Longer sentences for ‘coward's punch' and Wellington CBD street closed
Longer sentences for 'coward's punch', burst water pipe closes street, and jury deliberates on mushroom poisoning case.
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RNZ News
37 minutes ago
- RNZ News
Christchurch Terror Attacks: Podcast questions lone wolf theory
Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon A new investigation into the Christchurch Mosque shooting delves into the terrorist's radicalisation, exposing the violent ideology he harboured for years before the 2019 massacre. Australian terrorist Brenton Tarrant murdered 51 worshippers and injured dozens more after opening fire on Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre on 15 March 2019. In the six-part podcast, Secrets We Keep: Lone Actor , investigative journalist Joey Watson traces Tarrant's descent into extremism and questions if he truly acted alone. Watson said his reporting had shone a light on Tarrant's proclivity for violence as early as 2015. Watson utilised a trove of posts made by the terrorist across several websites, which identified a clear shift in his thinking between the middle of 2014 and 2015. Tarrant's messages shifted from detailing his extensive travel plans to celebrations of and calls for violence. In June 2015, a white supremacist terrorist shot and killed nine people during a bible study at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. It was the oldest black church in the southern United States. Days after the massacre, Tarrant - while travelling overseas - posted online in support of the terrorist's attack and his white supremacist worldview. "Violence is the last resort of a cornered animal. It was always going to come to this," Tarrant wrote. The post to the 4chan message board was among those unearthed by University of Auckland researchers last year. This period also marked his online use of user names referencing extremist ideology, Watson said. Even then, almost four years before the attack on Christchurch, Tarrant was demonstrating his extreme nativist worldview and support for violent ends, Watson said. "The more I read, the more elaborate his ideology starts to look," the journalist said in the podcast. "Tarrant is hoping the attack on a church will trigger a chain of reactions that will descend into outright war." Tarrant had called for further attacks at that time. Watson also spoke to sources around the world, who suggested Tarrant might have had connections to an international neo-Nazi network. Tarrant was asked to join the Lads Society, an Australian white nationalist and Islamophobic extremist group, in 2017. Following Tarrant's attack in Christchurch, the group's members posted to a closed social media channel. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone Some celebrated the attack, others questioned if it was a false flag, possibly to restrict firearms access in New Zealand. "This one's not a false flag. Take my word for it," the group's founder Thomas Sewell said. "He seems to know more than the others," another member replied. "What do you mean, take my word for it. That almost sounds like you know the cobber." Sewell then responded - Tarrant had "been in the scene for a while". Sewell later compared Tarrant to Nelson Mandela, saying he would be imprisoned until "we win the revolution". Tarrant had also posted menacing messages on the social media page of a pre-cursor group of the Lads Society. Watson also travelled to Austria, Bulgaria and Serbia to examine Tarrant's possible links to extremists in those countries. Watson spoke to a source with intelligence connections in Bulgaria who said Tarrant had spent time with "migrant hunter" groups on the border with Turkey. "The theory that Tarrant might have been in contact and possibly trained with these migrant hunter groups painted a whole different picture of what he was doing in this part of the world," Watson said in episode four. "This was a direct contradiction of the long-held narrative about Tarrant - that he was alone." Whether Tarrant was physically part of such groups or not, he was clearly part of an online white nationalist ecosystem. It demonstrated "how interconnected the world of the far right had become, how groups were organising across borders, mobilising around shared goals", Watson said. "People who carried out attacks alone were often tapping into a global network." In that sense, Tarrant was far from a lone actor, Watson concluded. "After spending the last two years retracing the steps of the terrorist, it's clear he had deep-rooted ties to far-right extremism. This was arguably the biggest news story in Australia in the last 10 years, and there was so much we missed." The podcast is exclusively found on LiSTNR . Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
NZ Herald
an hour ago
- NZ Herald
Taranaki kid's love of animals helps her through cancer treatment
Greenpeace activists target NZ bottom trawling vessel on the Chatham Rise east of Christchurch The activists painted "ocean killer" on the vessel's hull to protest against the destructive fishing method. Video / Greenpeace
Otago Daily Times
an hour ago
- Otago Daily Times
Not ducking the punches
It has been 14 long years, but something akin to progress has finally been made in the wake of the death of Steve Radnoty. The Dunedin 51-year-old died a senseless and pointless death in March 2011, after being victim of what at the time was called a "one-punch attack". Call it that, a "coward's punch" or a "king hit", but they all too often, all too sadly have the same conclusion as Steve Radnoty's case. There are already several offences in the Crimes Act which could cover such a situation: murder, manslaughter, assault ... but many, including Steve Radnoty's family felt that there was nothing on the statute books which covered the situation where an innocent victim was struck, unknowingly, from behind. Taken by surprise and with no means to defend themselves, such blows to the head and or neck had considerable potential to be fatal ones. Such blows which were not lethal had considerable potential to cause lasting brain damage The Radnoty family certainly felt more needed to be done, and in subsequent years have given their support to awareness campaigns and law reform endeavours. Whether the campaigns had any effect is an intangible and unmeasurable thing: it can only be hoped so. But what we do know is that successive governments — some of which made campaign pledges to introduce a specific "coward punch" law — failed to do so. That is about to change with the announcement yesterday that the government intends to take on Paulo Garcia's coward punches member's Bill as government business. It will almost certainly pass. Such legislation is already part of the National-New Zealand First coalition agreement, and it seems highly unlikely that Act New Zealand — which likes to promote its tough on crime credentials — would demur from such a law change. Add to that the legislation is likely to be before the House in the run-up to the next election, and that would make it a difficult law change to oppose. That said, Parliament's drafting staff, and after them the justice select committee, are going to have their work cut out teasing their way through the nuances of the law of assault. The proposed law change would impose a maximum of eight years' imprisonment for a single-punch attack where the offender intended to cause injury, or acted with reckless disregard for safety. Should such a punch result in death that could amount to culpable homicide, bringing with it a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. What lawyers and judges will need to establish, through case law, will be exactly what sort of attacks will warrant the higher tariff, a subjective exercise fraught with hazards and with fertile grounds for appeal. It is these difficulties which may well have stymied such a law change until now. It may well be that they prove to be insurmountable again. But these sorts of crimes horrify the general public. They are often random, and — not that there is anything fair about them — they run counter to people's sense that if you are going to come under attack that you should be able to defend yourself. Whether stiffer penalties are actually a disincentive to commit crimes is another argument entirely, but few will be dismayed that the government is taking action on this front. How the other half lives In the same week that the seemingly never-ending Jeff Bezos-Lauren Sanchez nuptials took place, despite the many complaints of Venice residents, comes news that Anna Mowbray and Ali Williams have secured consent to build a helipad at their estimated $24 million Westmere property. These are not the problems of everyday folk, but everyday folk have never ceased to be fascinated by the circuses of the rich and famous. We are seldom going to be exercised about clearing out a populated city (and tourist hot spot) for a grand party, or where to park our helicopter of an evening. But such extravagances have, from time immemorial, captured people's imaginations. One can only hope the fools who persist in their folly will become wise.
