Posts by Russell Brown
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Tom, I deleted your comment. Enough of the weighing of suffering, get back on topic.
-
Oh wow. Here's something.
I was going to remedy your lamentable lack of knowledge by linking to the Tony Veitch pages on the two main celebrity speaker comany websites.
Imagine my surprise to find there were no pages at the end of these links:
http://www.speakers.co.nz/tonyveitch.html
http://www.csnz.co.nz/default,5316,tony_veitch.sm
Ouch.
-
Okay, it calmed down a bit while I was posting that last comment, but everyone just breathe deeply. Ta.
-
Everybody stop.
Everybody back off.
I will communicate with some of you by email, but please, everyone, stop this direction in the thread NOW.
-
The reason that this case is headlining is not because it's a case of justice gone wrong, it's because Veitch is what passes for a celebrity in this country.
No, if it had gone to court, the victim would almost certainly have had name suppression; the manner in which it could have been reported would have been tightly circumscribed, and based on evidence given in court.
It's open-slather because that didn't happen.
-
Oh, and also: there's a reason this has become trial-by-media.
It's because there wasn't a trial-by-justice-system.
-
We've just got media coverage and conjecture on a partial story. I hoped we'd be above that, but didn't really believe we would be.
I tried to make my reasoning on this clear in the original post. Fairfax would not have waded in without a clear and legally robust basis for its stories. If the original story had been wrong, it would have attracted a swift denial followed by the threat of legal action. The consequence would have been a huge lawsuit.
The Herald also has fairly detailed corroboration from workmates.
So saying "we don't know what happened" just doesn't wash. I don't really care what the emotional circumstances were, or what Veitch's partner might have said on the night in question. Nothing excuses or justifies that kind of assault.
C'mon Rob, hit me with something that might conceivably be a viable other side of the story.
-
These days, though, you can insert "male" in place of "offender". Plenty of anecdotes out there from guys who spent a night in the cells after being attacked by their female partner. It's going to take another big culture change before "offender" is the appropriate word to use.
I think there is a problem there. I have certain knowledge of one case (to the point where I gave evidence in Family Court) and suspicions about another where male-assaults-female was not what happened.
It's hard to blame the police, because they were doing what is the right thing in the majority of cases in taking the complainant at her word, but it's horrible for the man involved.
-
IF this had gone to court in the first place, her name could have been suppressed, and it would never have been known to the general public or been able to escape a tight circle of gossipers into the press. The only reason this is an issue now is because of Veitch's actions in trying to hush it up.
Quite.
She would have received name suppression if she had requested it.
I'm less interested in punishment per se than in the principle that you can't have your own private justice system.
-
TVNZ statement published at 2.06pm today:
TVNZ has received numerous requests from media for answers to questions concerning Tony Veitch.
Some of these questions are completely appropriate and TVNZ has every intention of responding to legitimate enquiries as soon as this is possible.
Chief Executive Rick Ellis says TVNZ wants to be as open as it can be with New Zealanders but is also committed to conducting its employee relations in a fair and responsible way.
"As I have explained, there are complex employment and privacy aspects to this situation that restrict what can be said publicly. I would ask for the public's patience while we go through our processes in a proper way."
I can see the point there. Employment law, especially when you're trying to get rid of someone, is all about procedure.
Last ←Newer Page 1 … 1866 1867 1868 1869 1870 … 2279 Older→ First