Pages

Saturday, September 3, 2022

Darroch Ball: A new standard for our justice system?


If what we are seeing in our justice system is the new standard then we have lost before we have even started.

Here is a guy, 47 year old Joseph Martin, who clearly has been a career criminal, with over one hundred convictions – his last stint in prison was in 2017 for being accessory to manslaughter. Last November he beat his partner, including stomping and kicking, breaking her fingers and extensive bruising. He was found guilty of injuring with intent, threatening to kill, and assault with a weapon.

Expect a lengthy prison sentence? Justice for the victim? Keeping a violent repeat offender off our streets? Well you might, but not according to the government’s “Ta Ao Marama” approach.
This violent, repeat, career criminal, woman basher was sentenced to four months community detention. Four months community detention.

It seems unbelievable, and I certainly didn’t quite believe it when I first read his criminal history, but this is proof positive that our system is actively and deliberately keeping repeat, violent, dangerous criminals out of prisons and on our streets.

What is “Ta Ao Marama”? Good question. According to the Minister of Courts William Sio it includes:

“…infusing tikanga and te reo Māori, using plain language in the court, improving the information available to Judges about people’s backgrounds and needs, and improving wraparound support.

The model will be implemented in a spirit of partnership with iwi and local communities, with support from the Ministry of Justice and cross-sector agencies...”

Still have no idea? Neither do I. Good luck trying to find anything clearer than that.

When I was an MP with these Ministers I learnt how these muppets think. My educated translation of the above is “prison is bad, Maori and Pacifica are over represented, lets create rules for the system to keep them out of prison.” This is what they truly believe.

Is anyone surprised that we have a thirty percent reduction in prison numbers but a massive increase in youth crime, ram raids, robberies, car thefts, gang violence, and shootings? I mean, how thick does someone need to be to not see that what they are doing is so destructive it will put our country back into the stone age with our justice system.

What is most astonishing is the level of limp wristed wokeness that was laid on thick by the Judge.
 
He said the sentence was a ‘reward’. Let me just repeat that - it was a ‘reward’ for this violent career criminal for attending ‘rehabilitation’. This, obviously and typically, was after all of the discounts that were awarded to the woman basher for his ‘obvious remorse’. The discounts totaled seventy percent.

At the sentencing the Judge said “this is serious offending and I’m mindful of that.” Well, if this is serious offending, and our courts see it fit that serious offending now equates to community detention, like I said at the start, we have lost before we have even started.
 
Just to be clear this above incident isn't made up or exaggerated. It is what our justice system has become under Labour. It should make you all as angry as it does me.

Former NZ First MP Darroch Ball was elected to the New Zealand parliament at the 2014 general election, is currently co-leader and spokesperson for the Sensible Sentencing Trust. This article was published HERE



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Simply, appalling. But as Denzel Washington once said, “it starts in the home." Let's be honest just this once, Maori are breeding faster than the general population and are doing so in more dysfunctional, one parent situations. What do we really expect the outcome will be? From memory, up until about the 1960's, Maori incarceration rates were on a par with their prevalence within the wider population. With urbanisation and other influences that has dramatically changed to the current situation where their incarceration rates are approaching three times their relative population weighting. Its time this was addressed, but soft sentencing most certainly isn't it. Their culture has become corrupt and their lack of appropriate role models is a big part of it. If you're not attending school; have little hope of good job, yet alone a well paying one, crime and a gang lifestyle looks attractive. Once were warriors...