Posts by Alfie
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Hard News: Doing over the witness, in reply to izogi,
That’s the way I grew up in NZ, with Constable Keith and Sniff on What Now, making sure I knew I could always trust the community police officer.
I grew up in fifties Dunedin at a time when we all trusted the local cops. They walked the beat past our house most days and they were always friendly and stopped for a chat. They were good people.
Several years later when I started working in television, NZBC (or BCNZ or whichever iteration was in fashion at the time) produced a documentary series on women using an all-female crew including the venerable Margaret Moth on camera. The series interviewed a number of abused women including the ex-wife of a senior officer in the local drug squad. That didn't go down well in certain circles and soon after, Margaret's flat was busted by the drug squad. Her neighbours described a group of men wearing shorts and walk socks laughing their heads off as they turned the place over.
And they made a right mess of the place. Drawers were turned upside down, her reserve parachute was popped up the hallway and walked over, windows were propped open, the front door was left ajar. They didn't find any drugs. Oddly, they missed some empty buddah sticks which were sitting in the fireplace, but nobody said they were good at their jobs.
Each local station produced a 15 minute cop show back then and John Keir presented the Dunedin version. He took a crew to Margaret's flat, filmed the mess and intended to run a story that week. Until he received a call from the Police saying they'd found "a bag with white powder" in the flat and if the story ran, it might just turn out to be heroin. The story was canned.
Some people are lucky enough to live their whole lives without coming up against the dirty side of law enforcement. But once you have personal experience of Police corruption, your perception of the law changes forever.
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David Fisher has an in depth piece outlining the background to the Slater v Blomfield case. It contains information that's new to me and further evidence of just how nasty whaleshit and his associates can be.
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Hard News: Doing over the witness, in reply to Joe Wylie,
Thanks Joe. Of course the related NBR story has the usual a collection of comments from right wingers who can only see Nicky as a criminal.
And Police are finally reviewing Blomfield's two-year-old criminal complaint against Slater over the "vast quantity of private emails" extracted from the stolen hard drive the oily one used to allegedly defame Blomfield.
In a letter dated August 28 2014, Mr Blomfield said: "I am mindful of the fact that I have waited over two years for my matter to be concluded and I am becoming slightly impatient. If it came to pass that Mr Slater receives preferential treatment for a complaint that very closely mirrors my complaint I would be quite annoyed."
A spokeswoman for Waitemata police said Mr Blomfield's case was being reviewed by a detective senior sergeant who was currently on holiday. She didn't know how long the review had been going on, or when it was likely to be complete.
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Hard News: Doing over the witness, in reply to Paul Campbell,
I see that the usual suspects are trying to get the Hager fundraising effort shutdown .... time to give a little more ....
Who are these people? Do you have a reference for that Paul?
The fund has reached $37,683 so far... and counting.
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Hard News: Terror panics and the war imperative, in reply to ChrisW,
if there is going to be a flag referendum any time soon then JohnKey's personal preference for NZ to have a black flag with some sort of white bit in the middle is not going to fly.
And the All Blacks are going to renounce their black strip, lest they be mistaken for terrorists.
Yeah right!
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Jonathan Kaplan's take on the role the TV director played in the final score.
The Boks dominated the first half, the All Blacks the second. In the end, the game came down to a decision by the TV producer to highlight a misdemeanor by Liam Messam on Schalk Burger, which all the officials missed in real time. After finding the clip, and then replaying it over and over, eventually the match officials decided it was worthy of review, and correctly awarded a penalty to the Boks which Pat Lambie (who has oodles of BMT) converted to win the game. The TMO himself seemed a bit confused by referring to the fact that he thought perhaps arms were used in the tackle which was hardly the point. It was a swinging arm and a dangerous tackle.
If you are a Bok supporter, you will be saying we deserved it, and how many times it happened against us. The protocol and process will mean nothing. But there is an important point to make here. I doubt (very much) whether that clip would have been brought up on the screen by producers in Aus or NZ and replayed over and over. Is it right that someone outside of the domain of the match officials can affect the outcome of a major test match? And how neutral is he? In the end, it was his alertness that drew the attention of the crowd to the high tackle, they got into it, the officials then decided to take a look, and the resultant penalty determined the outcome.
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Hard News: Doing over the witness, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
The Press has a page 3 piece
"Police explain Hager Raid"
- can't find it on-line yethttp://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10585923/Hager-vows-to-protect-hackers-ID
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Hard News: Doing over the witness, in reply to Katharine Moody,
has it been verified that the account holder is genuine and that Nicky is certain to receive the full benefit?
The e-receipt says in part:
"All money will go to Nicky Hager to support any legal case or to cover any costs incurred as a result of the police raid.
And...
Did you know 100% of what you donate gets through to your cause on Givealittle.
I'm confident that it's all going to Nicky Hager.
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Hard News: Doing over the witness, in reply to Katharine Moody,
“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
― George Orwell+1
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Hard News: Home advantage, in reply to Terry Baucher,
Pollard's first try stemmed from a pass from Jean de Villiers to Willie le Roux which was at least a yard forward. No-one complained about it but I noted the TV director was a bit slow, shall we say, replaying the whole move.
I called that forward pass when it happened and replayed it on MySky after the director decided not to. Yes, the officials missed it and as partisan TV direction goes, this game offers a prime example.
However the ABs let themselves down a few times by being slow to the breakdown and turning down those two shots at goal. Regardless, it was a great game of rugby to watch. And Fekitoa was stunning.