Comments on: Banning gangs? http://thesisprocrastination.com/2008/09/15/banning-gangs/ Sharing my opinons on life, the universe and everything while putting off more worthwhile endeavours. Sat, 28 Aug 2010 04:10:06 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: AndrewE http://thesisprocrastination.com/2008/09/15/banning-gangs/comment-page-1/#comment-1069 AndrewE Mon, 15 Sep 2008 19:17:29 +0000 http://thesisprocrastination.com/?p=334#comment-1069 Could we get some thoughts from our esteemed Labour colleague? Could we get some thoughts from our esteemed Labour colleague?

]]> By: Sarah http://thesisprocrastination.com/2008/09/15/banning-gangs/comment-page-1/#comment-1068 Sarah Mon, 15 Sep 2008 11:20:58 +0000 http://thesisprocrastination.com/?p=334#comment-1068 Prior to 9/11 who would have thought the US government would repeal habeas corpus and allow people to be indefinitely detained at Gitmo on purely on suspicion of being an enemy combatant? I think the way a country loses its freedoms is slowly and gradually and I wouldn't want to see NZ going there. And sure, we can eventually slowly give up all our freedoms until we are so repressed we have to overthrow the government in a revolution ... but surely it would be better to just keep them in the first place and not go through all that? Anyway, I do agree that it seems unlikely for an NZ government in the near future to label a political party as a criminal gang, but I'm still not comfortable with the idea of giving the government the power to decide which groups of people are not allowed to associate with each other. I'd rather they focus on actual crime. Having said that, I doubt they will actually do this - I think it's just political grandstanding to show how tough Labour is on crime before the election. I don't think this ban will actually happen. Prior to 9/11 who would have thought the US government would repeal habeas corpus and allow people to be indefinitely detained at Gitmo on purely on suspicion of being an enemy combatant? I think the way a country loses its freedoms is slowly and gradually and I wouldn’t want to see NZ going there. And sure, we can eventually slowly give up all our freedoms until we are so repressed we have to overthrow the government in a revolution … but surely it would be better to just keep them in the first place and not go through all that?

Anyway, I do agree that it seems unlikely for an NZ government in the near future to label a political party as a criminal gang, but I’m still not comfortable with the idea of giving the government the power to decide which groups of people are not allowed to associate with each other. I’d rather they focus on actual crime.

Having said that, I doubt they will actually do this – I think it’s just political grandstanding to show how tough Labour is on crime before the election. I don’t think this ban will actually happen.

]]> By: Ben http://thesisprocrastination.com/2008/09/15/banning-gangs/comment-page-1/#comment-1067 Ben Mon, 15 Sep 2008 01:58:10 +0000 http://thesisprocrastination.com/?p=334#comment-1067 Scare mongering... Political Parties like the Greens would never be defined a criminal group while as long as they participate in parliament and don't participate in eco-terrorism etc. IMHO its better to attempt to control/restrict criminal organisations by what ever means necessary. Should in some unforseeable future NZ become so corrupt that such a law was being used indiscrimanently by some political group, society has way of correcting such imbalances; Revolution... ref: almost every country thats been around for a while. Scare mongering… Political Parties like the Greens would never be defined a criminal group while as long as they participate in parliament and don’t participate in eco-terrorism etc.

IMHO its better to attempt to control/restrict criminal organisations by what ever means necessary. Should in some unforseeable future NZ become so corrupt that such a law was being used indiscrimanently by some political group, society has way of correcting such imbalances; Revolution… ref: almost every country thats been around for a while.

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