If I read the news report correctly, self defence, and the protection of your property is still highly illegal in New Zealand.
Here were the chain of events:
1. A couple of guys are drinking and being noisy at 1am.
2. They wake the neighbour, who I'll call Terry.
3. Terry looks out of the window to see them tossing beer bottles on to his lawn
4. Terry yells out for them to stop
5. They SMASH THEIR WAY INTO THE HOUSE looking for a fight
6. Terry defends himself against TWO MEN with a Maori War Club, getting in a few good hits and sending them outside.
7. They get their cars and do wheelies on his lawn.
8. Terry fires a warning shot with his .22 and tells them to scram.
9. All parties go to bed.
10. Three and a half hours later an Armed Defenders Squad arrive, arrest Terry and throw him in jail. He's been charged with grievous bodily harm and reckless use of a firearm.
11. The two other guys have not been charged. No littering, no reckless use of car on private property, no breaking and entering, no threatening violence.
Self Defence and defence of property is still illegal. The wrong person is in jail.
UPDATE: Given I don't yet have a link, I need to also explain the other aspect of this story - the newspaper report simply took the angle of "Maori war club" used to beat up neighbour, missing the far more newsworthy aspect that I have posted about. Because they took that angle, the facts were sprinkled around the report in almost random order, making it easy for the casual reader to miss the main story - two guys break into a house to beat a guy, and he's now the one in jail.
REF: DomPost today, Page A4
Here were the chain of events:
1. A couple of guys are drinking and being noisy at 1am.
2. They wake the neighbour, who I'll call Terry.
3. Terry looks out of the window to see them tossing beer bottles on to his lawn
4. Terry yells out for them to stop
5. They SMASH THEIR WAY INTO THE HOUSE looking for a fight
6. Terry defends himself against TWO MEN with a Maori War Club, getting in a few good hits and sending them outside.
7. They get their cars and do wheelies on his lawn.
8. Terry fires a warning shot with his .22 and tells them to scram.
9. All parties go to bed.
10. Three and a half hours later an Armed Defenders Squad arrive, arrest Terry and throw him in jail. He's been charged with grievous bodily harm and reckless use of a firearm.
11. The two other guys have not been charged. No littering, no reckless use of car on private property, no breaking and entering, no threatening violence.
Self Defence and defence of property is still illegal. The wrong person is in jail.
UPDATE: Given I don't yet have a link, I need to also explain the other aspect of this story - the newspaper report simply took the angle of "Maori war club" used to beat up neighbour, missing the far more newsworthy aspect that I have posted about. Because they took that angle, the facts were sprinkled around the report in almost random order, making it easy for the casual reader to miss the main story - two guys break into a house to beat a guy, and he's now the one in jail.
REF: DomPost today, Page A4
Hard to read it any other way, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteI've posted the title and link to here over at CR. On the face of it, this is a bloody outrage.
Well, I didn't elaborate on the "got in a few good shots" which resulted in one of the guys checking into hospital asking for a band-aid.
ReplyDeleteI thought that was irrelevant since he wasn't so distressed as to first go and do wheelies on Terry's lawn, and secondly, because any damage sustained after breaking into some-one's house to bash them is only the beginnings of justice.
Absolutely. Once someone breaks into another's house then all bets are off. Pity the law doesn't see it that way.
ReplyDeleteOne day they're going to have to though because this kind of thing can't be allowed to continue. Law-abiding people shouldn't be required by law to be sitting targets.
Nice!!!
ReplyDeleteBlog
your blog is very nice and the way you have described about is very impressive.
Good Day
jack fierdo
Whilst I agree with you prima facie on this case, an arrest doesn't mean the man is going to be tried and imprisoned. I don't know much about New Zealand, to be honest, though I'd assume you have the same 'reasonable' use of force against assailants as other countries the British invaded.
ReplyDeleteHere in Cyprus, to use my nation as an example, you are allowed to use whatever force necessary to restrain or arrest an intruder, and remove the threat of force by them. Much the same as the UK. However, once the threat is removed, and the intruder is either unconscious, retreating, or tied up, or dead if that is the case, you are not allowed to use any more force on them.
However, as is a sad reflection on these societies, the police make an arrest of you even if it was obvious self defence. Usually, it's the prosecutors who order your release.
So, I'm thinking that your guy was probably arrested and charged by the police, and then released without charges by the prosecutor after the police investigation.