TDB Prisoner Rights Blogger Arthur Taylor challenging the Government
Our line up of bloggers who have gone onto great things is pretty long. Marama Davidson is now the leader of the Green Party, Carmel Sepuloni is now a Minister, so is Willie Jackson, Efeso Collins is an Auckland Councillor, and Penny Hulse is the deputy Mayor. We’ve broken some of the biggest stories, the ponytail pulling incident, my case against the NZ Police at the Human Rights Review tribunal and we led the debate against the mass surveillance state with out live streamed Town Hall meetings but this week it’s our blogger inside prison, Arthur Taylor who is taking the government to task over their rules to ban prisoners from voting…
The notorious criminal threatening Parliament’s powers
Arthur Taylor is a not a man to be messed with. He has over 150 convictions, ranging from fraud to armed robbery to kidnapping.In 1998, he teamed up with murderer Graeme Burton and some others to burst out of Paremoremo prison, made it 200 kilometres, and then hid in a fancy Coromandel holiday home.
But this time, instead of running away from the legal system, he’s tackling it head on. Taylor has been serving his current sentence since 2006, and is imprisoned at Waikeria. Yet he has managed to take two legal cases all the way to the Supreme Court – Taylor v Attorney-General and Ngaronoa v Attorney-General.
What makes these two cases truly fascinating is that they could each set a precedent for undermining Parliament’s dominance in our legal system.
…we wish Arthur all the best in his fight against the State.
Other blogs write about the political landscape.
TDB actively tries to change it.
yeah and whose bill was it the one hit wonder ex cop Paul Quinn hooray! he’s gone but before he left he left his mess denying our prisoners the right to vote. In the mean time his nasty party were shipping in migrant by the thousand to prop up their rich business mates with cheap labour and so we see the trickle up not he trickle down.
Ever heard of jury nullification?
Yes.
We in NZ, however, more favour a form of Jury nullification (when a jury returns a verdict of “Not Guilty” despite evidence that the defendant is guilty), where the effect nullifies a law that we believe should never be applied to any police officer. NZers hold steadfastly to a view that police should never be found guilty of any crime resulting from the bullying misuse of their powers, particularly but not exclusively against youth and Maori. We are relaxed that our findings are immoral or wrongly applied, after all the being a police officer is a tough gig and our bigger duty is to protect them.
You are right, but the majority of ‘ordinary’ (brain washed) NZers do honestly not care a bit of shit about Arthur Taylor and people like him. It is a sad of a state of affairs, but the reality, I am afraid.
Your right Marc but I would like to add the majority of NZers don’t give a shit about anyone but themselves. (selfish)