“LAW AND ORDER is the enactment of laws and their strict enforcement by police and the courts; and the safe, civil and orderly functioning of society viewed especially as a result of the enactment and strict enforcement of laws.”
functioning society and law and order – Search (bing.com)
Law and order used to be a concern of governments. They would campaign on it, and the law had teeth. The Crimes Act goes back to 1961 and was “An Act to consolidate and amend the Crimes Act 1908 and certain other enactments of the Parliament of New Zealand relating to crimes and other offences”. The Act stands today with many amendments and with sections repealed.
Notwithstanding an apparently fit-for-purpose Crimes Act, we have a crime wave across the board that now surpasses any other to date, and which goes hand-in-hand with the escalating cost-of-living crisis. Poto Williams and Commissioner of Police Andrew Coster are about as much use as a chocolate teapot, with crime creating daily headlines and little police action. Money has been made available and the minister and commissioner offer platitudes without action. The Government pays lip service to it, denying they are soft on crime.
Once again, we have an infant killed and no action taken, given that the family simply refuses to talk.
Sofia Taueki-Jackson was killed at her mother’s home in Clover Park, South Auckland, in May 2020 and police are yet to arrest anyone for the child’s death. […]
An obstruction charge against a family member in an unsolved killing of a 14-month-old has been dropped.
Unsolved baby homicide: Obstruction charge dropped against family member | Stuff.co.nz
Taueki-Jackson suffered more than 20 injuries to her head and neck. No arrest has been made for the 14-month-old’s death two years on. Police said some key whanau were “refusing to assist the investigation team”.
A shameful outcome.
We have, of course, seen this before. The Kahui twins will live on only in the minds of those of us outraged by their brutal deaths and the lack of accountability for those deaths.
“The Right to Silence. Four direct family members and 20 extended family members were interviewed by the police after the twin’s deaths. No one spoke up. The “Tight 12” became the reference to the cowardly behaviour of 12 family members who refused to co-operate with the police investigation. The Right to Silence was questioned by prosecution lawyers, victim advocates, social workers and the concerned public who wanted to see justice served for these innocent, vulnerable babies.”
The Unheard Truth: Kahui Twins – Sensible Sentencing Trust (SST)
And once again the life of an innocent child is just a statistic, lost in time. These precious babies brought into families who fail and then kill them and then close ranks against the rest of society. The Right to Silence is enshrined in our Bill of Rights and in other legislation. Commit the crime, do no time. How can this possibly be?
And, on the same day the Right to Silence was used by the family of two-year-old Sofia in Clover Park in Auckland, there was the report by Newstalk ZB of the terrible accident in Whangarei that saw the life of an innocent child severely compromised and his mother lose her job and the home that went with it. The man who permanently disabled the eight-year-old was an 11-time drink driver who chose to disregard a driving ban for the 10th time. The tenth time. And his immediate reaction following the accident he deliberately caused was, as noted by police at the scene, “Well that’s the next two years of my life f****d.” His life. Not a thought for the lives of those he had destroyed.
And as dreadful as that is the sentence that was passed. Judge Tomlinson found that
[T]he lead charge – aggravated drink-driving causing injury – was punishable by up to five years’ jail. While this offence came near to the top of that range, it was not the worst case and the court had to reserve the top sentence range for those.
[Judge Tomlinson] set a sentence starting point of three years, six months, uplifting it by 12 months for Stringfellow’s previous relevant conviction and a further six months for the driving while disqualified and breach of intensive supervision offences. […]
He disqualified Stringfellow from driving for five years, noting it needed to extend well beyond his release and could be redundant given Stringfellow’s past lack of compliance.
The boy’s grandmother was in court for the sentencing and was visibly upset throughout.”
Northland boy permanently disabled
The poor woman. My heart goes out to this poor family broken by an unrepentant Stringfellow: a scumbag who deserves not this lenient sentence but a real penalty. It’s a pity the death penalty was repealed from the Crimes Act 1961.
And we now have ram-raiders – predominantly out-of-control children. What has happened to parental responsibility? We are all too frequently told that teen brains don’t yet function fully and that they are just doing as their unformed brains tell them.
Teen Brain: Behavior, Problem Solving, and Decision Making.
Adolescents differ from adults in the way they behave, solve problems, and make decisions. There is a biological explanation for this difference. Studies have shown that brains continue to mature and develop throughout childhood and adolescence and well into early adulthood.
Teen Brain: Behavior, Problem Solving, and Decision Making (aacap.org)
Bollocks. Our teen brains were required to function as they had been taught: with common sense, with respect, with knowledge of right from wrong – and with the fear of reprisals and consequences. Our brains worked just fine. And yet in these enlightened times we read of these terrible crimes against society every day of the week by children and teens – however you call them. And they want it both ways – is a 17-year-old, a teen with an unformed brain, or as reported in Stuff, a 17-year-old man?
Police have arrested a 17-year-old man over three burglaries of retail stores, including one ramraid.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/300592290/police-arrest-17yearold-over-three-burglaries-including-one-ramraid
Make your minds up. And they want 16-year-olds to vote? With their underdeveloped brains. That makes sense then.
And the Labour Government?
Under their soft-on-crime regime and with the PM generously giving our hard-earned dollars to gangs, since Labour came to office in 2017, gang membership has increased by over 50 per cent, violent crime has increased by over 20 per cent and assaults are up over 30 per cent.
Does this Government plan on changing its stance on gang funding? Not any time soon, no.
The Government’s decision to vote down the Public Finance (Prohibition on Providing Public Funds to Gangs) Amendment Bill is another example showing Labour is completely out of touch when it comes to gangs, says National MP Simeon Brown.
“[…] the Police Minister rejected the premise that gang tensions have increased under the Government’s watch, despite evidence to the contrary. Since Labour took office, gang membership has risen by over 40 per cent and violent crime has risen by 21 per cent.
Labour Stops Bill To Prevent Public Funding Of Gangs | Scoop News
Law and order should be a priority for this Government. We have the right to live in a safe, civil and orderly functioning society.