Anti-smacking

Haven't ranted for a while - been trying to control the rage. The anti-smacking bill is ripe for a good old rant but I can't be bothered wasting my breath so here's something I got in my email...

I didn't see you

While out enjoying a quite Sunday ride (see my other blog here) an annoying thing happened - a twat in a van backed off a one lane bridge and into my bike and me stopped well back from the bridge.

After my major sounding off to the young guy driving the van I got the standard "I didn't see you". (Think this is an automatic response for most car drivers when they clobber a bike). "You mean you didn't see the big blue bike with it's headlight on, the rider wearing black helmet and riding gear with fluorescent markings in the broad light of day?"

I would have much preferred to hear the truth, "I panicked when I saw the other car on the bridge and just threw the van into reverse without looking". He didn't even mention that he didn't here my horn or yelling at him to stop either - hard to hear over his stereo I know.

What can you do about this? This is the 2nd time I've been backed into by someone in a car. Both times were when the driver obviously hadn't been concentrating on what they were doing to begin with - it's not normal to have to stop and back your vehicle up when driving, generally reversing is for getting out of driveways or into/out of car parks. There are definitely some people who are not capable of reacting calmly and thoughtfully when something out of the ordinary happens to them. They drive around thinking that everyone else out there is a good driver/rider so they'll look out for me.

There is a solution, but not the obvious one of poking their eyes out so that next time they'll be able to honestly say they didn't see you. The solution is for more people to ride bikes or maybe even make riding a bike or scooter for a period of time before getting a car license. When you are on a bike you are putting it right out there on the line - you have to look out for number one because there are people out there trying to kill you. You learn to look everywhere for trouble and to not trust anyone else on the road. It would also have another benefit, because there would be more bikes on the road, car drivers would get more used to looking out for bikes and spend less time cutting them off etc. Hell, 99% of truckies on the road are excellent at this - they're always looking in their mirrors and pulling over to let you past.

Maybe this'll could stop it happening to me a 3rd time. I sent the guy on his way (after getting his details etc) with the warning: "You won't make that mistake again, will you?" Here's hoping he learnt something - I just had a reminder not to take the possession of car keys and a licence to mean competence to drive. Shame it had to happen that way - now I'm without a bike for a while...

More on Graeme Burton

Seems Graeme Burton has recovered enough to be charged with a total of 25 offences. Has had one of his rat bag mates come in and try to visit him, then leave saying he's gonna get the cops that shot Burton and vandalise a cop car outside the hospital. Now the cops are after another scum sucker - maybe they'll get the chance to put his one down.

http://stuff.co.nz/3925729a11.html
http://stuff.co.nz/3925179a11.html
http://stuff.co.nz/3924335a11.html
http://stuff.co.nz/3926677a10.html

Oh, and another parolee is on the run - lock ya doors:

http://stuff.co.nz/3924996a11.html

And still more, in the Dominion today, news that another scum ball charged with firearms offences has jumped bail and the cops are looking for him. How the hell did he get bail? What's wrong with our judges?

Scum Bags on Parole

There's not a lot more I can say after Andrews effort.

Yes Graeme Burton was truely a mad bastard and in hind sight the parole board should have known better. We will probably never know the information they had to base their decision on. It's just a bloody shame that other people had to get hurt in the process. Innocent people minding their own business.

The only real question I have is why the cops shot him in the leg. Now I've done a bit of hunting and have learnt that the best way to make sure your target goes down is to aim for "the big bit" ie the chest. It's much easier to hit a big target than a small one.

I would have also thought that an offender carrying a gun can still shoot back after being shot in the leg. He sure as hell ain't going to shoot back if hes been shot in the chest.

Now I wasn't there in the heat of battle but surely these guys have been trained for this type of situation.

The latest rampage

Great, another pscho let off the leash to wreck havoc in the community! Over the past week another convicted murderer (Graeme Burton) out on parole has been on the run and finally has only been caught after killing another innocent person. I've decided, for this blog to list the good/bad, lucky/unlucky aspects for those involved:

The Killer:

- Lucky: to get out of jail after only serving 14 years for killing someone in a drug-induced rage.

- Unlucky: the police were chasing him as soon as he breached his bail conditions (great).

- Lucky: had a good stash of weapons and didn't mind breaking into other peoples' houses to get more or more money etc.

- Unlucky: to get chased into some bush.

- Lucky: to run into a guy on a quad. Kill the guy, steal quad.

- Unlucky: quad won't start.

- Lucky: some mountain bikers turn up. Assault one, shoot and injure 2 more (didn't really know how to safely handle firearms).

- Unlucky: the word got out to the police and the armed offenders turned up and popped him.

- Lucky: Only wounded in the leg. Police poor shots - supposed to aim for chest area.

- Unlucky: Lost his leg (boo hoo).

- Lucky: was talk he may be eligible for some sort of ACC payout.

- Unlucky: after a bit of hoo hah in the news - no payout.

- Lucky: he'll never have to work again in his life - will be in prison for a couple of years (probably get parole again) and when he get's out will probably just end up on a disability pension.

http://stuff.co.nz/3921945a11.html

http://stuff.co.nz/3922189a11.html - the excuse

http://stuff.co.nz/3921702a11.html

http://stuff.co.nz/3922739a11.html

http://stuff.co.nz/3922951a11.html

The Public

- Lucky? to have a parole system that looks after the baddies

- Unlucky: every now again convicted scumbags reoffend which means more innocent people are harmed when maybe they should have been better protected.

- Lucky: the cops got the man

- Unlucky: before they got him, he killed 1 person and injured a number of others.

- Lucky: the cops shot him

- Unlucky: they made a has of it the guy's still breathing and we're paying for his hospital bills.

- Lucky: he should get locked up for a while

- Unlucky: we're still paying for this and he wont be the last...

http://stuff.co.nz/3923106a10.html

The Police

- Unlucky: they have to pick up the pieces when the justice system fails

- Unlucky: weren't able to get their man before he killed again and will take some flack over this

- Lucky: got there man without any cops getting shot

- Unlucky: poor shooting

- Unlucky: some cop has to be investigated to see if the shooting was warranted

- Lucky: should be open and shut case

- Good: the cops are pretty good at getting these morons.

Parole Board

- It's all bad...Let a maniac out to kill again

- Unlucky: probably haven't got the powers to really help keep public safe.

- Lucky: according to the news tonight only 7% of parolees get re-convicted in their first year out of prison. Probably takes justice system over a year put them back into prison so they end up in the 2nd year's statistics???

- Weird: they say that it is asking for trouble to release hardened criminals without parole as a method of making sure they are rehabilitated correctly into the community. Fine, but why let them out early on parole? Let them do their time first and then put them on parole.

PS: Don't want this blog to look anti-police - great work getting this guy. Shame about the shooting accuracy.

Crims and Driving at the Wheel

I see in the paper the other day a 16 year old guy got 3 months in a youth detention centre for stealing a car crashing it and killing two innocent people. This guy had 60 prior convictions!!

So I'm sure a 3 month holiday in a youth detention centre is really going to help. Yeah right!!

I don't care how bad his up bringing was or how sociaty has failed him. That's just bullshit!!
By the time anyone is 16 they know right from wrong. So they should get the book thrown at them when they break the law.

Things will probably catch up with this guy eventually and he will end up spending time in jail. But how many other innocent people will he screw with until that happens?

Then there was the 62 year old doctor caught reading while driving. Her excuse was the book was just too good to put down.

I'm a bit lost for words here. This women should have known better. The PC people go on about guns and people miss using them. But a car is a 1 tonne projectile that will do a hell of a lot more damage than a gun.

She only got a $400 fine. This is just as bad or worse than driving drunk. If I had my way she would be allowed on the road agin.

Government Energy Strategy

Tonights news had an article about the government's startegy's with regards to energy resources, sustainable energy, and emmision levels. There was quite a bit about how they may look at putting a cap on how many gas guzzling cars are imported and encouraging fuel efficient/hybrid cars etc.

I didn't hear one thing about motorcycles and their possible promotion as more efficient means of transport. As this is something pretty close to my heart I intend to send an email to the minister for energy David Parker and maybe you can if you want to comment. His email address is

david.parker@parliament.govt.nz

This gist of my email will probably go along the lines of the post I put on by bike blog a while ago which you can see here:

http://banditrider.blogspot.com/2006/11/save-planet-ride-bike.html

More info at the below links on the governments dreaming:

http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3896467a10,00.html

http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3896342a11,00.html

Speak up if you've got any thoughts on this!

Defending our Patch Part 2

On the news tonight - the guy charged with possessing a firearm without lawful, proper or sufficient purposes after shooting a maniac with a machete has had his first day in court. He has decided to face trial by jury with both himself and his father saying that they are going to fight the charges all the way. Good for him - let's hope he gets some justice...

His father has been pretty outspoken about the case and has made some good points, particularly:

The court case is ruining their lives (very stressfuly for the family etc) and that they are having to fund the defense themselves while the scumbag with the machete got legal aid.

It is good to see that they are receiving a lot of support and some donations etc from members of the public and in particular the Sensible Sentencing Trust. The SST has also got a pettition going around - hope I get the chance to sign it.

After seeing part of a 60 minutes doco on this (where the cop making the charges was made to look like a bit of an idiot) it seems that the reason that the charges were made was because of the way that the gun had been stored. The cops seem to be more worried about a gun around people who know how to handle them (gun retailers) than the high likelyhood that the nutter with the machete could have killed someone. I'd say they're already regretting pressing the charges - talk about bad PR...

I'm not really sure what to do if some scumbag breaks in to my house tonight and wants to kill me - do you fight back or just lay down and die so as you don't make any trouble? If I had a gun, there's no question I'd use it - first shot in the cretin, the next into the roof for a warning shot, whoops did I get that around the right way?

See more here: http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3890625a11,00.html

What jail should be like

Got this in my email tonight - think I saw the sheriff on 60 minutes, all power to him!

IF ONLY NEW ZEALAND WAS LIKE THIS!!!

TO THOSE OF YOU NOT FAMILIAR WITH JOE ARPAIO, HE IS THE MARICOPACOUNTY SHERIFF( ARIZONA ) AND HE KEEPS GETTING ELECTED OVER AND OVER AGAIN.

These are some of the reasons why:

• Sheriff Joe Arpaio created the "tent city jail" to save Arizona from spending tens of million of dollars on another expensive prison complex.


• He has jail meals down to 40 cents a serving and charges the inmates for the meal.


• He banned smoking and porno magazines in the jails, and took away their weightlifting equipment and cut off all but "G" movies. He says: "they're in jail to pay a debt to society not to build muscles so they can assault innocent people when they leave.


• He started chain gangs to use the inmates to do free work on county and city projects and save taxpayer's money. Then he started chain gangs for women so he wouldn't get sued for discrimination.


• He took away cable TV until he found out there was a federal court order that required cable TV for jails. So he hooked up the cable TV again but only allows the Disney channel and the weather channel. When asked why the weather channel he replied: "so these morons will know how hot it's gonna be while they are working on my chain gangs.


• He cut off coffee because it has zero nutritional value and is therefore a waste of taxpayer money. When the inmates complained, he told them, "This isn't the Ritz/Carlton. If you don't like it, don't come back.


• He also bought the Newt Gingrich lecture series on US history that he pipes into the jails. When asked by a reporter if he had any lecture series by a Democrat, he replied that a democratic lecture series that actually tells the truth for a change would be welcome and that it might even explain why 95% of the inmates were in his jails in the first place.

With temperatures being even hotter than usual in Phoenix (116 degrees just set a new record for June 2nd), the Associated Press reports: About 2,000 inmates living in a barbed- wire-surrounded tent encampment at the Maricopa County Jail have been given permission to strip down to their government-issued pink boxer shorts. On Wednesday, hundreds of men wearing pink boxer shorts were chatting in the tents, where temperatures reached 128 degrees.

"This is hell. It feels like we live in a furnace," said Ernesto Gonzales, an inmate for 2 years with 10 more to go. "It's inhumane." Joe Arpaio, who makes his prisoners wear pink, and eat bologna sandwiches, is not one bit sympathetic. "Criminals should be punished for their crimes -not live in luxury until it's time for parole, only to go out and commit more crimes so they can come back in to live on taxpayers money and enjoy things many taxpayers can't afford to have for themselves.

"Wednesday he told all the inmates who were complaining of the heat in the tents: "It's between 120 to 130 degrees in Iraq and our soldiers are living in tents too, and they have to walk all day in the sun, wearing full battle gear and get shot at, and they have not committed any crimes, so shut your damned mouths!

"Way to go, Sheriff! If all prisons were like yours there would be a lot less crime and we would not be in the current position of running out of prison spaces.

Sheriff Joe was just re-elected Sheriff in Maricopa County , Arizona.

Dutch Tourists Part 2

As predicted the police have pretty quickly nabbed the two low-lifes accused of the kidnapping/assault on the Dutch tourists in Northland. Really disappointing that they didn't put up a scrap and then have to be put down.

So far they haven't been named or filmed - gotta protect the scuzballs identities, after all they may simply be nice young chaps momentarily out of control due to the huge quantities of 'P' they've been doing (or some other genuine excuse like that).

Gonna be intersting to see what sort of slapping they'll get - if they get a quick trial, maybe they'll be out by Xmas time!

Read more here:

http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3874874a11,00.html

Defending our Patch

A guy walks into a shop, demands money, threatens to kill the manager with a machete.

The manager then defends himself and shoots the guy with the machete.

The guy with the machete gets the necessary medical treatment. (free of charge)

The shop manager gets charged and hauled through the courts.

What's wrong here?
Of course I'm talking about the guy who held up an Auckland shop a couple of months back and was shot by one of the guys working in the shop.
Shouldn't we have the right to defend our own property from unwelcome visitors. Especially ones that are waving a machete around.
It doesn't matter that the manager of the shop had a loaded pistol in his desk. The point is he was defending himself against an intruder who was threatening to harm him. If he had wacked the intruder with a base ball bat, would he be in the same situation?

Yet again this is a case of our society looking after the wrong types of people. The real victim here is the guy from the shop. He was the one minding his own business when some shithead tries to have his head off.
What would you do?
Stand there and let it happen?
No, you would fight back. This guy happened to use a gun.

Good on him, we wish him the best of luck with his case.

Dutch Tourists

I'm going to try to write this calmly to moderate my language but it may be hard.

The big news of the weekend is the story of the lowlife scum who kidnapped a honeymooning Dutch couple in the Bay of Islands at gunpoint, robbed them and raped the woman in front of her husband.

It's hard to even describe how wild this makes you feel. That we have these sorts of animals running around on the loose and that this could happen to anyone. What sort of a future have we to look forward to: no camping sleeping in tents or campers, kids not able to play on the streets etc.

In the coming weeks the cops will get these rejects and we'll find out more about them. They'll have a long string of offences, starting off small with petty thefts & vandalism, moving into burglaries, drugs and assaults. They will have been before the courts before, given a gentle telling off and let loose again. When are we ever going to actually realise that if there's no consequences for any small transgressions (starting with basic behavior problems as kids) then things only get more serious.

These toe-rags and others like them have proven that they don't belong in society by committing offences that the rest of the general public find abhorrent and would never even consider. So the simple solution is to remove them from society forever - none of this letting them out after a life sentence of 8 years or something pathetic - screw their rights, the general public need to be protected from the slightest risk that they might reoffend.

The civil libertarians and the like (labour party members, greenies etc) are all against the death penalty and say that it is not a deterrent. Who cares if it's not a detterent - it cuts down the reoffending pretty damn well. They also go on about what if the mongrel was innocent and it wasn't found out until afer the sentence was carried out - well, when was the last time the cops made a mistake like that, with modern forensics etc, the cops always get their man.

Where do I start

Bit of a rant, Jesus, where do I start!!

How about this?

In the paper the other day I see the coppers have been nabbing people for crossing the double yellow line in the Manawatu Gorge. This in general I don't have a problem with, it is a double yellow and the law is that it shouldn't be crossed, fair enough. The gorge is a bit dodgy for passing and a bit accident prone.

What gets me is that the police where hiding in the bush above one of the corners and photographing offenders. To me this is underhanded. I understood they were not allowed to deliberately hide in order to catch motorists out.

Then some senior officer states in the paper that it is not revenue gethering. Bullshit it's not, sure people are breaking the law. But we all break one law or another on the road everyday and this is just a quick easy way to raise funds. They do it in one form or another everyday.

How about going out and dealing to some of the real shit heads in our world.

Don't get me started on them.

That's all for now.

PS. I was not one of the offenders.

A Squirrel's Tale

I received the following the following email the other day which takes a simple story and then translates it to what might happen if the media and government got a hold of it. Not too far from the truth...


THE WORLD VERSION

The squirrel works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building and improving his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the squirrel is warm and well fed. The shivering grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

THE END.


THE New Zealand VERSION

The squirrel works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the squirrel is warm and well fed. A social worker finds the shivering grasshopper, calls a press conference and demands to know why the squirrel should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others less fortunate, like the grasshopper, are cold and starving.

TVNZ shows up to provide live coverage of the shivering grasshopper; with cuts to a video of the squirrel in his comfortable warm home with a table laden with food. The press inform people that they should be ashamed that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so while others have plenty. The Labour Party, Greenpeace, Animal Rights and The Grasshopper Council of NZ demonstrate in front of the squirrel's house. TVNZ , interrupting a cultural festival special from Notting Hill with breaking news, broadcasts a multi cultural choir singing "We Shall Overcome".

Michael Cullen rants in an interview with Paul Holmes that the squirrel has gotten rich off the backs of grasshoppers, and calls for an immediate tax hike on the squirrel to make him pay his "fair share" and increases the charge for squirrels to enter inner London. In response to pressure from the media, the Government drafts the Economic Equity and Grasshopper Anti Discrimination Act, retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The squirrel's taxes are reassessed. He is taken to court and fined for failing to hire grasshoppers as builders for the work he was doing on his home and an additional fine for contempt when he told the court the grasshopper did not want to work.

The grasshopper is provided with a council house, financial aid to furnish it and an account with a local taxi firm to ensure he can be socially mobile. The squirrel's food is seized and re distributed to the more needy members of society, in this case, the grasshopper. Without enough money to buy more food, to pay the fine and his newly imposed retroactive taxes, the squirrel has to downsize and start building a new home.

The Local Authority takes over his old home and utilises it as a temporary home for asylum seeking cats who had hijacked a plane to get to New Zealand as they had to share their country of origin with mice. On arrival they have tried to blow up the airport because of New Zeland's apparent love of dogs. The cats had been arrested for the international offence of hijacking and attempt bombing but were immediately released because the police fed them pilchards instead of salmon whilst in custody. Initial moves to then return them to their own country were abandoned because it was feared they would face death by the mice. The cats devise and start a scam to obtain money from peoples credit cards.

A 60 Minutes special shows the grasshopper finishing up the last of the squirrel's food, though Spring is still months away, while the council house he is in, crumbles around him because he hasn't bothered to maintain the house. He is shown to be taking drugs. Inadequate government funding is blamed for the grasshoppers drug 'illness'. The cats seek recompense in the British courts for their treatment since arrival in NZ . The grasshopper gets arrested for stabbing an old dog during a burglary to get money for his drugs habit. He is imprisoned but released immediately because he has been in custody for a few weeks. He is placed in the care of the probation service to monitor and supervise him. Within a few weeks he has killed a guinea pig in a botched robbery. A commission of enquiry, that will eventually cost $ 10,000,000 and state the obvious, is set up.

Additional money is put into funding a drug rehabilitation scheme for grasshoppers and legal aid for lawyers representing asylum seekers is increased. The asylum seeking cats are praised by the government for enriching New Zealand 's multicultural diversity and dogs are criticised by the government for failing to befriend the cats. The grasshopper dies of a drug overdose. The usual sections of the press blame it on the obvious failure of government to address the root causes of despair arising from social inequity and his traumatic experience of prison.

They call for the resignation of a minister. The cats are paid a million pounds each because their rights were infringed when the government failed to inform them there were mice in the New Zelaand . The squirrel, the dogs and the victims of the hijacking, the bombing, the burglaries and robberies have to pay an additional percentage on their credit cards to cover losses, their taxes are increased to pay for law and order and they are told that they will have to work beyond 65 because of a shortfall in government funds.

THE END.