The knee-jerk response by National to any problem is the immediate mutilation of civil rights. They’re proposing it for prisoners by simply repealing their right to vote despite not having a Parliamentary super majority to do it. They were suggesting it for beneficiaries who don’t vaccinate their children, they are promising it with gang members and now those suspected of child abuse.
The right to silence is about 500 years old and a corner stone of our legal and civil rights.
We all feel angry at the manner in which children are harmed and those suspected don’t answer, it’s disgusting.
BUT
You don’t just reverse half a millennia of legal jurisprudence because you’re angry at some individuals who are hiding a crime.
This isn’t political leadership by National, it’s the shrill scream of the lynch mob.
You don’t destroy legal rights as a way to get easier convictions, surely we can all see that right?
Right?
With such a shallow understanding and respect for Legal history, Bridges reminds of the lightweight fools Trump is appointing to Court positions in the US that are undermining their Justice system.
Right to Silence being lifted from people that the cops deem need to be deprived of it is one thing, does anyone really think they would limit this approach to one type of offence?
This is NZ National vote herding at its worst and ugliest. Child abuse will only ever be substantially reduced when we stop running the type of “dog eat dog” society which National supports to the hilt–just yesterday they promised to legislate to lower the minimum wage!
Absolutely agree with your last paragraph especially.
Simon Bridges and Natz appealing to its callous redneck support base. Those who bring themselves to orgasm at the thought of such policies!
The man is an idiot, I am sure he knows as many of us know if we had a more equal society this tragic problem we have would drop dramatically. Clearly he has never read The Spirit Level!
Surely it’s pretty legal just like Simon’s dodgy donations….
“National Party leader Simon Bridges says it came as a surprise to him that a Serious Fraud Office prosecution relates to two $100,000 donations to the party.
Court documents obtained by RNZ show charges have been laid against four people over the donations in June 2017 and June 2018.
The documents show three defendants each face two joint charges of deception.
The charge sheet said they used a “fraudulent trick or device” to break up the 2018 donation into sums less than $15,000 which were then transferred into the bank accounts of eight different people, before being paid into a National Party electorate account.
It also said that happened “in circumstances where the identity of the donor was not disclosed in National’s annual return”.”
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/409785/national-donations-sfo-charge-details-a-surprise-bridges
Lol have you read labour/green/nz firsts new gun laws? That you cheerled?
Warrantless searches, loss of right to silence, disclosure of medical history etc etc.
I agree that these rights should be sacrosanct for EVERYONE, but come on don’t defend the child killers while you attack the rights of law abiding citizens.
Good God who is defending the the child killers, no one – however we will continue to have them in big numbers unless we become a more equal society.
Educate yourself by reading the Spirit Level!
No! we have a very lot of very naïve and dumb people in NZ. And we know how many don’t have much of a moral or ethical compass when they can still vote for a party that has implicated itself in fraudulent behaviour. And yet many of these very people voting for national have a tendency to act holy than thou and are the very people who are quick to put the boot into others. It is fucken hypocrisy and its rampant in our country no wonder our country is so divided.
Right, but i have a horrible feeling that your post will be met with a deafening silence Martyn.
ps.
have not heard much lately about the tried convicted and sentenced in these pages brierly.
Well, maybe not a deafening silence, but I would rather expect despairing responses from those who see the rights of children as more important than those of perpetrators or their supporters. As for the sanctity of 500 years, Dickens may have had a point.
In the past the National government has been utterly dependent on their right to silence, whether it be their dirty dealings, spying on New Zealanders or MP impropriety/illegality. If you watched the doco The 5th Eye the other night, you would have noticed what I thought was a telling moment in the film, when John Key was being pressed by Rebecca Wright on the GCSB Bill, and after mumbling about how Kiwis care more about fishing than privacy he finally dropped his bundle and declared “Because I said so”. Yes this tyrant and his goons were responsible for your confidential information and your right of discovery. The right to silence for the National government also manifested in the film with the classified XKeyscore programs (and others), the illegal spying on Kim Dotcom, and the global campaign to monitor everyone (the Labour governments were also willing to sell our sovereignty to the highest bidder). Paranoid administration’s use this power differential playbook to both control populations and to make money. These creepy, panty-sniffing spy deviants have no place in an open, transparent, fair, legal and democratic society.
Spot on we all need to wake up as to what is happening.
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