crime
Categories under crime
- domestic violence (14)
- police (249)
- prisons (103)
Police Commissioner: prison breeds crime
Written By: - Date published: 6:30 am, November 26th, 2010 - 230 comments
It’s pretty bloody late in his tenure to be saying it, but Police Commissioner Howard Broad has joined with every expert in telling politicians that their braindead, populist policy of increasing the number of crimes and ramping up prison sentences has to stop. It’s not a solution to crime, it’s making it worse.
17 dead in police chases
Written By: - Date published: 11:45 am, November 16th, 2010 - 131 comments
In the last year, 17 people have been killed in police chases. Many more injured. They might be criminals but they don’t deserve to die. Yet the Police policy – chase anything that flees – is killing them. The carnage needs to end. The human and financial cost is unbearable. But the Police are determined to continue. The government needs to step in.
Pansy’s future wilting
Written By: - Date published: 6:30 am, November 15th, 2010 - 40 comments
Will Pansy Wong face criminal charges for fraudulently abusing her MP’s travel perk? Will she be forced to leave Parliament triggering a(nother) by-election and possibly even an extra early election? What will Lockwood Smith’s investigation turn up? Whatever comes, at least she isn’t a minister anymore but who will replace her?
National’s Privatisation Agenda Continues
Written By: - Date published: 9:17 am, November 4th, 2010 - 25 comments
National are continuing their privatisation by stealth. Hospitals services and a new prison are the current targets. Tony Ryall, Judith Collins and Bill English are the ministers currently pushing their ideology in their respective areas.
Going backwards with National
Written By: - Date published: 11:59 am, October 29th, 2010 - 34 comments
It takes a lot to screw up a great country like New Zealand. It can’t be done overnight. But if you’re really negligent, anti-worker, and focused on hand outs to the rich, you can start to make things worse pretty quickly. Let’s look at the key measures of National’s performance, according to their own criteria:
Some “watchdog”
Written By: - Date published: 12:20 pm, October 24th, 2010 - 24 comments
No Right Turn asks some questions about the behaviour of the Independent Police Conduct Authority in deeming the release of information about unlawful behaviour by the Police as “not in the public interest”. There are few safeguards on the police – perhaps the main one should explain its decision in this case.
The dark side of our society: Intoxication reigns supreme
Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, October 14th, 2010 - 24 comments
The Sunday show last week featured the Prescription for Change campaign of Dr Albert Makary. Dr Makary has set out on a mission to drive social change surrounding the culture of binge drinking within our country. He hits his audience with hard facts, some disturbing trends, and presents everything in a way worth listening to.
What will future generations condemn us for?
Written By: - Date published: 11:25 am, October 2nd, 2010 - 19 comments
This question is something that has been on my mind for some time. In this article, Kwame Anthony Appiah, a philosophy professor at Princeton, sets out four examples of current policy that he believes those in the future will look back and say “What were people thinking?”
Something odd in crime stats
Written By: - Date published: 12:02 am, October 2nd, 2010 - 51 comments
The crime stats are not good news. Homicides are up, violent offences are up, sex offences are up, harassment and related offences are up, drug offences are up, public order offences are up. Oddly, though, the total number of offences is down (by 0.1%). The decrease is all down to a 25.6% decrease in recorded fraud offences. What’s up with that?
RWNJs worried msm may awaken
Written By: - Date published: 6:14 pm, September 26th, 2010 - 19 comments
I guess we shouldn’t really mock such unfortunates but this latest missive from the Bog is too hard to resist. Farrar and his merry band of ignorant loons are furious that the ODT, one of New Zealand’s better newspapers, is daring to ask pertinent questions of ACTs replacement for David Garrett. It seems pretty fair […]
Time for a new approach
Written By: - Date published: 9:17 am, September 26th, 2010 - 11 comments
On Thursday, the 2010 Organised Crime Assessment for New Zealand was released to the public.
Essentially it told us what we already know; we have a problem, we know what the problem is, and we’re failing to solve it. It is time we approached the problem rationally and responsibly.
Cosgrove slams McVicar’s role in Garrett affair
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, September 23rd, 2010 - 10 comments
Great video of Clayton Cosgrove getting right stuck into the Sensible Sentencing Trust’s Garth McVicar over his hypocrisy on David Garrett. Cosgrove’s certainly no bleeding heart liberal so I’d say McVicar’s credibility on law in order is now pretty much shot.
Tashkoff: Hide lied to ACT Board about Garrett
Written By: - Date published: 4:08 pm, September 17th, 2010 - 83 comments
According to ACT’s Peter Tashkoff, Rodney Hide misled the ACT Party Board by hiding his knowledge of David Garrett’s passport dishonesty offence. So here we have a party leader who couldn’t see the problem with accepting someone who’d committed such a distasteful crime becoming not only an MP, but ACT’s Law and Order spokesman, and so […]
Day of the Jackoff
Written By: - Date published: 4:04 pm, September 15th, 2010 - 87 comments
So ACT’s nutcase extraordinaire, the man whose only talent is to make John Boscawen look stable, has done it yet again. Forever getting attention for all the wrong reasons, David Garrett has now admitted he’s been found guilty of a particularly distasteful dishonesty offence – stealing the identity of a dead infant for the purpose of […]
Caption Competition
Written By: - Date published: 4:08 pm, September 14th, 2010 - 43 comments
Cameron Slater, aka Whaleoil, found guilty today in the Auckland District Court on eight breaches of suppression orders and one of identifying a victim.
Garrett convicted for assault
Written By: - Date published: 8:33 pm, September 13th, 2010 - 40 comments
It seems Act MP and wannabe tough guy David Garrett has a conviction for assault.
I guess you don’t have to dig too far beneath the skin of these Sensible Sentencing Trust types to find their inner thug.
Failure by the numbers 2
Written By: - Date published: 7:19 am, August 30th, 2010 - 18 comments
Number of recorded offences in the 2008 calander year: 431,383
Number of recorded offences in the 2009 calander year: 451,405
Number of unsolved crimes in Judith Collin’s first year as minister: 235,787, up 5,000
Number of cars crushed: 0
Search and Survey Our Loss of Human Rights
Written By: - Date published: 6:49 am, August 30th, 2010 - 38 comments
Strip searched by the dog-control officer, your home computer hacked by the Pork Board and the Commerce Commission putting 24-hour cameras in your bedroom. It’ll all be fine once the new Search and Surveillance Bill goes through. Oh, and you lose your right to silence. And the need for a warrant is reduced. And…
Note to Labour: show some spine
Written By: - Date published: 7:57 pm, August 26th, 2010 - 89 comments
Labour co-hosted the Sensible Sentencing Trust’s parliamentary conference.
That’s disgraceful pandering to disgraceful people.
It’s time Labour showed some spine and offered an alternative to the SST’s cowardly “lock ’em up” posturing.
Key slippery on crime
Written By: - Date published: 11:07 am, August 26th, 2010 - 22 comments
Yesterday, Key was boasting that his goverment had brought down robberies and burglaries in Manukau. But it’s just more numbers games. In reality, the crime rate in Counties Manukau rose 6.9% in 2009. That’s twice the already awful 3.5% nationwide increase. I’m not against the government saying it has brought down crime. I just wish that it was true.
Pretty fly for a white guy
Written By: - Date published: 10:35 am, August 25th, 2010 - 57 comments
This morning we’ve been treated to the sight of the media celebrating one rich white guy (double murderer John Barlow) getting out of jail and another rich white guy (former National Minister Roger McClay) escape a prison sentence for stealing tens of thousands of dollars. You’ve got to love it.
Crime and punishment
Written By: - Date published: 9:40 am, August 23rd, 2010 - 25 comments
White collar crime is on the increase in NZ. The government talks tough and postures about crime in its other forms, how will it respond to white collar crime?
Child murder or protecting gangs?
Written By: - Date published: 12:15 pm, August 17th, 2010 - 46 comments
The legacy of the Maori Party should not be waving the seabed and foreshore legislation in the air like Neville Chamberlain and rejoicing at the sop given by the Machiavellian elite – not while another child lies dying of a brain injury. The Minister for Maori Affairs should not be working to save illegal buildings on a gang HQ when Maori children are being abused at a sickening rate.
SAS collecting Afghanis for torture
Written By: - Date published: 8:50 am, August 16th, 2010 - 12 comments
Wayne Mapp has confirmed that the SAS has been involved in handing prisoners over to the NDS – a Afghan government body that tortures prisoners. Mapp indicated he didn’t give a damn what happens to the prisoners, calling them an “Afghan responsibility”. Sorry, Mapp, but you’ve got to take responsibility. Handing someone over to people you can reasonably expect will torture them is illegal.
Incarceration Insanity
Written By: - Date published: 1:07 pm, August 15th, 2010 - 42 comments
Prison doesn’t work. It keeps people off the streets, but, as psychiatrist James Gilligan says:
The most effective way to turn a non-violent person into a violent one is to send him to prison.1
Corrections boss not sure about private prisons
Written By: - Date published: 4:42 pm, August 13th, 2010 - 17 comments
We’ve already seen criticism of the move by National to introduce private prisons (eg. NZ Herald editorial). Now the soon-to-depart prison boss, Barry Matthews has indicated that he too has his doubts.
Nats fear flood of justice
Written By: - Date published: 2:31 pm, August 11th, 2010 - 14 comments
Finlayson says that paying compo to women abused by cops would “open the floodgates”. In other words, he reckons all the other claims that would come out of the woodwork would cost too much. What’s right is right. No matter the cost. ‘Floodgates’ is just an admission that the hundreds have been harmed. This government doesn’t have the guts to do right by them.
Key govt turn backs on police sex victims
Written By: - Date published: 5:38 am, August 11th, 2010 - 44 comments
It just gets worse: “The Government has rejected a secret forum’s recommendation that 10 women who alleged sexual misconduct by police officers get reparation.” Sadly, I think this is just the Nats being cheap and unwilling to face their responsibilities. They don’t care about the victims of police abuse, they care about saving a few dollars to pay for tax cuts.
Maori flag over prisons
Written By: - Date published: 1:13 pm, August 5th, 2010 - 36 comments
Pita Sharples wants Maori flag to fly over prisons to raise prisoners’ morale. What a bizarre and useless suggestion. Instead, how about alleviating the poverty that is the main driver of crime?
Kiwis back smoking ban
Written By: - Date published: 10:50 am, August 4th, 2010 - 62 comments
A survey by ASH backs up one by UMR back in May showing that 60% of Kiwis back an end to commercial tobacco sales by 2020. I’m surprised by how strong the public mood for a ban is and not quite sure whether I agree.
Rough Justice
Written By: - Date published: 10:28 am, July 31st, 2010 - 16 comments
The Economist has a great article looking at the American propensity to deprive their citizens of their liberty for trivial offenses. We have the same stupid political ratcheting here that causes it. A large part of that is fueled by groups like the Sensible Sentencing Trust. There needs to be a broad agreement across the political spectrum about such hysterical groups before they cause more damage.
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