Telling the truth is not abhorrent

The Herald reports:

Freshly-appointed Justice Minister Kiri Allan has hit out at comments that the Government is “soft on crime”, calling the rhetoric “abhorrent”.

Allan said such comments ignored the complexities of crime, and in reality, the Government had made no changes to sentencing or penalties.

However, the Opposition claims it is doing just that by repealing the Three Strikes legislation, which is being debated further in the House this week.

They’re about to change the law so the worst of the worst get shorter sentences and/or eligibility for parole. The average second striker has 42 adult convictions and third striker 74, and they want to let them out early.

And not only are hey pushing through a law change to reward the worst criminals, they have voted against the following:

1. Sep 2018 – voted down bill to allow Police to issue firearms prohibition orders against gang members with a history of firearms or violent offending
2. Oct 2018 – voted down bill to allow for random testing of drivers for drug impairment
3. May 2019 – voted down bill to increase maximum penalty for selling or supplying unapproved psychoactive substances from two to 14 years
4. June 2020 – voted down bill allowing maximum penalty of 20 years for “coward punches” causing death
5. Mar 2021 – voted down a bill requiring a school to be notified if a registered sex offender lives within 5 kms of the school
6. Apr 2021 – voted not to proceed with a bill that increases the maximum penalty for assaults on first responders or prison officers to 10 years
7. April 2021 – voted down a bill imposing a maximum penalty of five years for killing a police dog
8. June 2021 – voted down a bill that clarified  carjacking is robbery
9. Oct 2021 – again voted down bill to allow Police to issue firearms prohibition orders against gang members with a history of firearms or violent offending
10. Apr 2022 – voted down a bill to ban the Government funding gangs
11. May 2022 – voted down a bill to increase the power of Police to seize assets gained through significant criminal activity

Allan told the Herald the law was a good example of a “knee-jerk reaction” to crime, something she said she was committed to avoiding in her new role.

“There was no evidence that it worked. It had been trialled in places like California and deemed to be an abject failure.

The California law is vastly vastly different.

As for the NZ law, the number of people going on to do a second strike offence after the law passed was significantly down from the same time period before the law passed. So the reoffending rate actually dropped.

In 2018 I profiled some of these second strikers and their crimes. As the Government seems set on repealing the law, I am going to repost these profiles so people can see who they will be wanting to let out early.