There are some amazing journalists at the NZ Herald who are fighting the good fight.
Then there aren’t.
This falls into the aren’t category.
The NZ Herald story on what happened to our prisoner rights blogger Arthur Taylor during a forced transfer is an appalling piece of ‘journalism’ by a ‘journalist’ who seems far more interested in sucking up to their official sources inside the system rather than speaking truth to that power.
Disgustingly, the ‘journalist’ who wrote this spends the entire first half of the story simply regurgitating the lies of the Corrections Department. It’s not until the very last part of the story that the ‘journalist’ even mentions that Arthur was choked out during the forced transfer.
The sterilised language of the Corrections Department alleges that Taylor wilfully disobeyed an order while they moved him to another prison to help him live a life free of crime.
There is no actual explanation of what the fuck happened nor the context.
What actually happened is a goon squad forced their way into his cell, choked him out and then dragged his body out and transferred him to a new prison right in the middle of him taking Corrections to court!
This is a spiteful move by Corrections and a last chance for them to give Taylor the bash before he takes them to the Supreme Court.
In any other country that had some basic maturity, this story of Corrections choking out a Prisoner Rights activist while that prisoner is taking them to court would be the lead story.
In a country with a mainstream media that have spent decades making money out of demonising prisoners we get this bullshit from the NZ Herald.
It would be nice to see People Against Prisons Aotearoa championing this case, because their silence starts leading to the suspicion their focus is more on gender rights and not actual prisoner rights.
When the mainstream media scream against allegations that they are ‘fake news’, it’s this type of ‘journalism’ that gives proof that they are.
So you prefer the word of a career criminal who has spent more of his adult years behind bars than in front of them…I know you champion the prisoners in this blog (and of course ignore the victims) but come on…this guy is a career criminal and you think he is a saint. Once again the term ‘crim huggers’ for the left is not a fallacy but a truth and forget the inconvenient truth that he has a trail of victims over his criminal ‘career’ tsk tsk
Oh that meme to justify the ill treatment of prisoner when being incarcerated is the punishment!! And alot of context is missing from your meme like human beings have the ability to change their POV and ways behaving and circumstances that land people in the locker? etc…
Now I don’t condone Arthur behavior of the past but he’s been punished by not having the rights of a free man (Humiliated daily, freighten for your life constanly, locked up most times depending on security rating 23 hours daily, Inhibited to show feelings so become more twisted etc…) are just some what you are subjected too. So what the P.O did was extra punishment on top of what an inmate is already subjected too. Try getting some facts first before spewing your far right rants
The critical issue with allegations of ‘choke-hold’ and other assertions on this and other situations is verification. How reliable are the sources and how sympathetic are they – and possibly susceptible to bias – to the cause they are commenting on. We all have biases and if we are honest we will reveal them. My first-hand experience of this was the reporting on Springbok Tour protests. My second was on a visit to Israel and conversations with Israeli and with Palestinian citizens. Mostly both were embarrassed and angered by extremism on both sides and the distortion of truth in consequence. Their feeling was often that the most ignorant in the West were the most biased and the most vitriolic in their comments often revealing both their ignorance and their prejudice. It will take reasonable people to come to reasonable conclusions that must be based on provable evidence.
I’ve asked Corrections to release the CCTV fotage to me , as that would prove one way or the other . The difficulty with abuse allegations in prison has always been lack of ability to independently confirm those allegations . Prisons have been allowed to operate as “black boxes” , which is no longer acceptable in a decent society .
I read and re-read Martyn’s story, Imright, and nowhere could I find any reference or even a hint that he portrayed Arthur Taylor as a “saint”.
Are you able to point out where he wrote this?
Because it’s curious how you feel the need to mis-represent what Martyn wrote, to try to validate your argument. It’s as dishonest as the ‘journalist’ who wrote the ‘story’ about Arthur Taylor.
Can I congratulate the mods for allowing the comment from “I’m Right” to be published. Without commenting on their “rightness”, it is refreshing to see a blog allowing publication of what is an incredibly inflammatory comment within the context of the blogs ideological bent. So often blogs will shut out voices from the polar opposite of their base, and quite often you get comments sections full of nothing other than affirmations (even this blog has shown that, and often).
The challenge is to allow this level and type of feedback, and moderate the ensuing discourse to make sure it doesn’t turn into a playground name-calling spat.
‘Far right rants’..my goodness, ANY public survey taken in the last decade all have the same results in that prisoners have it easy in NZ prisons. No fear factor for repeat criminals (Arthur Taylor), if it was as terrible as they all make out why do crime when they get out again and again. Ohhh wait, I’m forgetting this is a left blog, ‘its not their fault’ philosophy and its everyone else’s…its societies fault eh? 🙂
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