When this Wanganui act was going through Parliament the Attorney-General expressed concern the act would give too much power to the council enacting the bylaw, which constituted a threat to individual freedom.
But politicians invoked the greater good, stating, "we think for the safety and security of the residents of Wanganui these powers are desirable".
Well, it took just one Philip Ernest Schubert, a Hells Angels member, to fight City Hall. And he won.
The specific purpose of banning the displaying of insignia was to prevent gangs intimidating the public in specified places, and avoiding gang confrontations.
But Justice Clifford pointed out many of those activities targeted are already illegal, and the act's definition of gang regalia could include any Joe Citizen naively wearing logo-ed clothing (my words).
It was the upholding of freedom of association for which we should thank Schubert, even if we dislike and fear the gang with which he chooses to cruise. We might not care if they come for the Hells Angels, but in principal, we should.
Regular readers of Keeping Stock will be well aware of our thoughts on criminal gangs, and our disappointment at last week's High Court decision. Interestingly, the case against the Wanganui District Council was taken by a Hell's Angel - from Auckland!
But somewhere along the line, Deborah Coddington has undergone an epiphany in her views towards crime and criminals. She was, after all, the author of the New Zealand Paedophile and Sex Offenders Index (and its Australian counterpart). We cannot help but wonder where her concern for the Bill of Rights Act was then, when she was publishing the details of criminals who had been sentenced, and had served their sentences.
We're not suggesting that Ms Coddington's former work was not a useful public service; we simply find her support for the rights of violent criminal gangs a little incongruous.
12 comments:
Makes you think doesn't it.
*Corrected you final sentence btw.
"we simply find her support for the rights of New Zealanders a little incongruous.
My experiences of Deborah revealed she was generally more sizzle than steak! it would be a high hurdle for her to change tack 180deg.
Cadwallader
There you go again Rob; putting words in my mouth. Violent criminal gangs are violent criminal gangs, and have no place in a civilsed society.
The High Court did not rule that the WDC breached the BoRA by instituting a gang patch ban, just that it had not been specific enough as to where such a ban should apply. The Council meets tomorrow to decide on its response, but to her credit, the Green-affiliated Mayor has recognised that the Wanganui community wants gang patches banned. We hope that recognition of the wants of the good citizens of Wanganui plays a part in her leadership on this important issue.
I wasn't surprised to see you as first commenter Bob.
Got anything else to do?
It's not that Robert is frequently the first commenter Alex; it's the nature of the comments. He'd do far better if he just stuck to my choice of topics instead of trying to advance his own agenda.
Alex - I'm generally up at 6 am and I like to cast about the blogosphere while the household is quiet. I am feeling dreadful about failing to advance Inv2's agenda and instead pursuing my own - will I ever learn??
In this instance, I'm convinced that outlawing colours and patterns on the clothing of one group in society is somehow wrong, but as you so often imply, I'm wasting my time expressing my opinion here, where the preferred style is 'supportive of the host, if you please! If not, on yer bike buddy!'.
Good to hear that you're an early bird Rob; it's my favourite time of the day.
I don't mind you pushing your agenda per se, provided it relates to what I blog about. What does annoy me are your not infrequent attempts to divert or threadjack, and your habit of cutting and pasting third-hand links which have nothing to do with what I have blogged about. If you deem them worthy of comment, why don't you copy and paste them to your own blog?
Did you see Hide on the Pictocube tonight Inv2 - trying to whip up support for open cast mining in the DoC estate?
What a drongo!
No Rob; I was watching the charity cricket match from Wellington where John Key stole the limelight, and Phil Goff watched longingly from the sidelines; sport imitating life, it was. And for the record, over half a million was raised for the Christchurch appeal, whilst John Key can probably look forward to a National sweep of the Wellington electorates; they LOVE him!
Perhaps he could stand in Epsom!
Now why would John Key do that Rob. He holds the Helensville electorate with the biggest margin in the land; over 20,000. He's a REAL MP; not one of those second-class-citizen List MP's.
Keeping to the topic of the thread Inv2, here's a thoughtful piece from Imperator Fish.
http://www.imperatorfish.com/2011/03/people-with-arsehole-syndrome-need-to.html
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