Arthur Taylor* is a civil rights hero.
Yes, he has committed crimes. Yes he has hurt people. Yes, he paid his price for those crimes by being in prison most of his life.
I won’t detail the cruelty and abuse that infected much of Arthur’s early live while in state care (Keith Locke did an amazing job of that in last weeks blog), and I’m not here to make excuses for his actions, but if we try to understand why people become criminals, we need to explore their past…
When Arthur Taylor was eleven he was sent to the Epuni Boys Home for skipping school. It was a brutal institution (and Arthur later received a government apology and compensation for being mistreated there). Like most such institutions the Epuni Home was a school for crime, so it was no surprise that Arthur committed his first crimes, for burglary and car conversion, after he escaped from the Home. He was in and out of prison from that time on and has spent two thirds of his life, around 40 years, behind bars.
…but it’s Arthur’s ability to go beyond the trauma of his childhood that makes him civil rights hero.
From behind bars he legally challenged the Government repeatedly on its actions towards prisoners.
He successfully beat the Government over their hypercritical prisoner smoking ban.
He successfully beat the Government using the deeply corrupt jailhouse snitch system.
He successfully beat the Government over their abusive mass strip searches policy, and most recently, he has overturned the Governments unjust prisoner voting spitefulness.
That he has managed 4 significant legal victories for the rights of the most despised amongst us makes him a civil rights hero. He has stood for the rights of his fellow prisoners in a way the rest of us should but don’t.
He reminds us that even though prisoners have wronged us and must be punished, they are still human beings with human rights.
It has been an immense privilege hosting Arthur on The Daily Blog and we look forward to his blogs now he is outside of prison.
*Arthur Taylor is TDB’s prisoner rights blogger.
Anyone who stands against autocratic Government structures is a hero as you are Martyn.
To few hold on to that power that we all are enslaved with and must be challenged.
THIS ‘MAN’ IS NOT A HERO. He has cost the country millions in his incarceration, Police investigations financial losses and trauma to his victims, and misery caused to the victims of his drug dealing. He has not seen the inside of Paremoremo for the last time as a Prisoner.
Should have thought about that before talented kids where wasted in boys homes.
Gary, yet again you miss the point completely. Martyn’s blog acknowledges that Mr Taylor has committed crimes and hurt people. What he is pointing out is that Mr Taylor had a dreadful start to life and despite being treated as the lowest of the low, as you obviously see him and other prisoners as being, he fought for the rights that he and all prisoners deserve which is what the Courts have acknowledged. So to that extent Mr Taylor is a hero – he stood up not only for his rights but the rights of others.
You display the typical attitude of the ill-informed and unintelligent – a lack of compassion and understanding and a rigid view of others you look down on.
It is apparent from you comments that you have never been in a situation where you have had to stand up for your rights but you have no right to attack people who have had a dreadful start in life and who have had to stand up for themselves.
Awesome reply.
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