Posts by chris
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Hard News: An inspirational record, in reply to 3410,
@Peace, loving it Russell, smooth and laughs.
Interested in indigenous folk music? (scroll to bottom to play)
-
is a rather large 6 cylinder SUV which I use to drop the boat into the water at the beach in front of our house
As you do. And no I don’t think you’re a rich prick Rik, it sounds like you’re doing okay for yourself, I’d fully appreciate the fortuity of your circumstances.
My partner and I are both self-employed and guess what – we do our own accounting. We had to learn, so we learned.
Now that, that’s just downright inspirational.
-
I was incensed by the jocular manner of that interview Sofie, the thing that really gets me is with so much devastation at such a mammoth expense and so much cleaning to do, why is that cost being compounded with imprisonment rather than alleviated with a comparatively extreme community service sentence, something of real benefit to the community? As is, in a couple or more years from now, there’ll be another couple of hardened crims coming out the back end of the system for the police to play cat and mouse with.
Dusty has some stuff of interest:
…One issue was as more & more fences become unmanned people just pulled them aside or climbed them(one day 8 trucks & people were seen to enter retrieve their goods from businesses & residence in a drop zone, nothing was initially done even though police were informed)…
…It was actually the same area where tourists breached & the two I caught when going to visit someone. No one acted on the information we gave previously to stop breaches so waste of time telling anyone…
…One reason some people have said that we were wrongfully arrested in there was by our proactive security actions were showing up the police as we dominated our area & the locals in the red zone were noticing it(& telling us about it)….
…Then an issue arose when we were wrongfully arrested. Under the previous act you were required too call the office & say if there had arisen circumstances where your COA(Certificate of Approval) or licence might be suspended. On this occassion we were told that since remanded at large with charges almost certainly to be withdrawn(they were but with no apology or even meeting to clear things up, so the issues that led to arrests are continuing)…
Sounds like there is little time and scant resources to persist with killing chicken to scare the monkeys…
-
I'm gladly corrected there Sacha. Good on you.
That is not what's been happening in Christchurch over the past 5 months
Obviously cases before the courts are a no go. I've learnt my lesson and won't be compromising this site in that way today (or any other day), I'd suggest asking around:
Civil Defence says anyone found in the red zone without the new pass will be detained by the police.
Residents living in the cordoned areas and the red zone can continue to use photographic ID and proof of address at the checkpoints closest to their home.
-
Hard News: Angry and thrilled about Arie, in reply to Sacha,
Sigh. Read what I actually wrote, will you.
I did Sacha, and I'm with you for the most part, but there is a creeping feeling that:
a harder than usual response is no surprise in a mass emergency situation.
Perhaps I'm misreading it, but I find it a mite apologist, a little defensive and ever so slightly perpetuating a cycle. To casually class 11 days in custody for the theft a couple of lightbulbs as a "harder than usual response" is a massive understatement, Earthquake or none, it's not on
is it OK and not a sign of incipient police state neo-fascism if I still find contemptible shit like (for example) people in post-Katrina New Orleans returning home to find their houses systematically stripped of alcohol, jewellery, prescription drugs with re-sale value etc.?
The authorities can best protect peoples' valued possessions by not wasting valuable resources making an example protecting unwanted lightbulbs in condemned buildings.
No one is saying that. All anyone is asking is that he be treated fairly and reasonably.
I'm on your page Russell. I was responding to Izogi's:
What matters here is that due to Arie’s condition, there’s a very good case to argue that he wasn’t reasoning the same way as a normal person could be expected to. He wasn’t there for the same reasons as a typical looter,
Not-withstanding Arie's condition, absolutely anyone stealing two light bulbs from a condemned building is not your typical looter
there’s some justification (I think) for doing so if it happens during a post-Earthquake lock-down
11 days in custody is 5 sizes too big for this crime. He's done his time.
Were Arie the only person I were aware of who has been bitten by this "harder than usual (necessary) response" I probably wouldn't be going to these lengths, but as the publicity surrounding Arie's case is in part obscuring (whilst highlighting) an ongoing harder than usual response, I feel it's worth the effort.
Call me old fashioned but the same old consistent non-violent non-extreme response strikes me as adequate, earthquake or none (with a healthy dose of carefully handled propaganda). That is not what's been happening in Christchurch over the past 5 months, and it's time it stopped.
When people are hanging on by a thin strand, the last thing they need is the authorities pushing them over the edge. And from what I've heard regarding other arrests, it's clear to me that Erasmus and the police's response to Arie's case is indicative of an ongoing insidious problem at ground level there. i.e. not isolated.
Now, of course, the point they were seeking to make has come back to bite them. The police fucked up, and they continue to fuck up. Someone needs to call off this idiocy.
-
I’m in no doubt that the public strongly supported harsh action on looters after the quakes, so opposing that is not likely to help Arie’s situation.
I would hardly classify 2 lightbulbs as loot in the piratanical sense or the theft thereof as looting. Something of an overvaluation there IMAO Sacha.
No disrespect but I’m not convinced the value of the light bulbs, or the fact that the owner said in hindsight that they weren’t concerned, are the issue. It could as easily have been a property owner who did care about the trespassing or their light fixtures. He was still caught trespassing and stealing property at a time when much of society was especially vulnerable to and fearful of people doing precisely this. Even if police wouldn’t normally bother with someone swiping a $2 light fitting or two, there’s some justification (I think) for doing so if it happens during a post-Earthquake lock-down, because the circumstances are entirely different,
What matters here is that due to Arie’s condition, there’s a very good case to argue that he wasn’t reasoning the same way as a normal person could be expected to. He wasn’t there for the same reasons as a typical looter, and really wasn’t the kind of criminal everyone was so apprehensive about or associates with post-disaster fear at all.
I must take issue with this. Arie's condition was a mitigating factor, but it is one of a myriad of potentially mitigating factors in such an instance. To argue that he should be treated differently by the law due to his condition is to espouse something other than a fair and equal justice system. The expectation that people be incarcerated for excessive durations is justified if you live in a totalitarian state, but not in New Zealand.
To countenance this kind of treatment by our police force and furthermore to condemn it only on account of Arie's condition or that his crime occurred in the wake of a natural disaster is to set yet a lower bench mark in terms of our expectations of policing in New Zealand.
Aspergers or not, no New Zealander, conditioned or otherwise should be incarcerated for 11 days for the theft of 2 light bulbs, be it in sleet, flood, tsunami or nuclear attack. That should be a given.
Focusing on Arie's condition too much simply obscures and abets the administration of this authoritarian brutality on other New Zealanders.
-
or maybe a suburb with name suppression and a mental obsessed with removing all the H-es from our language.
-
an incidental character with name suppression who has a wonderfully confused theory about the uniquely western origin of Art.
And if at all possible, Eric Clapton armed with a spray can, or at least someone who claims he saw that.
-
I’d agree with that – a harder than usual response is no surprise in a mass emergency situation.
I see what you did there.
-
Hard News: Angry and thrilled about Arie, in reply to Jackie Clark,
Thanks Jackie, 11 days in custody- that's sickening.