrow, tell-us-nothing-we-don’t-already-know report. They would have been better to go straight to the Auditor-General. The Greens have gone for the established illegality and called in the cops on the GCSB – cleverly citing the same offence Key claimed in the teapot tapes.

They’re trying to build a prison/for you & me to live in

Written By: James Henderson - Date published: 8:47 am, September 21st, 2012 - 16 comments

National is celebrating the creation of 1300 jobs (only 300 permanent) with a prison. How many more prisons would they have to build to reverse the increase in unemployment under their watch and create 65,000 permanent jobs? Only 217. It’s ironic that the only job creation the free-market loving Nats can trumpet is a government-paid for prison.

Banks must now submit correct return

Written By: Mike Smith - Date published: 11:43 am, September 14th, 2012 - 53 comments

John Key is wrong, John Banks has broken the law. He just did not get prosecuted. The return of donations he signed and submitted in 2010 is false, as the Police have stated. He should now correct it, or he is still in breach of the law.

NZ vs Ecuador

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 10:41 am, August 19th, 2012 - 183 comments

Ecuador is giving us lessons in sovereign independence.

NRT: An admission

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 11:33 am, August 14th, 2012 - 3 comments

Idiot/Savant at NRT on the need to reform the Terrorism Suppression Act.

The donkey and the ass

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 6:59 am, August 1st, 2012 - 45 comments

Key says the local elections law is an ass. Presumably, he knows what that phrase means: it delivers unjust results. Key thinks its unjust that Banks has escaped justice for his anonymous donation rort. Well, John you’re not helpless. Banks lied to media. He lied to you. He said he hadn’t solicited the donations. Didn’t know about them. He did. He lied to you and New Zealand. Sack him.

Arming the police

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 12:14 pm, July 27th, 2012 - 49 comments

Regular as clockwork the suggestion that police should be armed keeps coming back.

Equal before the law?

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:32 pm, July 26th, 2012 - 53 comments

Police will not lay charges over the so-called banks.com saga. Assistant Police Commissioner Malcolm Burgess held a press conference this afternoon at Police National Headquarters in Wellington. Minister John Banks would be issued with a warning over the matter, Burgess said. While he only received a warning, Banks’ actions were illegal and future occurrences were likely to be prosecuted.

Just a domestic?

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 12:20 pm, July 25th, 2012 - 11 comments

It’s been 16 years since Susan Snively’s ground-breaking report on the economic cost of domestic violence in New Zealand. In 1996 the prevalence rate of domestic violence was estimated at 1 in 7 people – 301,691, including 129,556 children – with an economic cost of $1.2 billion annually. In addition 40% of all homicides were the result of domestic disputes.

Nat conference protests

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 9:57 am, July 21st, 2012 - 58 comments

This weekend the National Party is holding its annual conference at SkyCity (how appropriate) in Auckland. Protests are planned. Be careful, keep it peaceful.

Alcohol to be banned

Written By: Bunji - Date published: 1:40 pm, July 15th, 2012 - 15 comments

The Government announced that it was withdrawing its Alcohol Reform Bill today and introducing prohibition after it realised that alcohol was used by the ‘Beast of Blenheim’ to stupefy young girls. “It’s what we’d do if it was any other drug, particularly as it’s associated with the ‘Beast of Blenheim’,” said Justice Minister Judith Collins.

Police cuts

Written By: Bunji - Date published: 8:47 am, July 14th, 2012 - 41 comments

So the plan to screw down police wages isn’t working, and National are having to keep going with their other approach. But not everyone is taking death by 1000 cuts lying down.

Justice denied for Dotcom

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 11:00 am, July 11th, 2012 - 10 comments

Shades of the Urewera shambles as Dotcom’s extradition drags out. It’ll be a year between the raid and his day in court. Meanwhile, they’re using extra-judicial punishment: bankrupting him by freezing his assets while his legal bills stack up. Going to end in Dotcom not being extradited because the evidence against him was gathered illegally. Then, he’s going to sue the Crown for millions.

Light-fingered regulation

Written By: Mike Smith - Date published: 3:23 pm, July 10th, 2012 - 16 comments

New Zealand-registered shell companies are being used for big-numbers money laundering. The government has repeatedly said it will tighten company registration to prevent this, but the bill languishes down the order list. National’s big on regulating the behaviour of beneficiaries, but slack when it comes to money-launderers.

NoRightTurn: Private prisons still failing

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 8:08 am, July 6th, 2012 - 23 comments

NRT reports: When the government introduced private prisons, they promised us that it would lead to better performance. But six months on, Serco’s Mt Eden Corrections Facility is still failing to meet basic performance targets. And remember, these are intentionally soft targets, set below Corrections’ performance so National could declare privatisation a success.

Reasonable doubt

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 6:10 pm, July 3rd, 2012 - 52 comments

There’s some very wrong with the Police. A second murder trial in a month ending in acquittal (the Qwaze case wasn’t even a homicide). A case based on evidence that was never going to make it past reasonable doubt. This comes on top of the increased politicisation of the police and the grounds for two over-the-top armed raids being destroyed in court.

Minimum pricing

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:16 am, July 3rd, 2012 - 136 comments

All the evidence (eg) shows that increasing the price of harmful substances is the best way to decrease their use and, particularly, their abuse. Minimum pricing is one effective measure to do that for alcohol. But John Key disagrees. Based on … nothing. He hasn’t even taken the time to understand what minimum pricing is.

What did Key really know about Dotcom?

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 7:48 am, July 2nd, 2012 - 57 comments

We know that the Police overstepped their authority following their Hollywood wannabe raid on Dotcom’s home. They used invalid warrants to take property of Dotcom’s that they weren’t entitled to, and gave that data to the FBI. Now, we learn that Key’s office was involved in advising the Department of Labour on shutting down a leaked email.