A recently retired senior police officer who once headed the National Drug Intelligence Bureau says police have made a "tactical mistake" in the way they deal with cannabis offences.
Detective Inspector Harry Quinn, who retired in 2008 after 37 years in the police, is calling on senior police to lead a debate on the cannabis issue, saying he is "disappointed" that no one in the organisation is prepared to speak out. He says this is because police see cannabis as a "political time bomb".
Quinn, who also helped set up the national organised crime unit and was involved in numerous cannabis eradication operations, says he took flak within police for writing a report recommending a relaxation of cannabis enforcement, which would have involved issuing warnings to adult social users.
A similar model has been suggested by the Law Commission, but the government has indicated it will not be changing drug laws.
Quinn's comments come after a recent hardline approach to cannabis, including the nationwide raids in April on hydroponic gardening stores.
In the latest edition of Norml News, the magazine of the National Organisation for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, member Stephen McIntyre says the April raids signal a "war on cannabis" by police and that previously there had been a degree of tolerance towards home cultivation for personal use. Law reformists say there is a perception from police that because the National government is tough on crime, they should clamp down on all areas of drug enforcement.
Elsewhere in the world, authorities are relaxing their attitude to marijuana, with US President Barack Obama saying medical users will not be pursued, and Californians are set to vote on measures to legalise the recreational use of cannabis.
Quinn told the Sunday Star-Times cannabis law did not need to be changed – but the way police enforced it did. They should rigorously prosecute anyone caught dealing drugs near schools or to youth, and anyone caught with cannabis in a vehicle, but go easy on adult recreational users, he said.
"If someone who is 40 years old is sharing a joint with their 42-year-old neighbour, they should simply tell them to put it out. Why we are wasting time prosecuting adults for the use of cannabis? I'm buggered if I know."
He said the Misuse of Drugs Act clearly differentiated between those dealing to young people and adult recreational users.
"Police ignored it completely and dealt with all offenders in the cannabis realm exactly the same. I think that was a tactical mistake."
He said there were worse drugs to worry about. "The big guns in the police should be pointed at the drugs which affect people's lives and can kill people – that's not cannabis."
Quinn said senior police needed to take another look at the law and issue guidelines to all officers "so it permeates all through.
"It's not a soft approach, it's just a different way of dealing with the problem."
But Detective Sergeant Paul Tricklebank, of the Drug Intelligence Bureau, said cannabis was harmful and a gateway to harder drugs. He said police did not pursue social users, only growers, dealers and gang suppliers.
Quinn, who also helped set up the national organised crime unit and was involved in numerous cannabis eradication operations, says he took flak within police for writing a report recommending a relaxation of cannabis enforcement, which would have involved issuing warnings to adult social users. …
Quinn said that cannabis law did not need to be changed – but the way police enforced it did. They should rigorously prosecute anyone caught dealing drugs near schools or to youth, and anyone caught with cannabis in a vehicle, but go easy on adult recreational users, he said.
“If someone who is 40 years old is sharing a joint with their 42-year-old neighbour, they should simply tell them to put it out. Why we are wasting time prosecuting adults for the use of cannabis? I’m buggered if I know.”
I’m buggered if I know also.
He said the Misuse of Drugs Act clearly differentiated between those dealing to young people and adult recreational users.
Police ignored it completely and dealt with all offenders in the cannabis realm exactly the same. I think that was a tactical mistake.”
He said there were worse drugs to worry about. “The big guns in the police should be pointed at the drugs which affect people’s lives and can kill people – that’s not cannabis.”
Quinn said senior police needed to take another look at the law and issue guidelines to all officers “so it permeates all through.
“It’s not a soft approach, it’s just a different way of dealing with the problem.”
Sounds sensible.
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
Court Order for Disclosure of Information, and Court Certificate:
[2] The charge was laid in March 2011. We are sitting here now at the end of August, and to date Ms Raue has not been provided with any information about the charge. It may be that the reason for that is that there is no information; if that is the case, she is entitled to know that as well.
[3] I accept that the charge was withdrawn (today), but nevertheless, she is entitled to know the reason why the charge was laid in the first place."
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Big local news: "Wairarapa Times-Age Nearly Gets It Right:"
Following publication of the report in the local "news" paper, the Wairarapa Times-Age, regarding the dismissal of serious charges against me, I wrote a request for correction and right of reply.
Read how the mainstream media will do almost anything to avoid publishing the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, at this link to the full story . . .
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Suicide in the Wairarapa:
"Barry Taylor, co-ordinator of the Wairarapa Suicide Prevention Project, says an inter-agency response has been launched after the sudden deaths of four young people in the region since June." - What exactly does THAT mean? It's more meaningless and hollow words from a man who has failed to even understand what the problems are, because like most of the people receiving taxpayer funding to address the problem round here, Barry Taylor is interested in talking, not listening, he's rude and dismissive when people ring him up to talk about it - that's if you manage to get hold of him at all, he doesn't return phone calls and messages and is more interested in adding a bit of mileage to his CV than actually addressing the real problems round here.
"Barry Taylor . . . said . . . there were no obvious links between the deaths besides some overlapping networks at schools and among friends." Barry Taylor wouldn't know a link if he fell over one. He's was appointed project co-ordinator over three years ago and his initiatives have been a total failure.
"Mr Taylor said an inter-agency meeting had been set down for yesterday afternoon in the wake of the first two deaths involving teenagers." These "inter-agency meetings" have been going on for years, and they involve little gossip sessions between the corrupt local police and leaders of the myriad "community agencies", where they pat each other on the back and mumble meaningless platitudes amongst themselves. These community agencies are run by incompetent and corrupt people and there is no accountability, as the Carterton community discovered when we all signed petitions, etc, regarding the illegal takeover, mismanagement and closure of the former Carterton Community Centre and the ten community organisations it governed.
"But the death of the young girl yesterday morning had ramped up the need for wider discussion and led to even more agencies being called to attend, he said." - it's not a matter of the quantity of the organisations, it's the lack of quality.
"It's trauma compacting upon trauma but it's important not to create community panic. Suicide leaves some of us with only questions; and speculations, the whispers, the rumours, they escalate and sometimes fill that void," he said. This sounds familiar . . . don't panic, nothing to see here . . .
"It's trauma compacting upon trauma but it's important not to create community panic. Suicide leaves some of us with only questions; and speculations, the whispers, the rumours, they escalate and sometimes fill that void," he said. This sounds familiar . . . don't panic, nothing to see here . . .
The local media are out of control - publishing all sorts of rubbish at the slightest excuse in favour of their favorite 'politicians', and slandering anyone opposing them in order to influence public opinion.
"But any young people or parents who have concerns at all, should not hold back. If parents are worried about their children, do something about it. If something is wrong, tell someone." The problem is that THIS is what happens when you "tell someone" in the Wairarapa, you find some creep like Tere Torea giving you one of his 'hugs' and saying a prayer for you, and even if you are taken seriously and get as far as making a formal complaint to police, the files are thrown in the rubbish and senior police officers like Det Sgt Mark McHattie and Jack Johnson get promoted for lying and covering it up. Officers like Tara Sewell at police HQ, referred to in Dame Margaret Bazely's recent report as "bullshit castle" by many officers, assists in the corruption by claiming that the file referred to in Sgt Reid's letter to lawyer Ainslie Hewton, regarding the polkice 'investigation' into the allegations made by me and several lawyers regarding the fraud and misfeasance, assaults, etc, at the CCC does not exist.
As a result of this, our Community Resource Centre,Community Gardens, Borough Farm, Community Health Centre, and many other valuable community assets have been replaced by an Event Centre, run by the same people responsible for the misfeasance at the CCC, and where the first "Event" was a widely disliked performance of "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas".
Mr Taylor said the meeting yesterday had mapped out a co-ordinated inter-agency response in the town and region involving representatives from Wairarapa DHB, police, CYFS, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMS), Victim Support, Special Education, Youth Connect and counsellors from Makoura, Wairarapa, Chanel and Rathkeale colleges.
He said concerned parents are invited to a meeting in Masterton early next week that would outline "what to look for if your children are distressed". A venue is to be confirmed.
People at most risk were identified at the meeting yesterday and "postvention" responsibilities set out for several agencies "about what they need and who will help".
"We're also looking at providing further support through churches, youth groups, schools, marae and iwi, and families, and providing a resource list for those natural support systems." - This is just more of the same from the same old people!
Mr Taylor said there had been an increase across New Zealand of youth suicides that was borne out in provisional figures from the Chief Coroner for self-inflicted deaths between July 2010 and June this year.
He said concerned parents are invited to a meeting in Masterton early next week that would outline "what to look for if your children are distressed". A venue is to be confirmed.
People at most risk were identified at the meeting yesterday and "postvention" responsibilities set out for several agencies "about what they need and who will help".
"We're also looking at providing further support through churches, youth groups, schools, marae and iwi, and families, and providing a resource list for those natural support systems." - This is just more of the same from the same old people!
Mr Taylor said there had been an increase across New Zealand of youth suicides that was borne out in provisional figures from the Chief Coroner for self-inflicted deaths between July 2010 and June this year.
"In Wairarapa, five to six people a year die of suicide," he said. !!!
"This is four in three months and that has the elements of a cluster. But whether this is something extraordinary or not is yet to be established." !!! Mr Taylor said there was a risk that social networking could "idolise" the young person who had died and "romanticise" the tragedy, providing a forum "for the young people to bond in their vulnerability and not their strength"."We need to discover what could be causing a young life to become so unbearable that suicide is a viable answer for that person. We need to help them navigate and work through that.
"Youth suicide is highly impulsive and often happens through a little trigger event," he said. "The greater tragedy of youth suicide though is that many of them don't want to die, they just want the pain to end."
"This is four in three months and that has the elements of a cluster. But whether this is something extraordinary or not is yet to be established." !!! Mr Taylor said there was a risk that social networking could "idolise" the young person who had died and "romanticise" the tragedy, providing a forum "for the young people to bond in their vulnerability and not their strength"."We need to discover what could be causing a young life to become so unbearable that suicide is a viable answer for that person. We need to help them navigate and work through that.
"Youth suicide is highly impulsive and often happens through a little trigger event," he said. "The greater tragedy of youth suicide though is that many of them don't want to die, they just want the pain to end."
_____________________________________________
Actually the tragic reality is that this is what happens when you ask the "community agencies" in the Wairarapa for assistance.
What's wrong in the Wairarapa is that we have dysfunctional communities, managed and governed and manipulated by a small group of bad role models. When I first came to the Wairarapa and became Secretary and Finance Officer for the Carterton Community Centre, which catered for the more vulnerable members of the community, I discovered the allegations made to me of incompetence, fraud and serious misfeasance by the committee were entirely true. I also discovered that the committee were almost all associated with the Carterton Distruct Council, a major funder of the Centre - in other words they had serious conflicts of interest, they were awarding funding on one hand and spending it with the other hand, and most unwisely. The Community Centre was the heart of the community, a place where people could come and feel welcome, access resources and useful, accurate information.
A Community Centre is not about a building it's about the people running it, so is a community. He Tangata, he tangata, he tangata. The same people who took over the former Community Centre by punching the Secretary and Finance Officer in the face, are behind the new "Event Centre" in Carterton. There is the Arts Agenda, John Crawford, Jo Roffe, etc, there is the Council contingent, Elaine Brazendale, Ruth Carter, Jill Greathead, Julie Hallam, Ewen Hyde, and their family and friends, who were into paying money hand over fist to idiots like Georgina Beyer. Here are links to the Minutes of the committee meetings, financial reports, and more information showing their involvement.
Let's see some real statistics, how many of the people who committed suicide were unemployed? How many were mental health patients? I'd still be employed if police hadn't lied to South End School. Come to think of it, that's the sort of thing that drives people to commit suicide isn't it, imagine how youd feel if the local police started telling the community that you were a child abuser, a criminal, etc, etc, and you received a letter dismissing you because of it, like I did?
Two weeks before the election when I stood for Mayor, local journalists saw fit to put posters outside every dairy saying "Mayoral candidate in Court appearance" and wrote a story about how I'd allegedly been charged with ringing someone up and swearing at them. They published nothing when the charges were thrown out and nothing about the vicious attack on me by the alleged complainant who didn't even turn up to Court it was so obvious he was lying. So Gary McPhee was elected, a local drunken, bullying biker. McPhee sold the Borough Farm, the Health Centre and everything else he could to pay for an Event Centre to take the place of our community resource centre, the first "Event" is going to be a production of the new Limelight Theatre show "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" - great family entertainment. The Statement of Claim presented to the Court to wind up the Community Centre, signed by John Crawford, Elaine Brazendale, Jill Greathead, Ruth Carter Ewen Hyde, and 3 others states that the pathetic excuse, in paragraph 3 below, for the closure of OUR Community Centre:
Here's the link to the story of the Great Cuisine School Debacle, which describes how under McPhee's leadership Carterton missed the greatest opportunity to kick start the local economy ever. McPhee sold the Borough Farm to his mate, saying he "couldn't understand what an educational reserve was" which was the terms of the bequest of the farm to the community. If I'd been Mayor the Cuisine School would have been on the Borough Farm and it would have provided employment and training to thousands of local residents, and attracted international visitors and investments, and been hugely successful. Instead, thanks to the efforts of "community leaders like transvestite prostitute Georgina Beyer, drunken, violent lout Gary McPhee and devious Ron Mark, we now have an "Event Centre" which caters for the the same corrupt lawyers who shut down the Carterton Community Centre, like Mark Hinton, John Greenwood, Carolyn Wait, and their mates to stage their 'performance' of "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas."
What's wrong in the Wairarapa is that we have dysfunctional communities, managed and governed and manipulated by a small group of bad role models. When I first came to the Wairarapa and became Secretary and Finance Officer for the Carterton Community Centre, which catered for the more vulnerable members of the community, I discovered the allegations made to me of incompetence, fraud and serious misfeasance by the committee were entirely true. I also discovered that the committee were almost all associated with the Carterton Distruct Council, a major funder of the Centre - in other words they had serious conflicts of interest, they were awarding funding on one hand and spending it with the other hand, and most unwisely. The Community Centre was the heart of the community, a place where people could come and feel welcome, access resources and useful, accurate information.
A Community Centre is not about a building it's about the people running it, so is a community. He Tangata, he tangata, he tangata. The same people who took over the former Community Centre by punching the Secretary and Finance Officer in the face, are behind the new "Event Centre" in Carterton. There is the Arts Agenda, John Crawford, Jo Roffe, etc, there is the Council contingent, Elaine Brazendale, Ruth Carter, Jill Greathead, Julie Hallam, Ewen Hyde, and their family and friends, who were into paying money hand over fist to idiots like Georgina Beyer. Here are links to the Minutes of the committee meetings, financial reports, and more information showing their involvement.
Let's see some real statistics, how many of the people who committed suicide were unemployed? How many were mental health patients? I'd still be employed if police hadn't lied to South End School. Come to think of it, that's the sort of thing that drives people to commit suicide isn't it, imagine how youd feel if the local police started telling the community that you were a child abuser, a criminal, etc, etc, and you received a letter dismissing you because of it, like I did?
Two weeks before the election when I stood for Mayor, local journalists saw fit to put posters outside every dairy saying "Mayoral candidate in Court appearance" and wrote a story about how I'd allegedly been charged with ringing someone up and swearing at them. They published nothing when the charges were thrown out and nothing about the vicious attack on me by the alleged complainant who didn't even turn up to Court it was so obvious he was lying. So Gary McPhee was elected, a local drunken, bullying biker. McPhee sold the Borough Farm, the Health Centre and everything else he could to pay for an Event Centre to take the place of our community resource centre, the first "Event" is going to be a production of the new Limelight Theatre show "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" - great family entertainment. The Statement of Claim presented to the Court to wind up the Community Centre, signed by John Crawford, Elaine Brazendale, Jill Greathead, Ruth Carter Ewen Hyde, and 3 others states that the pathetic excuse, in paragraph 3 below, for the closure of OUR Community Centre:
We need real community resources here, community gardens and community resource centres, not just event centres and conference centres. The former Carterton Community Centre and Community Gardens, including the garden at the South End School, provided real services to the community, and provided real value for money, whereas the Carterton Event Centre is benefiting the same people who were ripping off those two organisations, and being used to spread propaganda by local politicians and exclude people who wish to politely share FACTUAL, relevant and vitally important information with the community.
The other thing people need is competent advocacy - many of the local 'community agencies' advertise that they provide advocacy but they do not. Victim Support and Womens Refuge are two good examples locally, these organisations are only as good as the people running them and while they are a good idea in theory, in practice many of these organisations are run by corrupt and incompetent people who are simply ripping off the funding and trying to cover up the problems and continue abusing the victims.
Charges "Laid by mistake" claim police:
No, of course it shouldn't have. And neither should the other five charges, or the Perverting the Course of Justice or Escaping From Custody that were also thrown out recently or all the other ones they've had a crack at and lost, like Billsticking, the five charges from the matter involving Georgina Beyer at the public meeting, Rachel Betteridge's perjurous complaint, trespass at the Council, etc.
Here is the link to the full story, and the report in the local 'news' paper:
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