I can't help but feel pleased to hear the news that Michael Laws' stupid patch-ban bylaw has been declared illegal by the High Court.
It's a shame they couldn't rule the same way over Laws himself, or at least outlaw the spillage of tripe he's responsible for on radio talk-back.
Imperator Fish has the story and his usual balanced commentary on the good news.
"Likewise the bylaw banning the wearing of gang patches was never going to make gangs go away, nor was it ever going to reduce the activities of gangs. It was a feeble and largely pointless measure that symbolised the fact that we have lost the war. We may as well have run up a white flag instead of banning the wearing of the red and the blue.", says Scott.
There has been argument between left and right wing bloggers since Laws proposed the dopey bylaw and I guess now, those 'righties' who crowed when it was put in place will be going, cap in hand, to their opponents and saying, 'we were wrong' :-)
Friday, March 4, 2011
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
20 comments:
The most interesting bit is that it appears from the judgment (at para 160) that Lhaws misled the Council into believing it didn't have to consider the NZ Bill of Rights Act in enacting the bylaw.
A few thoughts from Wanganui, which is a far nicer place without patched gang members walking the streets...
http://keepingstock.blogspot.com/2011/03/of-gangs-patches-and-former-mayors.html
...due to an illegal bylaw pushed through by the ever-so-unpleasant Michael Laws.
I'll take a look at your post Inv2.
Thanks Toad - I'm stunned by my lack of surprise at your news.
The INTENT of the bylaw hasn't been found to be illegal RG, just the way in which it was executed by the WDC. I'm no fan of Laws, but he deserves credit for taking on the gangs in this manner.
I'd give him credit for taking on the gangs, Inv2, if he did it in an intelligent way. De-patching was a poor approach. Laws went for the strong-man approach to show that his mascara wasn't indicative of his manliness, but he did it wrong and this is how it has ended up. The gangs will be delighting in his loss of face no doubt. Not a good outcome. I sympathise very much with the non-gang members of the Whanganui community - they deserve a resolution to this issue - so to do the gang members, I'd say. They deserve a better life than the one they are having, despite however much they might claim to be enjoying it and by better I mean better for all of us (it's that communist blood flowing in my veins!).
It is an accepted fact that gang patches are earned by illegal acts.
It is past time that for patches to be banned in all New Zealand, not just in Wanganui.
Came back to add a bit to my last comment and I notice it has couple of mistakes. Obviously "Bany" should be "Baby" and I did not intend to put a "that" in the last scentence.
In my comment over at Keeping Stock I commended Michael Laws for his initative in introducing the 'Patch' Law. He may have stuffed up the process but he has given the issue national exposure for a second time.No mean feat when news has been dominated(and rightly so) by the earthquake.
And there we have the solution to robbery. Stop the theft of money by banning money.
Have you shared your theory with Michael Laws Shane?
He could make a comeback on the strength of it!
FBB - Invercargill is suffering a flush of gang-related hoohaa at the moment.
I suspect that banning their patches, colours, bandanas etc. would do no good at all and just introduce a new inequity aimed at the poorer members of the community. It might feel good to lay down the law, but eventually, we'd pay the price for doing so. There are better solutions.
There are better solutions
Care to share them?
Because I hear that statement often from a lot of people and it is almost never qualified.
Roberts idea would be to sit them all down and "get in touch" with the earth and smoke weed and get it all sorted that way. Tell the gang members that what they do is only an expression fo themselves and that we should all live together in sweet harmony.
Forget the fact that they terrorise people to no end.
Robert is displaying A classic case of someone who DOESNT live in the area telling others how they should feel.
Had a young woman try to deliberately run my children over the other day, the police unfortunately had to be involved.
Sometimes people don't deserve to live in a community, regardless of why they are the way they are.
Shunda..I had to read your comment twice as I couldn't quite believe my eyes..WTF!! I hope they're all unscathed.
Shunda - my post emphasises that the bylaw has been deemed invalid and therefore illegal by the High Court.
No matter how passionately we might hate gand behaviour, the law is the law and must be respected.
Anonymous - your comment is purile and reflects your prejudice. Can you think dispassionately about the issue, which is, the bylaw has been found to be un-lawful?
Shunda - there are better solutions, because the one proposed by Laws is illegal!!
What on earth happened with your kids? Is everyone alright?
The Coast must be a crazy place indeed because I understand this is not the first time you've suffered unpleasantness of a similar nature to this one.
emphasises
Robert, the Coast is no different to anywhere else, if anything it is slightly better (definitely better than parts of Chch) than other regions.
But living in a lower socio-economic area in NZ is getting increasingly unsafe.
When you are "at the coal face" so to speak, it is as plain as day, we have a rough future ahead.
The young woman in question was a new tenant in a rental house. She fell out with a friend who has been a neighbour of ours for 10 years.
She saw us talking to her (as we have done for years) and decided that we were the enemy too.
Next time she drove down the street she accelerated hard and swerved at at the children playing near the side of the road, almost hitting a parked car.
Wacky behaviour Shunda.
Maybe she has rellies in Chch. Or had.
John Campbell had a melt-down too, I'm told, over some Moony or other.
Post a Comment