Posts by izogi
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Hard News: Angry and thrilled about Arie, in reply to Islander,
Personally I've always found a small backpack the ideal way to go, but I also tend to walk everywhere as much as possible so that probably affects my preference.
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Hard News: Angry and thrilled about Arie, in reply to Hilary Stace,
Erasmus has had more of a say over on Stuff in the last couple of hours, noting that diversion isn't an option because Arie hasn't admitted guilt. Anyone know what's going on with that?
The light bulbs (and switches) had no value to anyone but Arie (or someone like him). It was a condemned demolition site (pre all earthquakes).
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. Pushing on with the case like this just seems kind'a dumb.
And the beating, if what he claims is true, is despicable. In the apparent absence of even an attempted explanation from the Police who were charged to protect him, it's hard to understand what they're on about.
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Hard News: Angry and thrilled about Arie, in reply to asnz,
Last night Arie referred to being punched in the back of the head. Michael, his partner, referred to Arie being elbowed in the eye.
[Enough for any citizen or resident to lay complaints with the IPCA, Human Rights, Police, and the appropriate Minister’s?]I finally got the video to work (not sure how) and found that Arie and Michael are alleging that army personnel were directly involved in beating him during the arrest, even though the Police are in complete denial about this. I could only guess why either junior or senior Police might want to cover up this one, but presumably all the relevant court documents state that sworn New Zealand Police Officers were the only authorities involved?
Maybe Police could just indicate how the injury occurred. Are they gagged by court processes?
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W K:
She informed me with great pride she and her fellow officers had been taking "looters" into dark areas to "give them the bash". I informed her of the Aspergers case and she said "his family should've been looking after him". I gave her a lecture on due process and she hasn't spoken to me since. I don't think she would've felt so keen to tell me this unless there was a culture within her department that encouraged this behaviour.
That's a very serious allegation and I hope it's less than what you're suggesting, but if it's true then screw 'em*. Police are human too and often under stressful situations and I could understand if Arie sustained an injury during an arrest with a reasonable explanation or whatever, as long as steps were taken later to admit correct any wrongdoing and do whatever's necessary to prevent it happening again, but taking people aside and beating them, or even joking about it, is unacceptable and unforgivable for police under any circumstances. If there's a culture that encourages this it needs to be weeded out now.
Hopefully the investigation Plunket cites is one into the allegations, and not into how the programme was able to go ahead when Police tried to stop it.
* I really want to say bayonet them, but it might come across all wrong and hypocritical.
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Following my previous comment, the end of this Herald article (also from last Thursday) states "His defence team said a complaint would be laid about their client being allegedly assaulted at the time of his arrest". So a complaint probably hadn't been made at the time of Inspector Erasmus's comment.
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Can anyone (maybe who can view the video) indicate if Arie has actually laid an assault complaint with Police, contrary to what Inspector Erasmus said on Thursday? I can't seem to find clear info on this except that it was being considered early on (maybe March). From memory the decision was around not wanting so much media attention. It seems unusual though if claims are now being made through the media.
Hopefully a reasonable judge will throw this out soon enough and give someone an appropriate dressing down in doing so, There have been plenty of opportunities for Police to step back before now, unless we're all being hideously mis-led on the facts somehow.
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Damn, I can't get the video to play.
Arie did the right thing: he tried to calm himself down. He apparently told the arresting officers he was Asperger -- not in the hope of getting off, but in the belief they might do the right thing. In response, they are said to have mocked him, and -- while he was prone and handcuffed -- assaulted him.
That's interesting given how just last Thursday, the Police stated "Claims that the alleged offenders were assaulted are completely incorrect,"
I really thought Police were meant to get training on handling this kind of stuff. I know the situation here was unprecedented (major earthquake) and police tend to work in high tension environments. They might occasionally make bad assumptions and things won't always work out perfectly in-the-moment. But if the Police could just come out, acknowledge and clearly explain how Arie turned up in court looking as if he'd been pushed down a flight of stairs, I'd be much more satisfied. Or maybe I wouldn't, and maybe that's their dilemma.
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The station no longer has a Maori affairs correspondent or a social issues correspondent. Its overseas travel budget is now down to $30,000 annually -- just a little more than Rodney Hide spent on a single jaunt for himself and his girlfriend.
If that's the kind of shoe-string RNZ's operating on, it makes me wonder what a single wealthy benefactor with a thing for RNZ could do for journalism in NZ by throwing a spare $100,000 into a trust fund. Not that they should have to.
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Also repeated references to the tail wagging the dog under MMP. The only reason this can supposedly happen is because we still have two large parties that remain addicted to a polarised FPP system and refuse to work together in what would seem to be a natural MMP way, probably because they realise it would likely be the death or demotion of at least one of them if they ever did. If our larger parties would allow themselves to divide into more representative sections, as has already happened in part with the Labour party, there would be less dog for a tail to wag and it certainly couldn't have so much perceived influence so easily.
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It would be fair to say that not all .nz registrants -- let's say rianz.co.nz and apra.co.nz -- appreciate their fees being used to lobby in this direction
Not everyone appreciates everything the government spends their taxes on, either. Let's just say that the RIANZ and APRA fees were fully funding something done by Internet NZ worth about $50 which they liked but everyone else hated. To be honest I'm not sure what that would have been, though.