MEDIA RELEASE:

1st May 2008

 
Christchurch To Get Sensible Sentencing
 

Christchurch invites the founder of the Sensible Sentencing Trust to speak at public meeting on crime fighting initiatives.

Following the recent murder of Marie Davis and the release of crime figures showing Christchurch having the highest level of violent crime and second in the country for total crimes a meeting is being organized to say we've had enough.

Garth McVicar who founded the Sensible Sentencing Trust in 2001 has been invited to be guest speaker.

McVicar is New Zealand’s most outspoken opponent to liberal crime polices and is a nemesis to those promoting community sentences and restorative justice.

“My message will be simple,” said McVicar, “The current warm-fuzzy social experiment that makes excuses for offenders has been a dismal failure and we can’t afford to tolerate this anymore”.

“Most of the heinous offences in Christchurch recently – including Charlene Makaza, Jane Young, Hannah Rossiter and more recently Emma Agnew and Marie Davis will have been committed by offenders with a previous violent history.”

“Prison keeps the community safe from violent criminals and repeat offenders – the public deserve to be protected from career criminals – they must be locked away to ensure we can walk our streets without fear.”

“We do not want criminals on the street – end of story.” McVicar said.

The recent spate of murders has shocked New Zealand and resulted in Christchurch MP Nicky Wagner taking the lead and organizing the public meeting.

Nicky said after hearing that a meeting organized by the Sensible Sentencing Trust in Taupo had attracted over 1000 people she decided to invite Garth McVicar to Christchurch.

“Garth McVicar is passionate about Law & Order and so am I, he has been touring the Country to motivate debate on escalating violent crime, I decided to see if Christchurch is as motivated on this issue as Taupo.”

“Garth is saying stop the escalating violence and I agree with him, as I see it we have two options, we roll over and wave a white flag and let the criminals rule or we stand-up and reclaim our streets.”

McVicar said that while the police are doing a great job legislation that simply recycles violent offenders means the Police are getting frustrated and morale is suffering – the spin off of that of course is the public lose faith in the Justice System itself – this will result in the public taking the law into their own hands, and that will be a very sad day for New Zealand”.

The meeting will be held in the Christchurch Town Hall [Limes Room] at 7-30pm on 7th May and opened by Mayor Bob Parker.

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