No Surprise

It is no surprise that our latest convicted murderer, Haiden Davis, has the all the usual hallmarks - out on bail for a previous crime when he committed the murder; a string of previous convictions.

It is no surprise that he graduated from shoplifting to theft to stealing cars to violence before killing.

It is no surprise that he owes thousands in fines.

It is also no surprise that he yelled obscenities at the Judge and no surprise nothing is added to his sentence for the outburst.

A superb piece of reporting by TVNZ last night when they revealed that Davis had ignored his home detention, he was consorting with people he shouldn't have been with, he was in a stolen car which they lost when it took off at high speed through a red light, he was seen with trial witnesses and so on.

What will be done - we all know - nothing! What a surprise. 

Meantime the father of the boy Davis murdered asks why he can't take the Government to Court as they could him in his business if he allowed somebody to be killed. Good point.

Meantime our other killer, Bailey Kurariki is back in Court having breached his bail conditions again (how many time six, seven or more?). We saw film of him striking and spitting on a TV cameraman. Why wasn't he charged - you and I couldn't do it!.

Why don't we follow the American pattern of having bail conditions applied to a monetary amount. They should have to put the $$ up front and lose it if need be. Of course the do-gooders will say it favours the rich, which is true, but what else can we do as they just ignore the conditions. Again if they are not considered dangerous, not liable to approach witnesses etc and have no previous convictions then they should get bail.

On Radio NZ today they said we have more appeals to our Supreme Court than Germany does to theirs. Why? We pay (Legal Aid) and in Germany the time awaiting any appeal does not count towards the time spent in jail - that is if sentenced to 10 years and they appeal the sentence doesn't start until the result of the appeal is handed down.

The Government have just announced their scheme for expanding Broadband. I will see what it says before commenting.