Yesterday 14 year old Haami Hanara was convicted of murdering 40 year old homeless man Kelly Donner behind a Flaxmere Tavern in March of this year.
Hanara’s family described Haami as a “sweet kid” and some pf those who knew Kelly Donner described him as a lovely, friendly “gentle” guy.
So how does one nice person end up killing another nice person?
The trial didn’t tell us.
Trials often don’t, because the prosecution is simply focused on proving who did it and the defence on countering that evidence.
The why question – the motivation -is often never discussed.
We know that 4 other teenagers whose ages range from 14 to 16 were involved in the attack.
What we don’t know is what underlying social forces brought the victim and his killer together.
Why was Kelly Donner homeless?
Why was he reduced to hunting for cigarette stubs behind the Flaxmere Tavern that night?
Why were Haami Hanara and his mates out after 10 pm on a Saturday night trying to break into a tavern to get alcohol?
Why was he carrying a knife?
What do we know about the home life of the five young attackers?
What efforts has the community been making to tackle the issue of teenagers at risk? Or to improve parenting skills?
What efforts were made to provide Kelly with a safe place to sleep or deal with his life issues?
What part does poverty , inequality and the politics of selfishness play in generating violent crimes?
Don’t get me wrong – I’m not looking to point an accusing finger or apportion blame.
But we learn nothing from such terrible events if we fail to ask ourselves the uncomfortable question -What kind of society are we creating where such tragic things happen?
Yes, individuals who commit crimes must take responsibility for them – but our community sets the scene for such crimes to happen …and for THAT we must ALL take responsibility.
Bryan Bruce is one of NZs most respected documentary makers and public intellectuals who has tirelessly exposed NZs neoliberal economic settings as the main cause for social issues.
The legal system in NZ doesn’t work .. except for the police, lawyers and friends of judges – for them it works pretty well.
Sweet kid my arse.
Very rarely do friends and family of these psychopaths ever tell the truth about them.
You know, how they are vicious scum that will spend their entire lives hurting and killing others.
I’m sure someone described William Bell as a sweet kid at some point
@JAYS.
There’s significant evidence available which argues sociopaths are built by environmental circumstances beyond their control while psychopaths are born just that extra little bit special.
Nurture versus Nature etc I guess.
Psychopaths roam our communities in all sorts of shape and sizes. You’ll find those people in all walks of life. And increasingly , as studies show, in positions of power.
It’s once psychopaths gain power, which enables them to exert control over others for their frisson’s and diddle/vagina sparks, that trouble begins for everyone. And commonly, a symptom of the exertion of psychopaths on society is the proliferation of that other , and for the want of a better word,demonic, dysfunction; sociopathy.
And there’s no better hunting ground for psychopaths than within a capitalist society. Once in power, they can play with virtually no constraints and can admire their deviant handy work as victims like the kid and the bloke above fall/were shoved into the pit of tar the psychopaths dig and fill for them.
Kids, like the kid above, was built. He was constructed by a dysfunctional high society of sick fucks who delight in seeing people fail and suffer. Unfortunately, there are other people, people like you @JAYS who don’t understand those nuances and want to label, file as worthless,lock up then torture those who are victims themselves which is what led to that kid above being in the situation he’s in now. And that goes equally for his victim. The poor bastard scuffling around in the back of a pisser looking for the sucked on fag ends of others? All class darlings, is it not? Would he have been doing that if he could have afforded cigarettes? ( A word on fags. They’re too expensive. It’s a ghoulish way to collect taxes and the laws around tobacco should be relaxed to make cigarettes more available to the lost, anxious and the miserable. And for those who simply like to smoke. Humans! We’re humans. Not cattle in need of a drench.I don’t smoke tobacco but I would argue for people who do to be able to do it without the spiteful and cynical rorting. Latest studies findings. People are fatter and sadder but smoke less. https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/opinion/99029459/editorial-nz-smoking-less-but-getting-fatter-and-sadder)
A good measure of society is by how we treat our most vulnerable and of how we embrace our eccentrics. All we do is hero worship rich psychopaths and take a beating with a doffed cap when they feel we deserve it.
That kid’s going to prison for years no doubt. His spirit and soul will slowly wither and die and he’ll become a husk because the life-script he was given was written by $-powerful psychopathic scumbags.
“A good measure of society is by how we treat our most vulnerable and of how we embrace our eccentrics.” You’ve said it again Countryboy.
I am bone weary of discussing this with both whanau and friends, some of whom are racist and righteously intolerant. Two lots of my nice Chinese neighbours are referred to as, “Them” or “The Asians”.
We have our share of local nutters, one of whom knocks at my door requesting money, with wonderfully far-fetched stories about why he has none. I like him. I have given him bags of food, but he says no tinned fish, as the only seafood he likes is Bluff oysters. I rather like that too.
Another odd ball I occasionally gift cooking is an import with no living relatives. I think that totally horrific, but have been warned off him too, when I pondered asking him for help with my vege plot.
I don’t understand this intolerance of difference and have decided to become intolerant of it. I don’t think that we used to be this way – and I won’t doff my hat.
Haami Hanara’s parents claim that their son was a little angel. They would of course. So what was he doing with a knife, with his mates after 10pm trying apparently to break into a tavern to get alcohol? . A gift for the parents perhaps.
Several comments suggest Haami Hanara is a psychopath He probably is and, Yes, such people are largely made by their environment. We can see his future as well as we can know his past. Nothing will change him now. The millions of tax payers money that will be wasted on him is irretrievable. We badly want a better judicial system. But in the meantime can we please stop quoting eulogies from parents who have probably done more to create this little monster than we will ever know.
William Bell might be a mongrel but he was also a victim of the state He was abused by the state as a young man little wonder he has ended up so angry and violent who is being held accountable, no one yet its still ongoing after many many years he is one of the many young Maori men abused by the state now is the state going to pay ?
what load of bullshert Dennis are you a psychologist ? people can change and they do if they have the right environment and the right people around them and the means to do so.
Its a sad event on all accounts.
Hope the kid turns his life around, does his time and makes amends with the Donner family.
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