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Comments
Comments
When you are above the law
Pondered by Nat
1 month ago
Post the scandal over child abuse in New Zealand, I was absolutely STUNNED to hear about this ‘celebrity’ who pushed his ex-girlfriend down the stairs and kicked her repeatedly in the head until she was bound to a wheelchair to recover. This man, ADMITTED doing it to the entire country and the discussion focused around if he should stay in his job, not on whether he should be in jail. In a country where violence is running rampant, this story send out the strong message that:
- Violence is only a criminal offense if you are poor and in a minority.
- Violence is OK if you are ‘tired, working seven days a week and frustrated by your ex girlfriend’
- Kicking someone repeatedly in the head is not that big a deal - especially if your new wife is fine with it.
- If you pay someone $100,000 to stay quiet (and to cover the councilling costs, loss of job etc etc that is the result of having your head and confidence pummeled), people should feel sorry for you when it comes out in the open anyway
Another knock for NZ women who live in violent relationships. And we wonder why they don’t come forward.
July 10th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
For me, the problem with your opinion piece is that it assumes the best or right outcome of this situation is for someone to go to jail, that someone has to pay for they did.
What does the victim want to happen? I don’t actually know… but in my mind justice shouldn’t be a focus on extracting revenge from people like this but a concerted effort on making things right for the victim.
Protecting future victims should also be another focus. Something that jail fails miserably at…
July 11th, 2008 at 10:38 am
Totally.
I don’t think I think jail is the best option, but I think that we SHOULD treat this as a criminal offense not just a slight ‘woopsee’
July 11th, 2008 at 11:12 am
In total agreement here Nat. GBH is a very very serious offence and Veitch belongs in jail, like other offenders. What worries me most is if someone as obviously capable as Kristin Dunne-Powell is silenced about domestic violence: where does that leave the rest of us?
The other question I would have is around the working 7 days holding down to jobs and then “snapping” - it hasn’t been mentioned in the media but maybe there could be substance abuse issues here too.
July 16th, 2008 at 11:06 am
Restorative justice is always going to work better than retributive. I think that his actions were obviously wrong, but at this point in time, sending him to prison will achieve nothing. Lets assume he is genuine in feeling remorse and has taken steps and measures to address the problem, so that it wont happen again. If this is the case, then he has already been ‘rehabilitated’ without going through the justice system.
I think in our society, there is too strong a focus on revenge and ‘putting people away’ than there is on actually solving the problems at hand. I think in this situation, there has actually been a solution to the initial problem. There are more ways for a just outcome to be reached, than through the prescribed government method, don’t you think? Im a firm believer in second chances, and prison is less a solution than a temporary fix, which in many cases promotes further crime. It’s quite difficuilt for convicted people to reintegrate themselves into society, even with the most determined effort. So criminals become segregated from society, leaving them with a fairly deep feeling of rejection and distrust over the whole matter.
My only real concern is the fact that if it had been someone poor, or in a minority, then they probably would be going away, even in the same circumstances.
July 16th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
Hi Ross,
This is not a matter of whether jail is a good solution or not. It is a matter of the law being applied equally to everyone AND a matter of our awful prejudices against women as a country. If someone bashes women, we say that is illegal. No matter what, where how and to whom.
Then when it actually happens, we say as long as he is sorry, we can out it down to being a mistake. I cannot believe people think he is rehabilitated or even sorry. i can’t believe we rush to give him the benefit of the doubt. It flies in the face of every message we send to women these days and is a massive step backward in the fight to get rid of violence in our homes.
“So criminals become segregated from society, leaving them with a fairly deep feeling of rejection and distrust over the whole matter.” - And what kind of jail does this leave the victim in?
July 16th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
Oh don’t get me wrong. in no way am i trying to tout his actions as right, and the whole situation is, as it stands, unlawful. But I do think that if he is in fact genuinely remorseful and has remidied the problem, that this is a better solution than prosecution. Obviously, im not in any position to say whether or not he is genuinely remorseful or not, but if he were to be jailed, the same problem arises. You can spend years in prison, without necessarily feeling remorse for your actions.
All this aside though, I believe that our “justice” system is appalling, prisons seem to be more like crime universities than places of healing and rehabilitation. I like to believe that everyone has a basic moral sense of right and wrong, and I think most people are hard pressed to disagree, when crime is committed, I think people need to be worried less about “making them pay” and more about fixing whatever it was that got them into the situation they were in when they broke the law to begin with. My personal opinion is that jailing offenders will never remedy the situation, it’s like procrastinating. Only it costs us money.
And as far as the victim being left in a prison, you’re absolutely right, it’s a losing situation for the victim. But I don’t think that justifies making it a losing situation for all parties involved? I think the ideal outcome would be an offender truly learning a lesson from their mistake, and a victim being able to forgive an offender. I don’t think that it’s too much to ask for, but society seems determined to withhold forgiveness, and prefers to keep criminals out of sight and out of mind, while masquerading behind the banner of “rehabilitation”
The whole system actually sickens me quite a bit.
(on an aside, I stumbled across your site/blog today, and it’s great. you’re an inspiring person haha. I feel like I should get motivated and grow my business :D)
July 16th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
ha ha thanks!
I think we believe the same things. Jail is stupid. But to be honest I think for some - like the guy we’re discussion, maybe putting him in with a bunch of criminals may just give him a wakeup call. I really, truely doubt he considers himself to actually BE a criminal!
But, yep prisons are dumb overall. I don’t care what happens to him, I just think it is important that he is put on trial and if found guilty, then given the same punishment as anyone else - or the same rehabilitation or whatever anyone can do to ensure the victim feels like somebody was listening and that what happened to her shouldn’t have.