Drug King believes he can buy his way out of a prison sentence

Hell no! Why should this Hamilton 'business man' be able to lesson his custodial sentence simply because he is in a position to pay to the Sate some of the proceedes from his crime. How mnay lives has he been instrumental in destroying? How many young people has he lured kinto his dark world and then hid behind a mantle of respectability? The law is lax and an ass if it allows him to escpae the consequences of his actions. He made the choice to build up his empire in the drug world and he knew that lives would be damaged. He didn't care about the victims of his crimes so why should we now be forgiving and allow him an easy road. If we were tougher on the 'people' at the top of this criminal chain, then ,aybe we could make even bigger inroads inot world of crime generally. Partofhis punishemnet should be an enforced 'observation' he has done to countless lives. If he wants to counter my argument by saying that they hade a choice, then I say---so too did he!

Should Mr Key go to President Chavez's funeral?

There has been some discussion about the possibility of Prime Minister Key attending the funeral of President Chavez in Venezuela. After all he is in the region at the time. To be fair, there is no pressure on him to do so and if we are brutally honest, New Zealand and Venezuela do not have strong ties. I would go as far as saying that if he did go it would represent an example of political hypocrisy.

John Key and President Chavez are about as close politically as The President of Iran and Obama. They espouse totally oppositional views on almost every subject. One represents the policies of a reborn Socialism while the other is the darling of Free Trade and Capitalism, albeit in a fairly mild form. The diplomatic ties between New Zealand Venezuela are miniscule. That this should be so is a little sad. Perhaps under a Government that is slightly left-of-centre, things may change on the future.

If for some reason Mr Key had decided to attend the funeral, I doubt that our ‘good friend,’ the USA would look kindly upon us. This too is sad as it is just one more example of the fact that we are inextricably tied to our huge ‘friend.’ It feels like we are in a sense, back in the bad old days of the ‘Cold War,’ in that we have less than a totally independent foreign policy.

In the end, it the practical world of ‘trade and alliances’ that dictates that My Key has shied away from attending the funeral of a great man, but one who proved just way too strident in his criticisms of the ‘Old Guard’ and forces within his own country, to allow a little country like New Zealand to show the ‘guts’ we did in the good old days when we stood against anyone who dared to think that they could bring their nuclear ships into our nuclear-free harbours!

Use the 'frozen' assets to go after the criminals!

The police in New Zealand are doing a wonderful job to curtail the activities of the drug lord criminals. That they have had $5 million worth of assets frozen in one of their latest raids on alleged drug dealers just shows how much these parasites on society have made. I bet it is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the total figure of money made from the illicit drug trade.

Once a criminal’s guilt has been confirmed, the ‘State’ should go after every conceivable asset of those convicted. If that leaves their families without expensive housing and the children no longer being able to attend expensive private schools, then so be it. The great majority of society makes do with much less.

The money and assets garnered from illegal activity of all kinds must be earmarked for the fight against these people who cause so much damage in society and then if we do get on top of the worst aspects of this trade, then concentrate on other forms of crime; perhaps that at the lower end of the scale. After all, is it not true that if we ‘catch them young’ and put in the resources to change behaviours, then are we not bringing about new possibilities for our young people? Our police must be well resourced, at all levels and any money we ‘invest’ in preventing criminal behaviour is a savings further down the road.

I am not just talking about catching and punishing: I am also saying that we must look at successful ways used overseas to ‘rehabilitate’ early offenders. To help with this, lest ‘strip the assets’ in every from from those at the top who have for so long damaged lives. Let us hope that we read more about the successes of our hard-working police force. Just a note of caution though; we do not want to the scenes on TV from the Sydney Price March replicated here in NZ. So there is a balance, but for the most part, the New Zealand Police enjoy the support of the vast majority of New Zealanders.