Well they have sentenced two of the Urewera four to jail and supposedly Tame Iti and Te Rangikaiwhiria Kemara will spend two and a half years inside. The police terror raids on Tuhoe, the dropped charges, unadmissable evidence and dismal evidence presented, the lies and evasions all lead us to this, so called 'justice' for these men. Unfortunately this will get worse for the system now that the judge has determined this sentence. I suppose if the judge had discharged the four, then the feelings and heat within the community may have dissipaited but that is not what has happened. Instead we will see a focussing of energy, including heat and light and ironically this is the opposite of what the 'powers that be' wanted. They wanted a short, sharp lesson, they wanted a 'quick hit', they wanted to show the US that they were on to it, they wanted to show uppity tangata whenua what happens if you don't toe the line, they wanted to sow dissent and division within the activist community, they wanted to divide. As usual 'they' have fucked up.
I cannot tolerate these men spending one single day behind bars - this is a gross injustice that must be opposed.
Good updates from Tim at Tumeke
4 comments:
Kia Ora Marty,
A shameful day for New Zealand. Nothing less than political prisoners. Leonard Peltier still rots in a jail cell and now we seem headed down that same road. Of the less than 15 percent of people charged who are convicted on weapons charges the average sentence is less than 10 months. Two and a half years is justice? Shameful.
When I heard the judge passing sentence, what I was hearing was history repeating, and activists in Hungary being sentenced to prison (or execution!), after the failed 1956 uprising.
God help us, New Zealanders are taking this injustice with quiet passivity.
Thank you for both your comments. I agree with you Robb, it is shameful and yes Frank parallels with history abound.
It seems unbelieveable that this can even happen in todays world but the blatantness of this shows that the battle, often hidden, is out in the open now.
NZ has law and order for a reason. It is good to see it exercised.
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