Posts by Kyle Matthews

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  • Hard News: The Hager saga continues,

    It is worth taking stock of just where the battle is actually at. People of the Left have actually pretty much dominated the direction of social policy. But they’ve lost all control over the direction of economics. It’s been a great win for the Right to de-politicise economics, conveying the impression that it’s a boring science well in hand. Neoliberalism is, bizarrely, a compromise position.

    +lots.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: The Hager saga continues,

    Bill Clinton and Obama won two terms, Tony Blair and Helen Clark won three.

    I'm not sure if Tony Blair is any model I want to see the left use. "War criminal" gets thrown around a fair bit in relation to his name these days in the UK.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

  • Legal Beagle: Terrorism is already illegal,

    Shame we cant say the same thing to TeamKey. “Just a regular meeting"… my arse. As Phil Goff puts it, “Political spin”. More lies from the Emperor.

    I might have found myself yelling at him on the TV last night.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

  • Legal Beagle: Terrorism is already illegal,

    Without referring back to the letter of the law, who defines what a terrorist organisation is?

    It would seem quite relevant to refer to the letter of the law in a discussion about terrorist laws.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

  • Speaker: An Open Letter To David Cunliffe,

    I guess I can’t tell the difference cognitively. Walks like a Nat, quacks like one.

    The hair is very right wing as well.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Doing over the witness,

    Yes, your argument out of context looked to me like Pascal’s Wager, but in context it makes sense. The missing bit was “And we also have good reasons in this case to think that I am right”.

    Exactly my point. It always comes back to "how likely do we think that police are corrupt". Pascal's wager analysis doesn't really provide any useful answers as that basic point would be in dispute.

    This search will probably be found to be illegal, in the mean time it is clearly unjust and damaging to journalism and free democracy.

    It's a warrant signed by a judge in pursuit of evidence to identify a known criminal. Unless he's forgotten to date it, the legality of the warrant will be fine.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Doing over the witness,

    My understanding has always been that Police don’t get to keep revenue from speed cameras and that it all goes into the government’s consolidated fund. That’s also what Police claim, but I can’t find the legislative reference (if any) right now.

    Police don't keep revenue gathered from speeding tickets, it all goes to the consolidated fund. Increased enforcement of speeding and other traffic works just costs them money and takes resources away from other 'real' crimes.

    Despite this police have massively increased their commitment to attacking speed over the past couple of decades. They know that speed contributes to a significant number of crashes, injuries and deaths.

    But what you seem to be missing is the consequences, if you are right then no harm done to our freedoms, if I am right then our freedom is under serious threat.

    I could construct this same 2x2 box for "aliens are invading earth!", and come up with the same answers, so by that logic we should be trying to prevent aliens invading the earth.

    If you don't think Bart being right is at all likely, it doesn't make sense to do anything, so again it really comes down to how much you think the police are likely to be corrupt.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Terror panics and the war imperative,

    Please someone make the point that sending troops endangers New Zealanders traveling overseas, it effectively devalues our passports and the security they provide.

    I can't find that relevant. I'd struggle to find a war that I'd accept as a 'good one'. But if I did (I do support some peace-keeping, and can see a peace-keeping angle in this one) devaluing our passport is the least of our concerns. Sending soldiers overseas to fight wars should be good reason in itself or we shouldn't do it. Negatives like our passport, or positives like trade treaties, access to oil etc shouldn't have any part of it.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Doing over the witness,

    Yeah right.

    Perhaps your definition of 'many' varies from mine.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Doing over the witness,

    Unless he witnessed the crime, that holds little water. Getting information from someone else is not a crime. If he had videoed an assault, yes, the police would ask for a copy of the recording – they wouldn’t confiscate the phone (unlike American cop shows).

    The warrant wasn't to investigate Nicky for a crime - people need to stop repeating that. He's a witness as he knows who rawshark is and that's what the warrant was for. Maybe that's totally over the top and a terrible way to deal with a witness but I'd imagine that anything they find in his house can't be used to convict Nicky because the warrant will have stated the purpose for which it was to be used - to find the identity of rawshark.

    I’m also concerned that these “specialists” (your term) took 10 hours to turn over what is a fairly modest house. That’s 50 man hours spent on a witness in a case that carries a maximum of 7 years. That’s overkill, and therefore intimidation, and all your devil’s advocacy cannot sweep that aside.

    The police have said that it took 10 hours because there was quite a bit of time waiting while they conferred with Nicky on the phone and then consulted with their lawyers etc. Nicky confirmed this in a statement that I saw.

    Applying that procedural logic, Slater’s computers should also be of interest to them – just to be forensically thorough – and I’m sure he’d be happy for them to explore all avenues, in the interests of the best resolution for a healthy democracy…

    I'm not sure if we know whether that's been done or not. Though I'd guess Slater would boast about it if it had?

    It’s all about, for the Police, more resources and more freedom (always at our expense) through increased statutory power and little or no proper oversight. When was the last time a Commissioner said “we’ve quite enough power under XY Act to deal with this, we don’t need any more thanks”? Yet this is usually the case, even with terror-related activity.

    I'm normally rather impressed with the police's attitude here towards lethal force. Despite public opinion, they're consistently opposed to permanently arming all officers with guns, they're exploring non-lethal force alternatives, and they seem to use evidence to support their moves in this area. Many years ago I worked at National Headquarters and spent a couple of weeks doing data entry of survey forms returned from cops on carrying guns. It led to them moving from the old S&W guns which were difficult for smaller cops to fire, and all cops to reload, to the glock, but they've held a pretty good line on not generally arming all officers.

    Sometimes the police force will influence laws, but in my experience they don't tend to lead the charge on many law changes in their area - normally it's politicians pandering for votes. Police officers tend to be a pretty conservative lot, but many of them would much rather not arrest people for possession of dope. It's not their job to say so though.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

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