Crime
in Perspective
20 April
08
Muriel Newman
It
was just three week’s ago that we heard the sort of news
that sends a chill down the spine of every parent – a
fifteen year old schoolgirl reported missing. Tragically
Marie Davis was buried on Thursday. Her killer remains on
the loose.
.. More >>>
Wanted-
A Law and Order System that works for us
26 April 08
Dr Lech
Beltowski
Law and order is the foundation of a properly functioning
society. History shows that for any nation, where law and
order goes, there too eventually goes their society. Thus,
the substantial rise in violent crime seen over the last
eight or so years of this Labour government should be
cause for serious concern and urgent action to those
charged with the responsibility of protecting New Zealand
society.
More
>>>
Crossing
the Line
Muriel Newman
21
October 2007
Earlier
this month a napalm bomb was detonated in a guerrilla-style
exercise in a training camp deep in
the Urewera Ranges. Police say that such military-style
training camps have been under surveillance for over a year. More
>>>
Smacking:
Those Kiwis Must be Crazy
Ruby
Harrold-Claesson
11 Aug
07
One
year ago, I travelled 36 hours from Gothenburg, Sweden to
Auckland at the invitation of the Section 59 Coalition. I
came to testify at the Parliamentary hearing on the
private member's Bill that proposed a repeal of Section 59
of the Crimes Act and to inform - and to warn - the
general New Zealand public of the effects of the Swedish
smacking ban.
More
>>>
The
Right to Justice
Muriel Newman
10
June 2007
The
rule of law and the right to justice are fundamental to a
democratic society. The thought that someone could be
imprisoned for a crime they didn’t commit is the stuff of
nightmares. More
>>>
The
Most Obvious Miscarriage of All
Keith Hunter
10 June 07
There’s much talk now of the call,
lately by Sir Thomas Thorpe but in fact made by many
others many times over many years, for an office of
criminal review to sort out courtroom mistakes and free
all the wrongly convicted. This may get the thumbs up to
acknowledge the spanking the Privy Council has just given
our Court of Appeal in Bain,
but also because something has to be done to cover for the
suicidal detachment of our appeal system from the PC.
Although recent history records that, excepting Peter
Mahon, the truth has only been supplied to the
satisfaction of the people by reviewers from outside our
justice system, as in the Thomas Inquiry and lately Bain,
we now rely entirely on members and ex-members of the same
Court of Appeal that received the spanking. More
>>>
Beating
the Gangs
Muriel Newman
13
May 2007
In politics, words are cheap. The real test of leadership
is action. For years politicians have been talking about
getting tough on gangs. But the result of their failure to
act can be seen all around in the wasted lives of drug
addicts, the thugs who get their kicks from terrorising
neighbourhoods, the families who live in fear, and now a
drive-by shooting that has left an innocent sleeping
two-year-old dead.More
>>>
Saying
"No" to gangs
Otago
Daily Times editorial More >>>
Smacking
Ban: A dangerous law
Ruby
Harrold-Claesson
25 Mar 07
In
the Dominion Post article (14/3) "Police
prepare rules to act on smacks" the New Zealand
public is informed that police
chiefs are preparing to send out guidelines for dealing
with complaints about smacking as the bill outlawing the
use of physical punishment as
the final vote draws nearer.
The
Gisborne Herald article (17/3) "New
bill ‘unlikely’ to drastically lift police
workload" is based on a quotation from Police
Minister Annette King.
The Police Minister's views are quite irrelevant because
the police, prosecutors and the criminal justice system
are obliged to enforce the letter of the law. Thinking New
Zealanders have known all along that the proposed law
would lead to policing and criminalising responsible
parents.
More
>>>
State Accountability
Muriel
Newman
28 January 2007
This week the Parole Board decided
against the early release of Baily Kurariki, the
17-year-old who was sentenced to seven years in jail for
his part in the killing of pizza delivery man Michael Choy
in 2001. He was 12 years old at the time. More
>>>
The Politics of Crime
Muriel
Newman
21 Jan 07
It started on the balcony. Numerous blows from the
barrel of a sawn-off shotgun rained down on the
teenager's head, shoulders, legs and arms, leaving
bruising and deep cuts on her body. Not satisfied,
Fenton dragged her into the house by her hair. Inside,
he continued the beating, in front of three terrified
female flatmates and their young children - aged 10
months to 3 years. As the blows continued he told them,
“You are going to watch her blood splatter”, and
warned them what would happen if they tried to escape.
More >>>
NZ
Sadly Lacking Leadership
Garth
McVicar
20 Jan 07
“We love you
son…be strong”. These were the words the family of a
15 year-old young man called out as he stood in the dock
accused of murdering 77 year-old Doreen Reed in
Auckland this week.
More
>>>
Keep the Kids Inside
Muriel Newman
9 September 06
With
last week’s newspapers headlines warning: “Keep kids
inside after dark, police tell parents”, the public
could be excused for thinking the reports were about
Soweto, not Auckland.
More >>>
USA's Toughest
Sheriff
Sheriff
Joe Arpaio
10 Mar 06
Sheriff Joe Arpaio is known as “America's toughest
Sheriff”. He is head of the country’s fourth largest
Sheriff's Office in Maricopa County, Arizona.
More >>>
Prisons, porn and P
Muriel
Newman
10 Mar 06
Like most New Zealanders I was appalled last weekend to
read that the killer of Lillybing had enjoyed a life of P
and porn in prison.
In a media interview she explained that prison
“is not as hard as people make out”. More >>>
Thinking of the Future
Stuart
Birks
2 Dec 06,
Central
to the issue of policy making is the fact that we do not
influence the present, but we may influence the future.
When determining policy objectives it is important,
therefore, to consider not so much what is wrong now, but
what may be unsatisfactory in the future. A focus on
present circumstances may result in poor decisions. Even
left alone, things will change over time. Hence, to give
an economic example, it could be wrong to clamp down on
inflation when an economy is already heading into a
downturn. As inflation is already set to fall, the policy
might deepen the downturn, giving a deeper trough, or a
“hard landing” rather than a “soft landing”.
More
>>>
Politically
Correct The Office of Proceedings
Josie
Bullock
26 Aug 06
I first met the Director of the Office of Proceedings for
the Human Rights' Review Tribunal a year ago. Perhaps I
should have realised from his title that his organisation
would be highly bureaucratic and probably a vast waste of
space, time, energy and tax-payers' dollars. The Human
Rights' Commission offices on Queen Street in Auckland,
where we met, were huge with panoramic views, but there
was little, if anything, going on there. I had been
advised to take my case on the basis of human rights,
rather than employment, given that it involved sexism. More
>>>
Disgruntled
Dads, Family Court
Stuart
Birks
27 May
06
In the past few
weeks I have fielded a series of queries by reporters
asking why fathers are protesting about the Family Court.
Suddenly the matter is newsworthy, and, just as suddenly,
the phase will pass. That is the ephemeral nature of news.
More
>>>
The Airline Seating Issue
Stuart
Birks
9 Dec
05
It seems that the airline seating issue has struck a
nerve. It is, in fact, not new for airlines to have a
policy that men should not be seated next to unaccompanied
minors. British Airways received publicity for this in
2001 (Phillips M, 2001, “The paedophile bogeyman and the
paranoid parents”, The Sunday Times, 28 March. However,
the significance of the current example of the policy, and
people's reaction to it, should not be underestimated. More
>>>
Sensible
Sentencing
Garth
McVicar
3 Dec 05
The Sensible Sentencing Trust was started in 2001 by a
small group of New Zealanders who were extremely concerned
at the break down in law and order, the gradual decay in
society and the consequences on our wider community in
general. More
>>>
Solving Crime not Rocket Science
Muriel
Newman
3 Dec 05
One
of the core roles of a government in a democracy is to
protect its citizens from crime. In 1999, New Zealanders
were given the opportunity to send the government a
message on that issue: by voting overwhelmingly in favour
of Norm Wither’s law and order referendum, the public
indicated they wanted the justice system reformed and
violent crime reduced.
More >>>
Politically
Correct Corrections
Josie
Bullock
5 Nov 05
Who would have thought that a woman taking a front-row
seat at a graduation ceremony for offenders would have
caused such uproar? More
>>>
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