Team LF are back after a brief sojourn, has consensus reality caught up yet?

Some in our dedicated group of followers have, if one is to believe the comments left on other websites, apparently been missing our regular posts, clearly hungry for more news and information from the South Pacific’s very own dirty Dark Isles.

Many have expressed their concern that team LF may have given up, walked away or worse. Those notions and fears, fortunately for our concerned readers, could not be further from the truth.

Team LF have just had a well-earned break. We’ve also taken the opportunity to iron-out a few issues which if left may have created problems. It seems that the New Zealand police have been unlawfully attempting to obtain information, again extraterritorially, again using fabricated information requests citing non-existent offending, without following due legal process, showing just cause, or even bothering to contact Lauda Finem. Of course, yet again they failed in these latest attempts.

The New Zealand police’s second round of corrupt nonsense (there was an earlier attempt late last year) commenced earlier this year, somewhat tellingly soon after LF published the Mike Sabin story, LF picking up on the police skulduggery a few days after they had commenced.

LF at this stage suspects that the police’s behavior was a response to the ex-cop Mike Sabin case. No matter the cause or belated excuses however LF decided to take the “Five Eyes” advantage that the New Zealand police had unlawfully been enjoying out of the equation by relocating our entire team.

As well as the controversy surrounding the attempted police and National party cover-up of Mike Sabin’s sexual abuse charges the police and the government, aka Mike Bush, Greg O’Connor, John Key and National Inc have also more recently been on the receiving end of growing heavy criticism, this time however it’s others pointing their little fingers at the grubby behaviour, in particular there have been a number of pieces written by well-known Otago Uni Academic and regular media commentator Dr Bryce Edwards that certainly tickled our fancy;

Political roundup: The politics of justice  (Dr Bryce Edwards, NZME)

Bryce Edwards: Can we trust the police?  (Dr Bryce Edwards, NZME)

NZ police are failing the public  (Dr Bryce Edwards, NZME)

Thank God for Bryce Edwards – yes, the NZ Police are corrupt (Martyn Bradbury, The Daily Blog)

NZ POLICE ARE FAILING THE PUBLIC – BRYCE EDWARDS (Cameron Slater, Whale Oil)

Of course Bryce Edwards academic work is a huge departure from the efforts of the journalists that normally populate the pages of the mainstream Kiwi press with spurious, often maliciously motivated material; in particular the New Zealand Herald, the Herald on Sunday and the Sunday Star Times.

In the pieces Edwards has penned recently he is clearly writing from the perspective of an academic who has a very specific interest in the issues surrounding corruption and public perception, especially the role of spin-doctors*. In fact Edwards own bio, to be found on the University of Otago’s website, is very informative on the subject of what tickles Bryce’s fancy;

Otago University Bio – Dr Bryce Edwards

Power and conflict are key issues in politics, says lecturer and political commentator Dr Bryce Edwards.

“In my teaching and research I’m always asking questions about ‘who really runs New Zealand?’, ‘how is policy really made by governments?’, ‘who has the most power in society?’, and ‘how are resources divided up in society?’.

“I aim to promote critical thinking and a consideration of a diversity of points of view and ways of understanding politics.”

As well as differing political ideas, students have different learning styles, which Bryce recognises by keeping lectures “visual and varied”. He starts every lecture or seminar with a brief video clip, and uses Twitter and Facebook most days to communicate political ideas and analysis.

He also uses new technologies in his interviews with visiting politicians in the University’s audio visual studio, where there is a participating student audience.

“The interviews are live-streamed on the internet, as well as live-Tweeted, and the video is eventually uploaded to YouTube and iTunes-U. Politics students help with organising these ‘Vote Chat’ sessions.

“So far we’ve had about 20 of them, with politicians as diverse as Bill English, Winston Peters, David Shearer, and Hone Harawira.”

As well as lecturing, Bryce writes a regular political column for the New Zealand Herald website and also participates in daily radio, newspaper or television interviews.

“I really enjoy this aspect of my job, as I believe that academics should be engaged with the community and reaching out beyond our offices on campus.”

Bryce’s current research is concerned with the rise in allegations of political corruption and the idea that politicians and parties often make use of dubious or illegal funds.

“My research is evaluating these claims, looking at why such allegations are on the rise, and also at the supposed electoral law solutions to some of these problems.”

Source: http://www.otago.ac.nz/profiles/otago049210.html

Of course the questions that Dr Edward has asked in his article have also been put, more publicly, to our own readership by LF writers for a number of years now. Bryce, as an example, poses the questions:

“In my teaching and research I’m alway’s asking questions about ‘who really runs New Zealand?’, ‘how is policy really made by governments?’, ‘who has the most power in society?’, and ‘how are resources divided up in society?

Edwards seems to have been, somewhat strangely, unusually prolific with his articles over the past two weeks in particular, Gatling gun like, rapid fire so to speak. That then begs the million dollar question – why is it that Bryce Edwards has suddenly decided to poke a highly venomous snake with a stick, the police, the justice system and the government, aka the National party, especially when it’s not been his style previously, in fact anything but his style?

Edwards certainly has no track record for prosecuting a case against the New Zealand police, again, at least publicly or at least using the Herald as a platform. He may well speak of these things during university lectures, perhaps they are even discussed with students that appear to have an interest, just as an extracurricular activity of course, but who would really know whether this is in fact the case, other than his students of course?

On the other hand team LF and various other justice and corruption focused websites, such as NZ Justice forum and the New Zealand Police Corruption Association  and a raft of smaller and larger cyber players the likes of Martyn Bradbury, Cameron Slater right down to ex-cop turned whistle-blower Patrick O’Brien have in fact been posing many of these questions for months, a handful for quite a few years. In fact Patrick O’Brien who first came to the attention of the Kiwi public back in 2008, has gone so far as to write to the sovereign, Queen Elizabeth II, in her capacity as of head of state in New Zealand to intervene.

As in my case, all previous investigations were managed by administrators of the undercover programme, and, in each of those cases, these revelations of corruption and criminal wrong-doing were covered-up, written off and buried.

I write to tell you, Ma’am, that I will no longer be party to a cover-up of my own offending — nor will I play any further role in this corrupt perversion being conducted by police . . . and I call on the the New Zealand Government to show some leadership by establishing a truly “independent” inquiry, such as a Royal Commission, or “Truth” Commission, to investigate these matters. – Patrick O’Brien

In regards to the police LF provided at least some answers back in October last year in the lead up to New Zealand’s last general election –  “New Zealand’s most powerful political force is?”

That was of course the election where John Key deliberately concealed the police investigation into allegations that Mike Sabin, as LF have been advised, had molested his two step daughters

Of course no matter the motivation, Dr Edwards has now it would seem joined a very select group, the New Zealand polices “most hated” list and in the process he has at least now painted a somewhat credible picture for middle New Zealand, the demographic that may well also find his arguments unpalatable, hard to swallow.

The Kiwi’s who had previously been deluded enough to believe that the New Zealand Police’s behavior over the years had somehow been acceptable or excusable; those unfortunate people who believed that their boys in blue’s attitudes and behavior were in-line with how other police forces around the globe operated, or were expected to behave. These are of course the same individuals who all to often liked to write-off anyone who held dissenting views, had valid alternative experience, in fact anyone who did not subscribe to the infamous Kiwi “mob of sheep” consensus reality.

Whilst Edwards, in the articles linked above, does not cite every serious injustice (the list obviously being far too long), he does name a handful of the more recent, at least those that he perhaps feels are deserving of mention in support his own argument. Of course hundreds of other less well know cases exist as has been set out by many other qualified observers. One such observer was High Court Justice Thomas Thorpe who in 2003, following his retirement from the bench, produced his own list of what he considered unsafe or wrongful convictions leading to false imprisonment which were ultimately published in his 2006 book “miscarriages of justice”. Thorpe again made headlines in 2013 in an article entitled “Time for next move, says ex-judge”. 

Bryce is but the latest in a long list of individuals who have stood and pointed to the obvious problems, in doing so he does not however deal with the “gag orders” and the “out of court” settlements that police have actively pursued in literally hundreds of cases over the years – fucked-up investigations or malicious prosecutions that never made it into a courtroom or into a newspaper for that matter – to conceal the extent of the institutions incompetence and corruption.

Nor does Dr Edwards touch on the cost to the public purse, and or the drain on the police annual budget, that is associated with these failed misguided police investigations and the subsequent “out of court” settlements; millions in cash that should have been more properly spent on actual policing. Not that Bryce could have been expected to do so given that these are financial details that police have actively concealed for years, by simply cooking the statistics books.

Reading his work LF is of the view that Dr Edwards “academic research” may just have enabled an insight into an interesting social phenomenon, a circumstance that has arguably never arisen before, at least in New Zealand with the country’s police force being unique in the political power it manages to covertly wield – one analogy being the political power J Edgar Hoover managed to exert with his control of the FBI.

LF believes that Bryce has managed to nail that there has been a growing movement in New Zealand, a movement that is fast gaining momentum. A movement that is determined to challenge the police’s hold on political power and the corrupt behavior that inevitably follows this level of control, and successive governments abject failure to deal with its out of control self-styled quasi paramilitary subordinate that, truth be told, has never been held accountable for anything. The list of police abuses is long, including extremely serious human rights abuses,  among them a raft of very serious criminal offending; all of which has, over more than three decades, simply been swept under an ever bulging carpet with the tacit, almost fearful, approval of politicians, the courts and more disgustingly the countries mainstream media.

LF was alerted to another article in New Zealand’s media this morning (overnight NZST) that further supports our view that the Police too are now also very aware of the impact websites such as Lauda Finem have had on the effectiveness of their corporate spin machine. The article in question also seems to support the evidence that we had earlier obtained and acted on in reaching the decision to move LF team members.

In short the New Zealand police are now fast loosing the ability to control and manipulate the news. The institutional propaganda machine that they have spent valuable time and public money building, oiling and long counted on is bogged down, spinning its wheels in mud of its own making.

Not even the robotic Greg O’Connor, aka “the Big O”, has been able to get any traction with the public, his spell well and truly dead and buried. Greg O’Connors efficacy has of course been in a downwards spiral ever since Kiwi social scientist and commentator, Dr Brian Edwards, pounded the crap out of O’Connors repetitive pro-police mantra in an article published back in August 2010 – It’s Time for Greg O’Connor to Stop Defending the Indefensible

Whatever the police motive it is clear that the officer/s responsible have been ordered to act quickly following, among other things, the coat tails of the humiliating public clobbering that the police hierarchy have recently received at the hands of the Otago academic Dr Bryce Edwards. Of course it’s not just Bryce Edwards, ex-cop Ross Meurant, also once a mainstream politician, has long been vocal in his criticism and accusations of police corruption. The North and South Magazine article penned by Meurant himself (hyper-link in the excerpt below) in 2011 is well worth a read:

When The Good Guys Are The Bad Guys 

In the late 1970s, Detective Senior Sergeant John Hughes rejected a statement being taken by a detective from robbery suspect Leo “Beaver” Ngamu. It did not contain an admission, so Hughes retyped a new statement including an admission, then directed the detective to arrest the suspect on that evidence. Should any objection be raised at a future court hearing, he expected the detective to deny any fabrication of evidence.

– Ross Meurant (North & South Magazine, October 2011)

LF will of course continue to publish the truth, it matters not one iota that the New Zealand police seem intent on silencing anyone who speaks out, in particular any attempts to prevent LF from keeping Kiwi’s informed on the police dirt that proves just how bent their justice system are destined to fail. In fact these attempts do little more than serve to reinforce the teams commitment, that LF continue to hit police corruption and the offenders squarely on the head by exposing the key players in New Zealand.

Whilst the police may well be on the attack it’s an attack thats destined to fail, although it does evidence their incompetence – it would seem that they care little about who they attack, anyone and everyone, as long as it’s someone who has the misfortune of being on New Zealand soil – unfortunately it’s the only place on the planet where the Kiwi police’s unique brand of corruption actually works – anywhere else and the cops involved would be doing a very long stretch in prison.

It’s that long stretch in prison that the majority of bent kiwi cops, sworn police officers guilty of serious criminal offending, have to date managed to escape.

In his articles Dr Bryce Edwards makes a point of repeatedly referring to Dame Margaret Bazley’s Royal Commission into police conduct, especially the sadomasochistic behavior and serial rapes committed by gangs of police officers, the police hierarchies deliberate concealing of that criminal offending and the police responses to the recommendations since the Commissions findings were released.

Again there is a little irony in Dr Bryce Edwards mention of the Bazley’s Royal Commission into police conduct. It is LF’s intention to start naming the police officers who were the stars of that particular inquiry, the very same cops, at least until now, could have been forgiven for thinking that they’d managed to escape scott-free.

Police officers who stood accused of rape among a raft of other sexual offending, crimes that were never investigated or prosecuted, the victims of those sexual assaults left to suffer the consequences alone and unsupported, whilst the culprits simply walked out the back door of police national headquarters, ably assisted by a series of thoroughly corrupt police commissioners, and into cushy jobs, often re-birthed in high status careers as teachers, civil servants and lawyers, all granted name suppression by Bazley and the other Commissioners charged with investigating their twisted crimes.

First up is the story of a practicing lawyer and Christchurch resident, a man who was a cop at the time of the alleged offending, a police officer that stood accused of rape whilst still serving. It’s the story of yet another investigation that police deliberately bungled to save another twisted cops arse and the polices reputation, as intact as it may have been.

There were absolutely no repercussions for the accused cop, other than being instructed on how he was to be pushed discretely though the police stations fire exit and into a brand new career as a lawyer and barrister.

Despite this case being just one of the many brought before the Bazley Royal Commission, eleven years on, absolutely nothing has been done to provide justice for the victims of police abuse in New Zealand and it would seem that if politicians and attorney general have any say nothing will be done unless, as with the David Bain case, it’s thrust upon them  – that story coming soon.

So what has the police response been to Bryce Edwards attack? Simple really. As always the police hierarchy have again attempted to counter the most recent attack on their systemically corrupt institution with yet more spin-doctored horse-shit tailored for the mainstream media.

At the helm in the polices latest effort was Commissioner Mike Bush, the the most recent in a long list of thoroughly bent cops who’ve managed to claw their way to the top. Bush’s, almost laughable, effort was covered by just one publisher, Fairfax New Zealand and their online version – stuffed.nz.co

Police code of conduct updated after Roast Busters saga (Fairfax)

The New Zealand police had better get used to the fact that Lauda Finem and similar sites are a now permanent fixture of the anti police corruption landscape. That until such time as there is a full, proper and thorough Royal Commission of Inquiry Into New Zealand Police Corruption with out the usual manipulative prescribed terms of reference, designed to hobble investigative efficacy, then Lauda Finem will continue to investigate the behavior of the New Zealand police, both past and present, as an institution and in particular any cop or case where the issue, or a question, of corruption raises it’s ugly fucking head.

Team LF will also continue to collect and collate credible information supplied by the public (in confidence) that may be of importance in future investigations and in continuing to expose police corruption now and into the future.

References/Bibliography

* http://liberation.typepad.com/liberation/2015/04/politicians-party-professionals-and-the-media-in-new-zealand.html