Serial apologist for criminals Peter Williams QC says killer Antonie Dixon's death in prison from self-inflicted wounds further highlights the “failure of our judicial system.”
No, dickhead, it doesn’t. If anything, this outcome is an example of its success.
21 comments:
Now, if we could just distribute free razor blades and some hemp rope to the rest...
This is the same Antonie Dixon, that attacked Hart in jail with prison fashioned knife only last week. right? The psychological and physical abuse he suffered as a young child, at the hands of his ‘fire and brimstone’ mother and fellow Church members, were major factors in his decline into psychosis. Add to that his involvement with ‘p’. One only needs to read he and his sisters testimonies, to see the warped indoctrination he received by his parents like telling him “you are the spawn of the devil” to see how he ended-up the way he did. If Hart wants to proportion blame start on his parents and then the Jehovah Witness Church.
I know, let's say we're not responsible, we had a terrible upbringing, etc etc. Bullshit. He was assessed and found to be able to reason perfectly well. He chose to do what he did; his parents and their church didn't make him do it. Let's not continue the hopeless PC opt-out of disclaiming responsibility for our own actions. That's just a stupid cop-out.
A little more personal responsibility might make our society much more pleasant to live in.
When someone dies before their time our society has failed that person.
End of story.
KG - how would you feel if you were wrongfully convicted of something and read your words?
Good riddance to scum. 'Society' did not fail Antonie Dixon, he chose to take P and was held accountable for the actions that resulted, just as he should have been. At least he did the decent thing and won't burden the taxpayer for years to come.
"When someone dies before their time our society has failed that person."
Collectivist nonsense, ykiwi. I am not to blame for the actions of that man and nor is anybody I know.
I am not suggesting that his family are blameless. He may have had a hell of an upbringing. Many people endure that and it's a terrible thing. But they don't all go on to misbehave and/or commit crime as he did.
But I am part of "society" and hell will freeze over before I accept responsibility for his, or any other adult's actions.
Obviously a death is nothing to get excited about.
I can understand the feeling of dispair which may result from the thought of spending until 2030 (or whenever) in Gaol, with the next decade or so in Maximum Security.
Were it up to me I would abolish Maximum Security altogether as locking someone up for 22 hours per day for years on end serves no purpose.
However it does not mean the Judicial system has failed because Mr Dixon took his own life.
Large numbers of other prisoners shrug their shoulders and make the best of it.
They DO give them free razor blades!
"Obviously a death is nothing to get excited about."
Depends on the individual, Elijah. If the subhumans sentenced yesterday in Rotorua for the crimes against a toddler took their lives tomorrow, I bet you'd hear cheers right throughout NZ.
You probably would, Sue, yes, although not from me.
Let me put it to you this way...
I can (vaguely) visualise Waitangi Day 1989 - 20 years ago tomorrow.
The thought of Waitangi Day 2029..(as far in the future as Waitangi Day 1989 is in the past).. is unimaginable.
If you were faced with spending that length of time in a prison before being parolled it would be understandable to experience a feeling of dispair and perhaps want to end your life.
In other words - a normal human emotion and reaction causes the suicide, rather than a failure of the system.
Exactly Sus. His death is regrettable, we should not celebrate it, and I agree with Elijah that prison would be very depressing and could have driven him to it. But ultimately it was his own decision. Even if prison drove him to it, it was his own decision to commit the crimes that landed him in prison in the first place.
If you wish to blame yourself for some reason y_kiwi, feel free. Just don't blame the rest of us.
In some countries he would have been executed long ago, so our NZ society has actually allowed him to live far longer than he might have.
At the end of the day Antonie made his choices in life, He choose to use 'P' & commit serious crimes against other people. His poor upbringing is irrelevant because others have had a dysfunctional upbringing & have turned their lives around for the better. Its the choices you make in life that matter, not the upbringing you came from. Antonie made bad choices in life & chose not to learn from them, I therefore dont mourn his passing.
Clearly this man was insane.
Clearly the prison environment is inhumane.
There is nothing to celebrate here. There is a great deal to be concerned about. For a start, the fact that prisons are run by the gangs. Secondly that many of the people who are incarcerated within them are there due to victimless crimes. Third, that it is well known that terrible crimes are committed within prisons (as presently configured) and nothing is done to sort that out. Forth, that the judicial system occasionally gets it wrong and innocent decent people are convicted in error or perhaps even by malice. They are treated inhumanely, possibly even worse than other inmates.
Here are two examples for you to consider.
1/. A young man in his 20s assaults a woman. He punched her and she fell and was seriously injured as the result of that. He gets put in prison (serves 8 months or thereabouts). While in the prison he is raped and forced to commit oral sex on other inmates. In the end he becomes the bum toy for a prisoner who "protects" him against the others. That way he is no longer expected to submit to some of the acts he was forced to previously. When he leaves prison he is an angry, bitter and twisted person. His life, now dominated by hatred, led to a spiral of crime which culminated in assaults, some rapes and, finally, murder. He is due for release soon. Look for him in a street near you. It's OK. He's been "rehabilitated".
2/. A man gets convicted of a crime he did not commit. He gets pack raped. It is later discovered that he was innocent all along. It takes several years for the "system" to admit to the error and free him from incarceration. His prison experience leaves him with hepatitis. He is going to die in severe discomfort.
A final point- interesting how prison rapes and bashings etc. are so well known about in the public domain that they are featured in the media as part of mainstream "entertainment". Strange how this is all considered acceptable and civilised.
LGM
and before the luvvies get too worked up about how we failed him, and there but for the grace of god go all of us (yes, its only the thinnest veneer of civilisation that stops us from murdering our fellow man), ponder this
Dixon had 160 other convictions, and had previously served 14 jail terms.
nice guy, clearly knew right from wrong, I think he did us all a favour.
and as for ykiwi and his/her ilk - why ponder the effect of wrongful imprisonment? was dixon wrongfully imprisoned? no. then what possible point could you be trying to make. oh thats right, the usual lefty moral equivalence point.
Well bugger off. He's better off dead, and saves us taxpayers bout $150k+ a year in lock-up costs, not to mention his perpetual legal aid charades.
"When someone dies before their time our society has failed that person." What utter, bleeding-heart fairyland bollocks!
Society contains predators and leeches as well as productive people. It was ever thus and is so in nature. The purpose of a society, surely is to organise things so people are able to live together in some kind of co-operative system consistent with the maximum amount of personal liberty.
That some people will abuse that liberty is a fact and it's not the fault of 'society' that they do--it's simply one end of the spectrum of variability within a species.
You sound like a bloody social worker leftard.
"KG - how would you feel if you were wrongfully convicted of something and read your words?"
Pretty hypothetical--but if that happened, I'd ignore the words, knowing they didn't apply in my case. And anyway, I'd never give up, so a supply of razor blades would be handy for shaving with.:-)
And lest you think I'm some smug middle-class wanker who never knew hardship--I grew up in a viciously abusive environment, never knew a stable home life and became addicted to amphetamines in my teens.
Did those things do some permanent damage? Yes. But I chose not to be a victim for the rest of my life and to make the best I could of what little I had to work with. Now I have little in the material sense, but a loving, wonderful wife and some great memories from a lifetime of travelling make up for that.
The point being that it's possible to haul oneself above the slime, no matter how modest the result but what's needed is a minimal level of self-awareness and a healthy dose of that now unfashionable emotion--shame.
The boom periods like the one we've had for the last few years spawn stacks of white collar crime.
My prediction for 2009, one you can bet on is lots of LLB's, MBA's and BBS's going inside.
We are going to see a lot of white collars going to jail with any luck - they should be put in a cell with Burton.
Don't expect them to be publicised and derided on Not PC though.
"Depends on the individual, Elijah. If the subhumans sentenced yesterday in Rotorua for the crimes against a toddler took their lives tomorrow, I bet you'd hear cheers right throughout NZ.
Elijah Lineberry said...
You probably would, Sue, yes, although not from me."
Hmmm. Notwitstanding shortcomings within the prison system, my tears are shed for the innocent defenceless toddler -- not the subhumans who chose to torture and kill her.
Q1: If you make no difference between degree of offence, by definition you would have felt sympathy for, say, the suicide of a sub-human like Rudolf Hess had he taken his own life?
Q2: Given that the purpose of prison is to protect the innocent from the convicted, (the violent in particular), how would you alter the current system?
now that you have invoked Godwin's law, perhaps you could find out for yourself just who first started using the phrase "sub-human"
I'll even provide the language: German
Sue, I have posted a rather long explanations of my views on this sort of thing on my blog.
Thanks Elijah.
Sorry if "subhuman" bothers you, Anonymous. I think it does a pretty job of summarising the adult monster found guilty of torturing a small child -- particularly those who express no remorse for their actions. But then I'm funny like that ... ;)
What would you prefer?
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