Thursday, 26 August, 2004

Alexander: It's time to count the cost of the Bill of Rights

Something is seriously wrong when prisoners jailed for denying their victims' rights - in one case the right to live - can turn around and demand their "supposed rights" from society, United Future's Marc Alexander said today.

Four inmates are trying to grab a total of $605,000 of taxpayers' money for being allegedly treated 'inhumanely'.

"I'd like to know by what criteria they are judging that, when one of them, Christopher Taunoa, is a disruptive inmate and convicted murderer who deprived his victim of the right to be alive today.

"Lets get real here. If anyone deserves compensation, it is the victims and their families," Mr Alexander, United Future's law and order spokesman, said.

"While no one can condone barbarity wherever it may occur, these offenders should not profit by one cent as a result of their imprisonment for the crimes they chose to commit. If there are payouts they should be reasonable, go towards their upkeep in prison or to victims as reparation," he said.

Any prison officers found guilty of breaching inmate management regimes should be answerable, Mr Alexander said.

"The Bill of Rights gets used and abused by the very people who never respected its provisions in the first place."

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>>