The New Zealand Herald supports torture – for shame David Fisher

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barcodeLead head kicker and redneck foam master, David Fisher, is at it again for the NZ Herald. This time he is scratching one of the NZ Hearld’s favourite pus filled news scabs, Prisoners.

When the NZ Herald isn’t attacking Maoris, beneficiaries or Unions, it loves a bit of tough on crime lynch mob scare tactics, this time – shock horror – it’s dirty filthy prisoners being paid compensation and that comepnsation isn’t even going to the poor victims!

OH THE HORROR! OH THE SHOCK! How can Middle NZ digest their toasted muesli and selection of soft fruits when the NZ Herald paints such terrible atrocities against justice?

Prisoners paid $500,000
A child sex offender was paid $26,600 in compensation by the taxpayer under a scheme which has awarded more than $500,000 to prisoners since it came into effect in 2005.

…the despicable NZ Herald and the disgusting David Fisher even have the audacity to put a poll asking who should be paid this ‘compensation’ before the reader even has any idea what the hell the story is.

So what is actually going on here? Firstly Fisher and the Herald should be deeply ashamed of themselves. They are whipping up what should be a very clear cut issue of basic human dignity into a full blown tabloid sewer trawling.

It seems with the passing of Cameron Slater as Truth editor that Divid Fisher wants to channel Slater’s style of news filth.

What has happened is that Prisons are either through their own incompetence keeping prisoners in jail longer than they have actually been sentenced for, or in the extreme case, like Auckland Paremoremo’s notorious “behaviour management regime” – the Prisoners were effectively tortured.

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So here’s the situation, the prisons are either torturing the prisoners or keeping them past their due date. That behavior by our prisons is punished by compensation which RIGHTLY goes to the prisoner who was either tortured or kept beyond their due date.

What the hell is difficult to understand about this folks? NZ Prisoners should not be tortured, and no prisoner should be kept in prison past their due date. Now I”m not defending the evil these buggers have done to others, but sweet zombie Jesus brothers and sisters, if our prisons torture prisoners by treating them inhumanly as was the case with Paremarema’s “behaviour management regime” or if we keep them locked up past the date they are due to be release – THEY SHOULD BE COMPENSATED!!!!

They are human beings before they are prisoners. If we mistreat them, our responsibility to be punished isn’t diminished by the hurt they have caused others.

So what about that compensation being paid to the victims of the prisoners crimes? Well – you can immediately see can you not the problems with this? A guard feels angry about the crimes a prisoner has committed and mistreats the prisoner knowing they will gain compensation which will then be paid out to the victim.

See where that unforeseen consequence takes us?

If a prisoner gains wealth because of the crimes they have committed, (like they sell the book rights to their criminal activities) then I agree with some of that being forced to go to the victim, but to hold up the compensation paid to the prisoners because we have either tortured the prisoner or have in fact kept them locked up well past the date they were supposed to be released is as unacceptable as the crimes these prisoners have committed.

To demand that compensation goes to the victim simply because we hate the prisoner is the basest, most Cameron Slater style journalism we’ve all had the sad misfortune of reading from the NZ Herald.

We have been so warped by hate because of the mainstream media’s reliance on crime porn to sell ratings that we have been manipulated to push for private prisons with a profit motive to incarceration, we’ve been manipulated into denying prisoners basic human rights like voting and we have been manipulated into making prisons forced labour camps where non-compliance with work denies a prisoner parole.

The spite we treat prisoners is generated by irresponsible media like the NZ Herald. David Fisher has no interest in the truth, he has an interest in angering you to buy his newspaper.

It is journalism like this that gives journalists a bad name.

The sooner this shit is behind a paywall the better.

3 COMMENTS

  1. Totally agree.

    The story was presented in an inflammatory manner; a short sensational headline and that ridiculous poll situated before the story. Couldn’t help feeling revolted just with a quick glance. Also noticed elsewhere on the site the usual typos. An unprofessional effort.

  2. In response to me tweeting about this article, Fisher has responded:

    “Oh for goodness sake, if you read it you’ll see the story is about a system which doesn’t work.”

    Because obviously I can’t have read it, otherwise I would have noticed that:

    a) the headline is about “prisoners” getting “paid” a large sum of money
    b) there’s a poll about the issue before you even get to the story
    c) the sub-headline describes keeping people in prison illegally as “an administrative bungle”
    d) the first sentence frames the story in terms of a “child sex offender” being “paid … by the taxpayer”

    … and then he finally gets into the “system” which isn’t working, entirely positioned as “criminal scum holding up reparations to innocent victims”.

    You have to get 11 paragraphs in before you’re informed that this scheme was created in response to prisoners being kept in inhumane conditions.

    Boy. We sure got this one wrong! *headdesk*

  3. Wow. It appears that even here in the usually enlightened, intelligent and open minded environment that is The Daily Blog writing about prisoners as though they are human beings will get you thumbed down. Shame.

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