Category: Crime & Justice
Maori protest action has created a pall over the Far North community of Taipa. It’s the one that is in the news at the moment, but everywhere Maori activists have been allowed by the authorities to take the law into their own hands, the community has been forced to suffer the consequences. Invariably, the protesters bully and intimidate local residents, making their lives a misery. Fuelled by the government’s proposed foreshore and seabed law, which would see Maori gain ownership of vast tracts of New Zealand’s coastline, such radical protest action may well become commonplace. If it is not nipped in the bud, locals will be denied the right to the peaceful enjoyment of their community through constant harassment and threats from Maori sovereignty activists, and local businesses will bear the financial cost.
Last weekend was glorious at Taipa Point and looking out over the estuary it would have been difficult to find a more tranquil or beautiful setting in ‘God’s Own’. The beach had a colourful sheen under clear skies and the sea was blue green. The reserve was buzzing as our community and visitors alike enjoyed the best of what New Zealand has.
One of the most volatile pieces of law in our society is up for review again. The public has till 29th of October to make submissions on the review of child support led by Revenue Minister Peter Dunne.
What is freedom of expression? Without freedom to offend, it ceases to exist, wrote Salman Rushdie.
What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets inflamed with wild notions. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?
Last Tuesday a routine Police call-out left two Police officers with gunshot wounds and a Police dog dead. In the drug-related fracas, one officer had his jaw shattered by a bullet, while the other officer took a bullet in his thigh - just missing his femoral artery. Gage, a six year old German Shepherd, was shot and killed trying to protect the officers.
The recent incident in Christchurch in which two police officers were shot and seriously wounded and a police dog killed once again highlighted the risks that frontline police officers face going about what most would consider routine tasks.
Last Monday, a teacher at Te Puke High School was stabbed in the neck and back with a kitchen knife by one of his students. The boy’s whanau said that the 13-year-old had been brought up by his grandmother because his father was in prison. There is speculation that the attack was gang-related – part of an initiation process for earning gang stripes. Reports indicate that the school has a culture of bullying, and the offender had been suspended earlier in the year for fighting with other students. However, the principal advised there was no formal record of any bullying claims. Police placed the boy in the care of Child Youth and Family.
The public have spoken. 87.6 percent of New Zealanders want the law that has banned smacking changed. They want to go back to the common sense situation that existed before Parliament saw fit to pass Sue Bradford’s repeal of Section 59 of the Crimes Act into law.
But this is about democracy, the right of people to be heard and it's the absolute height of arrogance that the prime minister is going to use a technicality within the law to circumvent people's rights to express their views on the issue. - John Key backs election smacking referendum, July 2008[1]
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