Media Statement Thursday, 1 April, 2004

Alexander: Napier move a bold first against crime

United Future law and order spokesman Marc Alexander today congratulated Napier City Council for getting behind the Sensible Sentencing Trust.

"Napier is a city that has known more than its share of tragedy in recent years, with cases such as Kirsa Jensen and Teresa Cormack, and it is good to see a municipal authority taking on the concerns of everyday people," Mr Alexander, a founding member of Sensible Sentencing, said.

Napier City Council voted this week to support the aims and objectives of the Sensible Sentencing Trust.

"When crime of that nature touches a community, it changes it forever. The approach taken by Sensible Sentencing is all about addressing those concerns as a society,"

"We have been increasingly hammered by violent crime over recent years, and to see a city get behind the fight for tougher sentences, the fixing of the debacle that is our parole system, and victims' rights, is absolutely wonderful," Mr Alexander said.

"This is a position of real community leadership taken by the council, and can only bolster the good work being done by Sensible Sentencing," he said.

Ends.

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>