Posts by Russell Brown
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Another of the reasons why some/most groups have been largely silent on the specific accusations/insinuations of terrorism was an appreciation of the practical utility of the supression of sub judice evidence and the avoidance of making any statement that might be prejudicial to a fair trial.
Of course. But I think what AS was getting at was that it was an appropriate time to repudiate violence as a political tool, and people seemed a bit reticent about doing so.
I've actually been a bit shocked at the state of some of the people posting to Indymedia, if that's a measure of sentiment. Some of them have come across as (as a friend of mine put it) "whiny emos", and more than a couple are just outright crazy people (I keep feeling like I'm describing Kiwiblog on a bad day here).
I've found the vicious lashing out at Bomber and anyone who wasn't 100% down with the cause pretty unappealing too. That kind of thing is one of the reasons I've always been wary about indentifying with some concept called "The Left".
Anyway, Kracklite, thanks for coming by. I think you've been a valuable correspondent. And not at all emo ...
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and how incredibly noticably quiet the Bond&Bond there was, about 12 salesmen and zero customers.
At the St Lukes "Megacentre" (ie: whiteware strip mall), both B&B and Noel Leeming seem to get their arses kicked by Dick Smith, certainly on the small stuff.
I've had discussions with a manager of Noel Leeming before after I blogged on the amazingly difficulty of getting any sensible service there. I was at pains to explain that I didn't think it was the people so much as their glacial sales and stock systems.
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And I'm sure that that is just what some in the police force are counting on by roping in the pacifists and environmentalists with the really dangerous people.
There is intercept and photographic evidence linking some of the activist people with the camps and, in at least one one case, with Whiri Kemara's weapons purchases. That's from a couple of sources, not including cops.
I hope I didn't just get myself in trouble with the SG there, but I don't think the links are entirely arbitrary. On the other hand, I do get the impression that some of the 17 were guilty of no more than an association with others, and that there is an element of the corruption of innocents.
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I think there's a genuine sense of having been betrayed here, stemming from the fact that local police who'd supposedly been engaged in building an ongoing liaison with Tuhoe were hung out to dry by the pre-emptive nature of the raids.
I agree. I still can't understand why local police liaison wasn't used.
With the Government & opposition effectively out to lunch on this issue it's a bit hard to see what's to be gained by this ongoing bagging of Sharples.
It's not an ongoing bagging. I just cringe every damn time he uses words like "stormtroopers" -- or his MPs say worse -- and when he complains about a heightening of alarm, I do find it a bit rich.
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Right on cue ...
"Those who are leaking the information are breaking the law. They are committing criminal acts themselves and are demonstrating contempt for the rule of law," Mr Sharples said.
Last week from a certain Maori Party MP ...
"I will not sit quietly by while the state forces terrorise my people ... I will challenge the rule of law and I will oppose the rule of law if terrorism is a vehicle being used by the state forces of this country to terrorise Maori communities."
Again from Pita Sharples today, on the Dom Post:
"It creates bush lawyers out of us all, in itself heightening the sense of alarm that has already dominated the debate around terrorism," said Dr Sharples.
I'd feel a bit more sympathy if Sharples hadn't repeatedly described the police as "stormtroopers", which, assuming he wasn't referring to Star Wars, actually means Nazi shock troops whose role was to fire indiscriminately and kill as many people as possible.
Given that, I think it's a bit rich to condemn the newspaper for "heightening the sense of alarm".
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Of course, there's a big difference here: the police aren't facing criminal charges and possible jail time. But if they ever do, I'll happily repeat those sentiments on their behalf. We have a courts, trials, a justice system to avoid the "justice" of the lynchmob.
I do understand the difference. But it does seem to me that virtually all the metaphorical lynching has been done by one side. There has been an order of magnitude more hysteria from supporters of those arrested than from the general public.
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"They could have lifted them at New World when they went shopping."
Sonic that would have interferred with the New World Order - (sorry couldn't resist)
Heh. That was choice.
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Judges tend to take a very dim view of people deliberately trying to derail court proceedings to their advantage. Which is why we don't see defendants doing it.
I'm sure you're right. But at the same time, nearly all the chatter of which I've been aware has been from the activist side. A lot of people seem to have been aware of the nature of the evidence.
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I have already said that I am against trial by media, and this clearly demonstrates why.
I think the rebuttal to that would that there's been a huge amount of trial by media going on already -- a good deal of it of the police, who have been accused of racism, incompetence, "state terror", etc, etc. The government has been accused of directing the raids as a political strike against all Maori. We have been repeatedly assured that nothing more than bushcraft classes were going on. There have been demands for the resignation of the Commissioner of Police. The people saying those things weren't exactly waiting for the matter to be heard before a court.
And John Minto has used the privileged position of being present in court to relate, in print, suppressed evidence in what is at least a selective and possibly a misleading fashion.
So, while I'm conflicted about what the Dom Post has done (I'd have liked to see the evidence made public after the firearms trials), I do think it cuts both ways.
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Operation leaf, interesting you should mention that. Was that not the crazy notion that Police were bugging Maori activists?
Well we all know how silly an idea that turned out to be.
Oh hold on.Except that the story involved completely different people, at a different time and, more importantly, turned out to be based on the claims of a known fantasist who led journalists on a merry chase before wholly failing to produce any evidence for any of what he said.
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