Notoriety and Responsibility

Notoriety and Responsibility

A recent police action resulted in a drug bust and the arrest of David Henderson, twice self-made property millionaire. Famously, two former sports celebrities have been implicated despite public knowledge of their identity they remain at large and under "name-supression". This highlights not the side effect of name supression, but the main point - to bestow immunity from publication in the media. Although the media know who they are and although they are already in the media, the media can not discuss it and possibly can not make it in any way obvious as to the identity of the individuals concerned.

Meantime, word gets out. Perhaps that is a good thing. David Henderson's immediate return to NZ from overseas to plead guilty to the crime of possession of cocaine may or may not have been a good idea. Waiting until the dust settled may have had advantages, perhaps, but this man is putting himself at the mercy of the court.

The police operation also resulted in the arrest of the manager of a successful Auckland café - charged as a co-conspiritor to the "kin-pin" - a 55 year old company director. And eighth man has since been arrested.

Two sporting celebrities named in court documents have so far not been charged and their identities remain protected by suppression orders.

Meantime, the Police face random drug testing a measure to restore confidence in the force. The public apparently need their confidence restored in the police. One can imagine after all the attacks on George Hawkins, the Minister of the Police, the Government likely wish to be seen doing something about crime.

Aquittal and innocence

Aquittal and Innocence

Being let off a crime perhaps describes what happened with OJ Simpson. Although he was also found "not guilty" nobody really believed that he should have been. But the case against him must have failed for reasons rather than imagined reasons.

It is entirely different to the Michael Jackson case. For a start, the double OJ murder certainly displayed the usual elements of motive, opportunity and means. Tangible evidence was not presented that could determine guilt so it was the fault of the state that guilt was not established. A defendent does not have to prove that they did not commit the crime, if the prosecutor can not prove that they did. It is the job of the police to clearly establish guilt.

The case presented against Michael Jackson is also different as there is no forensic evidence, but not believeable "evidence" from the "victim". Or "lies" from the "con artist". Depending upon how one looks at it.

Many seem to want to believe that the Bashir documentary is "evidence enough" of abuse. But it is not. Michael Jackson said he "shared his bed" - the minor detail that he may not have been there himself - is not entirely clear. One can imagine all one likes. It is evidence presented by the prosection. And they had free run of Neverland and that means that the opportunity for evidence collection has been explored.

Now it is time to leave the poor man alone. Or he may develop more weird tendancies and it seems that America can not really cope with its modern day Osacar Wilde persecution trial. Lucky Michael Jackson did not take the stand or worse, try to defend himself.

NOT GUILTY

Michael Jackson was found NOT GUILTY on all ten counts.

What Money can't buy

Latest Business News and Financial Information | Reuters.com Citibank has the most money of all the banks, apparently, putting aside 6 billion dollars for contingent liabilities was a bit of a sneeze, but they will get over it. They just had to pay out 2 billion for Enron exposure. That 2 billion was effectively stolen from their customers with their consent and was less than their exposure to Worldcom.

If Michael Jackson had that much money, he of course could not buy his way out of conviction. The jury remains out, and its little wonder with over 20 conviction decisions to wade through. It sounds like the court has handed over a huge legal assignment to the jury in a 98 page complex agenda.

Enjoy, then, these quotable quotes from New Criminologist.

I think that the one that applies in this case may be:

"A man without money need no more fear a crowd of lawyers than a crowd of pickpockets." William Wycherley, "The Plain Dealer", 1674.

Police - Crime vs Traffic

The real job

There is plenty of outcry in New Zealand about police sitting at the side of the road pointing a speed radar gun at the passing population of frustrated and sometimes frightened drivers. Frightened? The aggression or misbehaviour of many Auckland drivers is indeed a factor in road safety. There is no doubt that road accidents causes more than a reasonable proportion of early death than other forms of human activity that involve motion or mechisation. Univesality exposes us to each other in a very risky way. Our behaviour patterns and reactions are the very key to our survival. It may or may not be like other forms of crime in that it can be a consequence of frustration that we become lacking in the self-control dept. But when our muscles respond to the release of certain hormones we hope this does not translate to an additional 50 kms per hour of volocity on top as the acclerator is pushed down in anger. When we become angry, we lash out seeking satisfaction. A foot to the floor kind of reaction is the most dangerous form of unpredictability on the road. It need not be in anger, but at times when our attention is gathered by other things than paying attention to the detail of how our own vehicle is functioning and in relation to other vehicles hurtling or crawling along the highway.

This still does not answer why we need police to sit in their cars aiming a portable radar gun at us? Are random vehicles appearing over the crest of a rise or behind a favoured moterway signage blindspot more of a hinderance to safety than an aid to good behaviour? Probably not, and that is why the police seek to better our patterns of behaviour on the road. If they can prevent 400 deaths per annum, then they are doing four times more good than if they stopped every single murder.

It is fairly reasonable to argue that the lives of people who are connected in someway, however casual, to a murdering psychotic are in more need of police attention. But then, so many of us become murdering maniacs behind a wheel when someone or something has pissed us off. Like a parking ticket. We get behind the wheel and start letting off steam by punching down on the accelerator. Everyone has done it.

It is that behaviour, if we learn to correct it in our selves, prevents the dangerous spread of frustration between drivers. It would certainly help if drivers were able to simply able to keep their distances at least two whole seconds apart at all times. There would be far fewer accidents. Driving would be less frustrating.

And the police could concentrate their efforts on real criminals. The real stars of the 6pm news. Why do we want them sitting at the roadside?

Scotsman.com News - Latest News - Accuser's Credibility Is the Key in Michael Jackson Trial

Scotsman.com News - Latest News - Accuser's Credibility Is the Key in Michael Jackson Trial The boy who cried wolf brought crowds of people to his aid before they stopped believing him. The passage of time will show the common sense result, that there is a reasonable doubt. It is described by The Scotsman, at 6:44pm Sunday 29th May. It indicates that the boy, the key witness, more likely than not, has been convinced by his mother to tell the story. Each time he tells it, details are left out. By not presenting hard evidence but possible corrupt testimony the prosecution steers away from the jury defocusing from the simple conflict of the child and his cancer driven pity vs Jackson's tragically mistaken sense of proportion. If they only have that to consider, then the emotional value is in their favor.

Maybe I have missed something here, but it seems a little light on the "evidence" and it is a crimnal prosecution. Maybe the police caught the whole thing on camera, or worse, maybe someone at Never Never given a licence to film for eight months, did, when they were not suppposed to, and they gained a little more than Michael's confidence. Either way, we may have missed it. As far as I can tell, Michael Jackson could be found innocent, but if there is some other factor that means that he is guilty one does rather hope, for the sake of the US Justice system, that it is evidence rather than conveniently prepared and dished up "facts", if that is what they turn out to be.

The media do not seem to be willing to bet either way. Guilty or not, Jackson is the Bush Adminstration's moral wedge by which it can compass its way to religious domination of social values and not necessarily traditional religious social values, either. Rather new world order Christian fundamentals.

Fundamentalism rarely produces a reasonable justice system. Misjudgement, like Shappel Corby being jailed for 20 years when there are terrorists getting only 2-1/2 years. The Indosian justice system has no concept of official error. There seems to be no defence. The court can ignore the obvious and proceed to offend the rest of the world with blatent cruelty. It only need deport Shappel Corby and be done with it, handing her indictment back to the Australian Governent that is responsible for her. She was on holiday and accuses an Australian baggage handler - next, some Australian baggage handlers are themselves being brought up on Australian heroin smuggling operations. Co-incidence? I don't think so.

That Shappel Corby is more likely innocent than not comes from her immediate concern for her mother on realizing the horror of her sentence. 20 years, even if she were guilty (when no evience has been admissable, guilt is doubtful as it has not been established, not guilty is the only verdict) is unecessarily harsh for 4-1/2 kg of cannabis. It is ironic that a cold blooded calculating psychotic murdered a man for no particular reason then attacked his girlfriend and her friend with a sword, severing off one of her hands (later reattached, we are told). He was also sentenced, on the same day, to 20 years without parole. A special sentence for bad bad types. Shappel Corby would be scared off after 3 days in an Indonesian prison. They need not worry,. she will never return to their fair but probably polluted shores.

Neither will anybody not prepared to risk trusting luggage handlers not to interfere with their luggage.. They do. Customs Officers also inspect our bagage. Heaven help us if they start to interfere with the luggage.

The jury have different minds to the rest pf us. They may not react the same as "everyone else". They may come to different conclusions bearing witness to the actual personalities involved. One can not fault the defence for preventing their "key witness" not to take the stand.

However, Jackson may not be allowed to be innocent before proof of guilt is presented.

It may be a little late for proof to be presented, since the prosecution has rested its case. Do the media, or any commentators, in passing judgement, not do the "system" a disfavour? Is it actually quite hard to maintain the equalibrium of calm separation that an emotional case such as this may require when, whichever finding is made, one can be quite sure of a value in telling one's story after it.

It could be considered a crime to profit from close connection with such a case. It could be deemed criminal to ride on the shirtails of justice.

Insanity Plea falls flat

Personality problem and P use do not constitute legal "insanity".

Guilt is established when responsibility can be assigned. Therefore, in criminal cases for minors, or for the mentally incompetent, guilt may not be established beyond a reasonable doubt.

In this case a man was murdered by the now convicted defendant, in cold blood to "send a message" to police. The defendant looks wide eyed and crazed at the jury but they were not intimited or did they flinch from finding him guilty.

The judge handed down a 20 year non-parole jail term as the prisoner in the dock yelled out "bring back the electric chair".

Does this mean that there is a difference between legal "insanity" and actual irrationality?

The legal precident that P use can not justify crimes appears to have been set.

Children and Crime in New Zealand

When a child turns 17 the law stops protecting and starts stepping in where anti social activity becomes something that is being caused by a person empowered by "society" to make choices. When those choices include hurting other people, the law steps in to protect the other people.

Liberal forces will tell us we should be trying to rehabilitate the criminal. Progressive thinkers believe that is the evolved way to proceed. The criminal has made their pleasure known - they want to cause movement. They want to show someone fundamental that they can make things happen, and underneath that they want to show that they can survive.

The trouble with difficult childhoods is the amount of attention not placed on normal progression. To much time get spent looking at how to escape the difficulty or the memory of the difficulty. Violence toward children, when it is inflicted young enough, can cause developmental abberations. Ritual violence or repeated instances of pain inflicted with cruelty subverts the normal social process of being rewarded for social behaviour and having antisocial tendencies blunted by educative progress.

For, what is a society but an organised system of interactions. Social conditions are setup by law - laws enable me to complain and thus control the status of things. This control is an artificial endowment. But it serves to carve out a behaviour pattern that we become familiar with, and a behaviour pattern we can live with.

Unfortunately, the process of criminal youth justice assumes that the child comes from parents who are at fault. When a child commits too many crimes, the state removes the child from the home. The political divide in New Zealand is between efforts to reintegrate and a failing infrastructure called Child Youth and Family Support with its very unfortunate acronym, CYFS. Subject to Government intervention and loss of its leader, this Government body chases up failing families, truants and young offenders.

Unfortunately, there is a lot of demand for the services of CYFS. The staff turnover is terrific and the quality of staff is inconsistent to low with some exceptions. The problem with a system that fails to care adequately when it is the safety net itself, and a system that takes a care of custody over children and mixes troubled adolescents along with criminal adolescents is a recipe for more of the same.

To make CYFS responsive to the amplified needs of this modern world may not be possible. It is understaffed and the staff seem to have a way of designated if a CYFS field worker is "ok" or "not up to it".

We could value our young, but it would be best to start in the home, where the damage is actually done. But to do that would take another huge rip in the social fabric. One that may not mend.

Dog day Afternoon

NZ Herald

Dog day Afternoon

3 bank robbery attempts on the same day show that video is not an instant invesigative tool, but it is probably the best way for the police to catch the bank robber who uses his anoniminity as a weapon. He is nothing special to look at so rather than alarm bells ringing at best his bland looks may excite a delayed relaction or a niggling matter of concern. It is not long though, until someone will make a connection somewhere and Mr John Doe will be caught in the act. Then video footage is a more powerful weapon in the hands of the police.

As a tool of forensics, this footage may reveal intimate details that may prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the person filmed is or is not a suspect. For example, a pattern of spots or the shape of his nose and position of eyes. As a tool of investigation these brief glances of the suspect give few clues but that they have been published on the front page of today's NZ Herald, makes watch dogs of us all. It will also probably alert the suspect that someone is onto him.