It’s official, the Sensible Sentencing Trust are a racist lynch mob – welcome to our casual KKK

With just one press release, the Sensible Sentencing Trust have managed to go from the screaming lynch mob of muddle Nu Zilind to the racist screaming lynch mob of muddle Nu Zilind.

I have never respected the Sensible Sentencing Trust. They manipulate victim grief and anger in a  despicable manner and it’s never been made clear who the bloody hell actually funds them but their decision to try and defend all the damage they’ve done to a progressive prison system by warping it into the deranged punishment factory we have now by going full blown racist is as sickening as it is intellectually cancerous.

Look at this fucking bullshit…

Lately Uncle Tom Cobley and all have opined about the causes of the high rate of Maori criminal recidivism. The Waitangi Tribunal says it’s the government’s fault. The Maori Party says it’s down to “institutional racism”. A retired Maori probation officer says it’s the fault of the Corrections Department. Sensible Sentencing says that is all nonsense.

“Firstly, such claims are an insult to the many thousands of Maori families who realize that the key to their kids’ advancement in life is education, and who do everything to encourage their children to attain the skills necessary to live a good productive and law abiding life in the modern world” said Sensible Sentencing Trust founder Garth McVicar.

“We have had a free secular education system to High School level for every New Zealander for going on eighty years. Maori, along with white children and others of the many races now making up New Zealand, all start equally in the school system at age five. As soon as five years later, but certainly by High School, there are stark differences – most Asian children achieving well above the average, many Maori children well below” McVicar says.

“Why is that? It can’t be language – Maori children are now invariably brought up with English as their first language, whereas Asian children may struggle to learn in English at first. I simply do not accept that there is any ‘institutional racism’ in our school system – except perhaps some positive discrimination in favour of Maori Children in an effort to help them achieve” said McVicar.

“Let’s face up to reality: Asian children achieve much better on average than their European and Maori classmates because Asian families greatly value educational achievement. Sadly, in many Maori homes, trying to succeed at school is derided as ‘acting white’ and actively discouraged. Kids leaving school – whatever their race – with poor levels of attainment are going to struggle…that is a reality. And sadly more Maori kids leave school without qualifications than other kids. That’s where the problems start” McVicar says.

“While kids of all races join gangs, again the reality is that most of the youth gangs are Maori or Polynesian rather than white or Asian. According to the Maori Party, such gangs are just another form of whanau, and that’s why kids join. Well, if the Mongrel Mob “whanau” is better than any prospect member’s actual whanau, whose fault is that? We say it’s not the government’s or the Police’s or the courts’ – it is the parents.”

“Some Maori blame Corrections – just exactly what are they supposed to do with inmates whose values are those of the gang, and who sneer and laugh at the values of ordinary members of society? Corrections staff are not miracle workers, and sadly by the time an adult gang member first comes to prison it is probably too late” said McVicar.

“Maori leaders are always telling us that non Maori should keep out of Maori issues; that they know best how to deal with their own people. Well, seven years after the latest miracle programme Whanau Ora was introduced, Maori achievement rates are no better than they were, and if anything, gang membership and imprisonment rates have got worse, not better”

“Maori need to stop blaming everyone and everything but themselves for Maori failure and start taking a long hard analytical look at themselves – and at Maori role models, there is no shortage of them. It may be that the message of people like author Alan Duff is one many Maori leaders don’t want to hear…if so that is a tragedy, and Maori children will continue to find themselves at the bottom of the economic heap, and in prison.”

…where does one even begin with such written fuckwittery?

Lately Uncle Tom Cobley and all have opined about the causes of the high rate of Maori criminal recidivism. The Waitangi Tribunal says it’s the government’s fault. The Maori Party says it’s down to “institutional racism”. A retired Maori probation officer says it’s the fault of the Corrections Department. Sensible Sentencing says that is all nonsense.

Let’s start with the bizarre crossed metaphor these clowns use, ‘Uncle Tom Cobley’? Who the fuck wrote this press release? An 1800s vaudeville reviewer? ‘Uncle Tom Cobley’ is a very old British reference to ‘everyone’ but only very old people out of touch with the modern world would ever even use that phrase and when you consider the context of this press release which is called ‘Maori criminal offending is a Maori problem’ using ‘Uncle Tom’ anywhere suggests a lack of cultural sensitivity eclipsed only by active members of the Ku Klux Klan.

But that’s just the first sentence, let’s continue. The racist lynch mob lists people who argue that the prison system is racist, but they only mention the Maori Party and the Maori corrections officer – what about the Prime Minister who described our prison system as a moral failure or the Police Boss who admitted the Police had an ‘unconscious bias’ towards Maori? No mention of them, just the Maaaaoris who call the current system a racist failure.

Garth McVicar, the Grand Cyclops of the Sensible Sentencing Trust, then has the audacity to claim that pointing out our prison system is racist is actually insulting to Maori…

“Firstly, such claims are an insult to the many thousands of Maori families who realize that the key to their kids’ advancement in life is education, and who do everything to encourage their children to attain the skills necessary to live a good productive and law abiding life in the modern world”

…words fucking fail me. Look you sack of shit, using Maori to hide behind the damaged and warped prison empire you helped build is about as intellectually bankrupt as it gets. Those Maori families succeed DESPITE the racist prison system you helped empower, that you can’t even see that is the problem Garth.

The Grand Cyclops continues…

“We have had a free secular education system to High School level for every New Zealander for going on eighty years. Maori, along with white children and others of the many races now making up New Zealand, all start equally in the school system at age five. As soon as five years later, but certainly by High School, there are stark differences – most Asian children achieving well above the average, many Maori children well below”

“Why is that? It can’t be language – Maori children are now invariably brought up with English as their first language, whereas Asian children may struggle to learn in English at first. I simply do not accept that there is any ‘institutional racism’ in our school system – except perhaps some positive discrimination in favour of Maori Children in an effort to help them achieve”

… is he honestly going there? Are you fucking kidding me? Garth, Maori have been failed by our education system since our education system was set up. Maori continue to fail at higher levels in every measurable bracket and all research that examines why Maori fail educationally are boiled down to two points. The first is the long term economic impact of Maori losing 90% of their land in one century and the second is the preconceived limitations  placed upon those students by mainly Pakeha teachers. Holding up our slightly racist education system that doesn’t work for Maori because of historic injustice and garden variety bigotry on the part of the white teachers as your defence that NZ isn’t racist is just so incredibly ignorant it defies belief that anyone editing Garth’s press release would allow it to go out.

The sanctimonious prick even goes as far as to suggest that Maori would actually benefit from any of those ‘positive discriminations’ that have so tilted the playing field into the unfair advantage that sees so many Maori with the worst poverty, incarceration, education achievement, health and home ownership rates.

Oh yes, dem dam Maaaaaaoris are just riding the pigs back all the way to the fucking bank ain’t they folks?

But wait the Grand Cyclops is about to drop his devastating conculsion…

“Let’s face up to reality: Asian children achieve much better on average than their European and Maori classmates because Asian families greatly value educational achievement. Sadly, in many Maori homes, trying to succeed at school is derided as ‘acting white’ and actively discouraged. Kids leaving school – whatever their race – with poor levels of attainment are going to struggle…that is a reality. And sadly more Maori kids leave school without qualifications than other kids. That’s where the problems start”

…this is pure insanity. Comparing the best migrants who can get into a country who are leaving countries with abject poverty and no civilised social welfare with the educational achievements of indigenous people who have suffered from colonialism is like comparing apples with sand.

Meaningless without any social and cultural context, which is what the Sensible Sentencing Trust do so well.

And the Grand Cyclops goes on…

“While kids of all races join gangs, again the reality is that most of the youth gangs are Maori or Polynesian rather than white or Asian. According to the Maori Party, such gangs are just another form of whanau, and that’s why kids join. Well, if the Mongrel Mob “whanau” is better than any prospect member’s actual whanau, whose fault is that? We say it’s not the government’s or the Police’s or the courts’ – it is the parents.”

…ahhh, it’s the parents fault that their children face longer and harsher prison sentences from a racist prison system and get charged with more serious offences by a racist police force and get stopped more often by a racist police force. Yes I can see how all of that structural racism is the fault of the parents…

“Some Maori blame Corrections – just exactly what are they supposed to do with inmates whose values are those of the gang, and who sneer and laugh at the values of ordinary members of society? Corrections staff are not miracle workers, and sadly by the time an adult gang member first comes to prison it is probably too late”

…they sneer and laugh because they see the system for the racist structure that it is. People pushed to the edges of society and alienated from it tend to do that Garth, and if you can’t see how your bullshit extensions of prison sentences hasn’t contributed to this, then you are a blind Grand Cyclops…

“Maori leaders are always telling us that non Maori should keep out of Maori issues; that they know best how to deal with their own people. Well, seven years after the latest miracle programme Whanau Ora was introduced, Maori achievement rates are no better than they were, and if anything, gang membership and imprisonment rates have got worse, not better”

…I don’t even know where to begin with this claim. He does get that the budget for Whanau Ora is tiny compared to the billion his prison empire sucks up right? He does understand that Whanau Ora is just a very very very small policy programme that can’t possibly do what he is pretending it can do by single handily reforming the entire prison system as well as entrenched generational poverty? Does he think the Earth is flat because his arguments come across as the sort of thinking a flat Earther would believe…

“Maori need to stop blaming everyone and everything but themselves for Maori failure and start taking a long hard analytical look at themselves – and at Maori role models, there is no shortage of them. It may be that the message of people like author Alan Duff is one many Maori leaders don’t want to hear…if so that is a tragedy, and Maori children will continue to find themselves at the bottom of the economic heap, and in prison.”

…oh fuck off you racist wanker.

What has surprised the SST is the sudden tide turning on their lock everyone up bullshit, and they are as surprised as the National Party is. Both organisations thought they could crush prisoner rights, make them suffer needlessly, treat them like animals and the public would keep rewarding National with votes and the SST with donations, but the sleepy hobbits of muddle Nu Zilind are now getting a tad suspicious at the ever climbing prison population, the egregious level of Maori incarceration (the UN have noted that our locking up of indigenous people at the rates we do borders on human rights abuse) and the stats which show prisoners are more damaged coming out of prison than when they went in.

We all have a good reason to be deeply suspicious of the Sensible Sentencing Trust. The only people who ever benefit from the types of draconian old Testament mentality towards crime are the private prisons industry.

Like the changes to parole conditions that were rammed through with the usual knee jerk justifications, like the 3 strikes law that was rammed through with the usual knee jerk justifications, like the banning prisoners from voting that was rammed through with the usual knee jerk justifications, we have politicians and media who empower the Sensible Sentencing Trust for easy votes and ratings to create warped legislation that only seems to make the private prison profit margin happy.

So who actually donates to the Sensible Sentencing Trust? We know that The GEO Group who were pitching here in NZ for the private prison contract that SERCO won are major funders of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a Washington, D.C. think tank that lobbies for tough-on-crime legislation and free-market principles such as privatization. These think tanks whip up the public debate to scream pitch and the politicians do the rest. In NZ, the Sensible Sentencing Trust refuses to disclose who funds them, GEO fund these groups overseas, do they do it here? Has the Sensible Sentencing Trust ever been funded by GEO to push for longer sentences? How about Serco who won the contract? Just who benefits from the Sensible Sentencing Trust and why are they still allowed to have such a negative impact on our law making process by contaminating social policy with fear and anger?

The Sensible Sentencing Trust, just like crime porn mainstream media and ‘get-tough-on-crime’ Politicians are PART of our prison problem, they have no place in the solution and now they have openly come out as racist, they deserve no platform whatsoever.