Judge gets it right

The Herald reports:

The transgender refugee who poured tomato juice over the head of controversial British activist Posie Parker during a raucous rally at Auckland Central’s Albert Park, had previously been the victim of serious assaults spurred by discrimination. …

But despite his at-times sympathetic tone, Justice David Johnstone said he couldn’t overturn a district court decision denying the 36-year-old pharmacist a discharge without conviction because of the message it would send to others.

“…It is important that those who wish to oppose, by protesting against, views they consider abhorrent, do so without engaging in physical attacks,” he wrote near the conclusion of his 11-page decision.

It’s not a difficult line to draw. Protest yes. Assault no.

“The courts should be seen to denounce, and in that way generally to deter, that form of protest, because of the risk it will be copied, perhaps more harmfully, and because of its inherent tendency to undermine rather than facilitate the rule of law.”

If this activist had got off, then of ourselves it would have been copied.

“She has filed an affidavit in which she says she ‘felt compelled to act’,” Johnstone wrote. “Of course, it was entirely improper for Ms Golberstein to offend as she did. 

“Her actions blatantly crossed a line that must be maintained, between the legitimate verbal or written expression of contrary opinion on one side, and physical conduct that risks provoking violence or harm to individuals, communities and institutions on the other.”

Good to see the Judge gets such an important distinction.