Cam Slater: Government Has Blood on Their Hands

Yesterday we saw yet another preventable tragedy occur in Auckland when, without a firearms licence, convicted criminal Matu Tangi Matua Reid illegally obtained a firearm and used it to kill two people and maim several others.

Now the hand-wringing and blame game begins. But let’s examine the facts as we know them.

1. Matu Tangi Matua Reid had a history of violent crime.
2. Was on home detention at the time of this crime, monitored with an ankle bracelet.
3. Was convicted of impeding breathing, injuring with intent to injure, wilful damage, and male assaults female.
4. Was sentenced to five months’ home detention on the four charges when he appeared for sentence before Judge Stephen Bonnar KC on March 28.
5. Did not have a firearms licence.

Who is responsible for this preventable crime?

Firstly you have to sheet home a large portion of blame to the Labour Government of the day. They have had a policy of emptying the prisons and even gloated about how they had reduced the prison population “safely”.

That boast now rings hollow. Innocent people have died and been injured because this criminal, with a history of violence, was most recently sentenced to home detention for violent offences, rather than being incarcerated for those crimes.

Kelvin Davis boasted the same in a recent speech at the Labour Party Congress:

We have safely reduced the prison population – there are almost 1000 fewer Maori in prison than when we became government

Kelvin Davis speech

and;

The facts speak for themselves – the prison population is sitting around the eight and a half thousand mark. When I became Minister that number was forecast to be around 14,000 by now.

Kelvin Davis speech

There are not only fewer non-violent people in prison but fewer people in Corrections care in the community.

and

Someone should tell them about the work with the Howard League which has seen over 17,000 prisoners gain their licence.

Kelvin Davis speech

One of those prisoners to gain their licence was the criminal killer Matu Tangi Matua Reid. That’s not really a success they can hang their hat on, is it?

Labour emptied the prisons, they directed the judiciary to not send people to prison, and now we have the fatal results of that policy writ large: a killer loose on our streets when they really should have been behind bars.

The judiciary also bears some responsibility for this incident too. The killer was sentenced to only five months’ home detention for violent crimes, all of which would have qualified as strike offences. But the judiciary has always opposed Three Strikes, and so the government abandoned it.

Now they have blood on their hands. That blood is there as a direct result of appalling policies that have not protected the public and have now resulted in the death of two innocent people and injury to multiple others.

Kelvin Davis should resign. But he won’t.

Instead what we will see is the continued wrong-headed persecution of licensed firearms owners in a mad attempt to try and stop criminals who are not licensed from committing crimes. As I said yesterday, the Police are attacking, harassing and persecuting licensed firearms owners as a way to prevent crime that is as effective as breath testing teetotallers in a bid to stop drunk drivers.

I have little doubt that the politicians will use this preventable tragedy to further blame the firearms community for the individual actions of a criminal and the direct policy and legislative failures of this Government.

The blame for this preventable tragedy lies fairly and squarely at the feet of politicians and judges, Police and Corrections. They’ve all failed us; they are to blame. They must be held accountable.

Cam Slater is a New Zealand-based blogger, best known for his role in Dirty Politics and publishing the Whale Oil Beef Hooked blog, which operated from 2005 until it closed in 2019. This article was first published HERE