No Crime In Gisborne, It’s Offical – Updates.

Restrictions on the reporting of crime in Gisborne, NZ

25 July 2010 (scroll down for updates & keep checking back)

Remember how the Palmerston North Wikipedia page was censored to remove references to crime because it making overseas investors and professionals shy away from moving to the town?;  and of how gangs are now euphemistically  called “groups” in some news reports?;  and how no police statistics are kept on racially motivated crimes in New Zealand?  Well now the police in Gisborne want to restrict the information released to the media and give the people in the town the warm and fuzzies.

The question is Is ignorance bliss, or are there other motives for clamming-up about the true extent and nature of crime in Gisborne? It smacks of censorship to us and history has proved that has never been a good thing. Surely it is preferable to create a safer, low crime community rather than mislead people into thinking that it is?

Don’t the public have a right to know what is going on in their own town and the actions their public servants are taking to control that crime?

What if similar decisions were taken elsewhere in the country? (it’s already been happening in Rotorua) you can kiss goodbye to a free press in New Zealand and say hello to a propaganda mouthpiece, covering nothing but cake sales and ‘feel good’ stories.

From the Gisborne Herald’s website:

Crime? What crime?

Christine McCafferty 24 July 2010

GISBORNE police have decided to restrict the information on crime they provide to media in a move to “make the community feel safer”.

Up until now, The Gisborne Herald has been given detailed reports of crimes attended by police, including burglaries, domestic violence and the arrests that make up our daily “Police briefs”.

But earlier this week area commander Inspector Sam Aberahama said comprehensive information would no longer be provided. He saw no benefit in “reporting all and sundry”…read the whole article here

Related NZ State v. NZ Press stories:

Police Minister infuriated at newspaper’s test of security at Super 14s match – reporters testing security at a rugby match weren’t pretending to be terrorists.

It’s official: Politicians can’t take a joke - “MPs may make fools of themselves from time to time but they want to ban others from doing it. Satire, ridicule and denigration of MPs using any television footage shot from parliamentary galleries is to be banned under rules proposed by the standing orders committee. The move on freedom of expression is not the only controversy the rules have caused. They also create anomalies between what television cameras can show and what newspapers photographers are allowed to show, giving television the advantage…”

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Update 1.  29 July 2010

Gisborne police have tried to defend their new “media policy”. You can read their response in this article which appeared on Stuff. In it we learn of two very interesting pieces of information:

1. The Gisborne Herald was one of the last daily newspapers in the country to receive detailed lists from the police, according to Gisborne area commander Inspector Sam Aberahama; as repeated on Stuff. (No wonder our figures on reported armed robberies doesn’t tally-up with the official statistics)

So many newspapers went quietly into that goodnight! only the Gisborne Herald  was prepared to take a stand and we appreciate why now – that was the last stand of NZ’s free press.

2. That Police Minister, Judith Collins, thought that media reports on police conduct and other issues had contributed to a lack of respect for police. Which makes the police’s decision to withhold what it chooses from the media look even more questionable.

The Media Freedom Committee had their say on the issue too. We get the impression that this has been brewing under the surface for a while and now was an ideal opportunity to remove the cover on the whole sorry mess. You can read their chairman’s comments on Voxy, but this one comment from him struck us as odd:

“The Media Freedom Committee welcomes an assurance from Police National Headquarters that the Gisborne policy is a one-off and is not about to spread to other parts of the country.”

Which is rather different to what was said by the Gisborne Area Commander in the Stuff article. i.e. that Gisborne was one of the last daily newspapers to receive detailed lists.

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Update 2.  30 July 2010

The Sensible Sentencing Trust released a statement today saying that police held in their own hands the solution to stopping attacks on officers, in response to matters raised by the Police Minister at yesterday’s press conference:

Firstly, that police conduct should be beyond reproach and secondly, that police should be helping families to intervene in illicit drug use before that person gets hurt – specifically mentioning the failure of the  “P Plan” to deal effectively with methamphetamine demand in the community. Read the full statement on Scoop.co.nz

Also today, in another article in The Gisborne Herald it has demonstrated that both the local police and the paper are holding their stance on this issue, with the paper saying that there had been some significant crimes in the past week that had not been reported to either the local media or the public. They also said that even before this incident full logs weren’t being supplied to them. Read the full article  HERE

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Update 3. 31 July 2010

The Dom Post yesterday also reported on the police’s ‘media policy’ in an article on Stuff.co.nz that has within in its  URL “Gisborne police defend information blackout” but with a headline of “Gisborne police stand firm on keeping some crime quiet”.

Their coverage is much the same as in other publications but they did publish a rather interesting list of crime figures under the heading:

SPOTLIGHT ON OFFENDED

NZ Police figures for offences per 10,000 people:

which showed that for Eastern District: Gisborne, Napier and Hastings, the figures for serious assaults, alcohol offences, cannabis offences and sexual attacks were well above the national rates :

Serious assaults: 66.8  v. 48.8

Alcohol offences: 52.2 v. 23.2

Cannabis offences: 50.8 v. 35.1

Sexual attacks: 6.8 v. 5.7

The whole Dom Post article may be read HERE

Update 4. 30 July 2010

Read “no notice from police” in the Gisborne Herald for example of how restrictions on reporting of crime have affected people in Gisborne. People are taking it upon themselves to report burglary hotspots to the paper, whilst police have only reported one burglary.

Now, if you were a migrant intending to move to New Zealand looking for a better quality of life wouldn’t  you want to know this information to help you in your decision making process?

Read also:

Venezuelan newspaper, El Nacional,  protests against censorship that prevents it from reporting on violence

“Is New Zealand moving toward a police state by default?”

Is New Zealand Moving Toward A Police State By Default?

A new piece of legislation slipped through, under urgency, into the statute books last month (just in time for the Auckland elections in a few months?)- the Policing (Involvement in Local Authority Elections) Amendment Bill removed restrictions on serving police in New Zealand standing for local body elections.

Now, if they are elected to local government, they are able to continue working as active police officers.  In the past police in New Zealand were required to take leave during the period of their candidature.

With the removal goes the principle that those who are responsible for enforcing the law should not also be the ones making it.

Because the bill was passed under urgency the public had no opportunity to have a say in it. The NZ Green and Maori parties objected to it but were out-voted.

Other commonwealth countries have safeguards in place to ensure there is no mix between law making and law enforcement by servants of the state, for example:

In the UK people are disqualified from local authority elections if

• they are employed by the local authority or hold a paid office under the authority (including joint boards or committees)

• they hold a politically restricted post

• they are the subject of a bankruptcy restrictions order or interim order

• they have been sentenced to a term of imprisonment of three months or more (including a suspended sentence), without the option of a fine, during the five years before election day

• they have been disqualified under Part III of the RPA 1983 (which relates to donations and other offences) or under the Audit Commission Act 199831

As the legislation now stands there is nothing to prevent police from forming their own political party in New Zealand, and who knows – maybe even standing in national government elections in the future. Did that consequence even remotely occur to those who voted for the bill?

The Search and Surveillance Bill goes AWOL

The above bill has been sent back for re-drafting following a great deal of confusion and concern over the powers that it will extend. It should re-emerge in a new version in July, or August.

Only those who commented on the original draft will be permitted to make submissions on the new version and wonders what has happened to the Democratic Process.

The Campaign to Stop the Search and Surveillance Bill strongly objects to the New Zealand public being locked out of the bill and in a release on the Aotearoa Independent Media Centre website their spokesman said (emphasis ours):

“We wish to be given assurances that new voices will be able to be heard through the submission process and that there will be plenty of time for the people to be heard before the bill returns for its second reading,” Mr Hales said.

The past several years in New Zealand have seen our basic freedoms in this country drastically eroded by new legislation, with the Search and  Surveillance bill being the latest in a series of draconian legislation that all New Zealanders should be concerned about. The Campaign to Stop the Search and Surveillance Bill believes that security does not come from surveillance and unchecked power but from a free and tolerant society. We do not want new powers of search or surveillance extended to the police or other agencies.

We put all the parliamentarians on notice that we are watching you and watching this bill.” read the full press release on the AIMC here

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Other information you might find interesting:

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Animal rights campaigners tracked - 1 August 2010

An animals rights campaigner is pictured in a newspaper with a tracking device she found attached to her car. The Sunday Star Times alleges that this is the third time in three years that they have “caught Thompson & Clark Investigations doing covert surveillance on political groups for corporate clients.” The political campaigner told the paper she believed the  company had been engaged by the Pork Industry Board. Read the full report HERE

Anti-terror squad spies on protest groups – 2008

An article on Stuff detailing the types of protest groups that are under surveillance in New Zealand.

No Crime in Gisborne, it’s Official - 25 July 2010

“Police in Gisborne want to restrict the information released to the media and give the people in the town the warm and fuzzies.

The question is Is ignorance bliss, or are there other motives for clamming-up about the true extent and nature of crime in Gisborne? It smacks of censorship to us and history has proved that has never been a good thing. Surely it is preferable to create a safer, low crime community rather than mislead people into thinking that it is?”  read more in the Gisborne Herald

Police Minister infuriated at newspaper’s test of security at Super 14s match – reporters testing security at a rugby match weren’t pretending to be terrorists.

It’s official: Politicians can’t take a joke -

“MPs may make fools of themselves from time to time but they want to ban others from doing it. Satire, ridicule and denigration of MPs using any television footage shot from parliamentary galleries is to be banned under rules proposed by the standing orders committee. The move on freedom of expression is not the only controversy the rules have caused. They also create anomalies between what television cameras can show and what newspapers photographers are allowed to show, giving television the advantage…” read more in the Herald

Palmerston North’s Wikipedia page censored -Palmerston North’s page was edited to remove reference to gang violence and crime because overseas investors and professionals were shying away from the city.

The number of recorded violent crimes in Palmy’s City Area increased from 787 in 1999 to 1093 in 2008, and from 794 to 1145 in the rural area. That’s an overall increase in violent crime for the two areas combined of around 40 %. During that same period figures for other crimes had pretty much stayed the same, some had even declined (property abuse, drugs and antisocial)

So is rising violent crime an issue in Palmy? You decide.

Read also our “Armed Offender Squad and Armed Police Incidents” page.

100% Pure Ripoff NZ – New Fees On Personal Imports

Just when you thought a solution to NZ’s ripoff prices is to buy from abroad, new fees are being introduced this month to make even that less attractive.

Consumer.org has showcased the new Import Transaction Fee which they say is likely to apply to personal imports of goods like books, jewellery, clothing, toys and electrical appliances. They say that the NZ Customs Service will be applying an additional fee of $24.75 ($22 plus GST) to a range of personal imports that attract GST and import duty.

Mostly it will apply to goods over $400 in value but there will be occasions on which packages valued at less than $400 will attract the fee.

And it that’s not bad enough MAF are also going to take their cut by imposing a MAF Biosecurity system entry levy of $12.50 (including GST) whenever an Import Transaction Fee is applied.

For a full explanation of how these new charges will apply take a look at the Consumer website where there is a breakdown provided by the NZ Customs service, link here.

Good Day For Northland Tourists

A burglar with 24 previous convictions has been jailed for three years for a string of thefts from tourist vehicles in Whangarei, Northland. Hopefully the streets of Whangarei will be a bit safer for a while now and tourists will be able to regain some of their confidence in the town.

During sentencing it emerged that his thefts had affected 31 tourists from Australia, USA, France, England and Germany.

A report in the Northern Advocate stated:

“Hugo targeted tourists’ vehicles at Abbey Caves, Ocean Beach, A.H. Reed Memorial Park, Sandy Bay, Whale Bay and Woolleys Bay in November and December 2009, stealing $31,000 worth of cash and valuables.

He appeared for sentence in the Whangarei District Court yesterday after earlier pleading guilty to 20 charges of theft from cars.

Judge John McDonald  said Hugo targeted high value and easily sellable items such as cameras, sunglasses, iPods, foreign currency, jewellery, cellphones and clothes”…read the full report here

For more about Northland see Tagged Posts

No Crime In Gisborne, It’s Offical.

Restrictions on the reporting of crime in Gisborne, NZ

(for ongoing updates to this story click HERE)

Remember how the Palmerston North Wikipedia page was censored to remove references to crime because it making overseas investors and professionals shy away from moving to the town?;  and of how gangs are now euphemistically  called “groups” in some news reports?;  and how no police statistics are kept on racially motivated crimes in New Zealand?  Well now the police in Gisborne want to restrict the information released to the media and give the people in the town the warm and fuzzies.

The question is Is ignorance bliss, or are there other motives for clamming-up about the true extent and nature of crime in Gisborne? It smacks of censorship to us and history has proved that has never been a good thing. Surely it is preferable to create a safer, low crime community rather than mislead people into thinking that it is?

Don’t the public have a right to know what is going on in their own town and the actions their public servants are taking to control that crime?

What if similar decisions were taken elsewhere in the country? (it’s already been happening in Rotorua) you can kiss goodbye to a free press in New Zealand and say hello to a propaganda mouthpiece, covering nothing but cake sales and ‘feel good’ stories.

From the Gisborne Herald’s website:

Crime? What crime?

Christine McCafferty 24 July 2010

GISBORNE police have decided to restrict the information on crime they provide to media in a move to “make the community feel safer”.

Up until now, The Gisborne Herald has been given detailed reports of crimes attended by police, including burglaries, domestic violence and the arrests that make up our daily “Police briefs”.

But earlier this week area commander Inspector Sam Aberahama said comprehensive information would no longer be provided. He saw no benefit in “reporting all and sundry”…read the whole article here

Related NZ State v. NZ Press stories:

Police Minister infuriated at newspaper’s test of security at Super 14s match – reporters testing security at a rugby match weren’t pretending to be terrorists.

It’s official: Politicians can’t take a joke - “MPs may make fools of themselves from time to time but they want to ban others from doing it. Satire, ridicule and denigration of MPs using any television footage shot from parliamentary galleries is to be banned under rules proposed by the standing orders committee. The move on freedom of expression is not the only controversy the rules have caused. They also create anomalies between what television cameras can show and what newspapers photographers are allowed to show, giving television the advantage…”