Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: Meanwhile in Epsom ..., in reply to Lew Stoddart,
Che, Banksie is incredibly interesting; one of the most interesting pollies in modern NZ history.
Yes.
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Hard News: Meanwhile in Epsom ..., in reply to Craig Ranapia,
Having been involved in more National Party candidate selections than you, Rich, I suspect you should leave the fantasy fiction to people who are good at it.
Agreed. My impression is that all the candidates very much want to win the nomination, and are battling hard to do so.
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Hard News: Angry and thrilled about Arie, in reply to Lucy Stewart,
More likely just casually ableist – an assumption that Arie is incapable of making an “informed admission of guilt”, that he’s just saying what he’s told to say. I’d prefer insanity, on the whole.
It did occur to me that that might be what they were saying. And then I thought, surely not.
It seems more likely to me that it's just another excuse for them.
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The Christchurch cops are now referring journalists to their statement about the case last week, which offers this justification from Erasmus for the continued refusal of diversion:
"One of the fundamental requirements of the diversion process is that the offender needs to be able to make an informed admission of guilt"
Huh? Hasn’t this been acknowledged, both formally and informally, right from the beginning? Did Erasmus bother watching the Sunday programme he’s now making subject to “criminal investigation”?
Unless I’m missing something, this seems insane.
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Hard News: Angry and thrilled about Arie, in reply to Sacha,
opting not that diversion isn’t an option because Arie hasn’t admitted guilt
Yet the judge who recommended it must have been aware of the criteria.
The original plea was a guilty one, changed after it became clear the police were not going to countenance diversion. My guess is that Arie and his counsel would happily plead guilty if diversion were available.
Most of the legal comment I've seen suggests that a judge won't go along with whatever the cops are trying to do here, which makes it all the more odd. What is actually going on?
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Speaker: The great New Zealand phone…, in reply to Graham Dunster,
Can you link to the Computerworld article, please?
Thanks
It's in there now. Vagaries of importing MS Word hyperlinks ...
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Hard News: Angry and thrilled about Arie, in reply to Mandy S,
So has this injustice changed your views on the Urewera 18 case Russell?
Can you see now the ridiculous lengths the police will go to avoid being in the wrong?It hasn't changed them in the sense that I already think that in the Urewera case the police put substantial resources into an investigation that did not turn out to be quite what they thought it was.
OTOH ... Arie Smith didn't buy a gun with a silencer, or actively attempt to acquire a grenade launcher. I'm fairly sure in my view that people involved with the Urewera case did do those things.
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Hard News: Angry and thrilled about Arie, in reply to tussock,
Thanks, Russell, for another “that’s what that was” moment or three. “Dissociation” being another term for that result, and can result from all sorts of sensory inputs for Aspies, not just high stress.
So, yay, I’ve had quite a few dissociative events from mild stress, and the odd (mild, I hope) tantrum about being touched.
The "dissociative event" wording is helpful for me in turn, thanks. That's what happens to our older son, he just goes offline. His younger brother experiences something more like a red mist.
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Hard News: Angry and thrilled about Arie, in reply to tussock,
<sigh> No wonder the bullies wouldn’t give up on me in school. They could control my reactions far better than I ever could. More fun than a robotic dog, and not at all mild with the tantrums back then. 8[
Aw, dude. I'm sorry you had to go through that.
I've only realised via my sons that a kid I went to primary school with was undiagnosed AS. His circuit-breaker methods weren't subtle -- he would bite his own arm (and eventually, someone else's) when he got into a confrontation, to the point of permanent scarring. It makes me feel really sad when I think about it.
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I’d ask about the process behind this.
By what process were these ads created and approved?
Were they solely the work of the guy you’ve now fired?
Who else was involved?
Who wrote the press releases in your name?
Did you read them before they went out?
And you didn’t have a problem with [insert quote here]?
To what extent is Act’s actual policy stance being shaped by these colourful press releases and controversial ads?
Are you fully in control of this process?
You’ve spoken about radical Maori. But Lindsay Perigo, who has been writing your press releases, has said [insert barking quote here] and [insert barking quote here]. That seems fairly radical. Do you agree with him on that?