Sir Bob Jones: Crime and punishment

The Prime Minister has announced a long overdue no nonsense hard line on fighting crime.

He will certainly have public support.

But here’s one good move that I doubt has occurred to him and that’s to get more women judges.

Sir Bob Jones: Crime and punishment

The Herald reports Auckland University Associate Law Professor, a Carrie Leonetti, saying she’s never seen any evidence to suggest banning gang insignia and consorting had an impact on gang membership and violence.

That’s about as logical as me saying I’ve never seen Carrie, therefore she doesn’t exist.

Manuel Meléndez-Sánchez: Bukele Has Defeated El Salvador’s Gangs — for Now.

How? And What Does It Mean for the Region?

In March 2022, following a sudden spike in violence, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele declared open war on the country’s criminal gangs. Bukele and his allies quickly established a state of exception, allowing law enforcement agencies and courts to bypass due process guarantees and other constitutional protections. The legislature—where Bukele controls a supermajority—instituted harsh new sentencing guidelines for gang-related crimes, lowered the age of criminal responsibility from 16 to 12, and introduced a gag rule banning journalists from spreading “gang messages.”