Posts by slarty
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Hard News: Narcissists and bullies, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
You know, Slarty, I really hope you’re being a wee bit snarky there because it would be nice if “those poor buggers” elected a union president who’d speak out as least as vigorously as he assassinates the character of anyone who dares suggest an armed police force might just create more problems than it solves.
After all, there's only 9,000 of them to fight the machine. It must be tough, doing the right thing in the face of all the procedural barriers...
Yes. Thank you Craig.
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Hard News: Narcissists and bullies, in reply to Emma Hart,
I’m really, really leery of “but this piece of legislation will fix it!”
So you should be. We have lots of law. It's the cowardly, unimaginative counsel at Crown Law etc. who stuff this up. How many murder victims lay a complaint?
I feel for the Police. I suspect the poor buggers have been fighting the legal machine internally for years, and then made sure this went public out of frustration. I have been there myself, waiting months for some spotty Vic grad to write an opinion.
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Hard News: Narcissists and bullies, in reply to Kyle Matthews,
excuse me sir, just before you go any further, can we talk to the young woman and you? Oh she's smashed, I think she can come with us and not with you. Thanks.
I have, on a number of occasions over the last 20 years (inc. on Courtney Place) driven girls home or put them in cabs and given the fare to the driver. Once I found a girl surrounded by three blokes in a dead-end alley in the UK.
When I share these stories, it's usually an older guy who suggests I might have been accused of something. I have always thought that's a cowards excuse.
As NetSafe say, the thing that's changed is the social media. Maybe we could use that to promote a bit of doing the right thing?
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He was a smart, genuine guy, but it seemed to me he’d spent so long looking for inconsistencies with every aspect of the case ... that he’d started to see patterns where there was none.
You've just described what happens to investigators all too often. Fundamental Attribution Error.
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Gave up on Telly in 2003. Haven't missed it whatsoever. Occasionally I have a moment where I don't get a reference (e.g. the cobblers about dog-napping a few weeks back).
Must confess I hope it will contribute to the end of the 50 year experiment that was broadcast TV.
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Is their any impact on an individual officers 'immunity' (if there is such a thing)?
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Hard News: It's worse than you think, in reply to 81stcolumn,
That’s what puzzles me about this. Surely a judge had to issue that warrant,
Quite a few agencies don't have to ask a judge for a warrant in a many circumstances.
Like this one.
Define serious.
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PS. If anyone says 'nothing to hide' just challenge them to write to IRD and waive their right to tax secrecy in perpetuity.
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Hard News: The Real Threat, in reply to Russell Brown,
You may have noticed some circumspection of communication from, well, perhaps even contributors to this magnificent endeavour.
I had an epiphany when chatting to a colleague last week. We were discussing Sir Paul Condon talking about institutionalised racism in the London Met.
The people who work in these services are genuinely going about their day to day jobs in the belief they are making our world safer (except for a few arseholes of course).
The problem is more a hangover from those halcyon days of the cold war, and NZ's depressing and ongoing inferiority complex.
These drive a systemic desire to bounce around like eager puppies whenever the big boys pay us an iota of attention (what some amateurs call 'realism'). The mis-fire is when this pathetic but understandable trait is cynically co-opted.
And I think over time that delivers an institutionalised bias...
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I call it my traveling stance - I try to mentally reduce my IQ to the level of whoever designs aircraft and the systems by which the self-loading baggage are herded on and off.
This made me laugh out loud. In a supportive way.
I have discovered two tricks in the years of traveling with small kids (and on my own - one recent year I did 30 long haul trips).
1. Pay the extra, go via SIN. They have cheap day hotels and an airport with playgrounds. And it is compact.
2. Never under any situation leave airside during transit. Bags get transferred. You avoid immigration. Nuff said.
3. Spend $100 each on a portable DVD player and let them get used to it / choose their own entertainment in advance.
4. [And this is the most important one] Give them drugs, but try them out in advance.I await with eager anticipation the feedback on #4.