A Sri Lankan male arrives in NZ in 2011 and yesterday after five YES FIVE years of claimed 24/7 surveillance as a person of interest he goes into an Auckland Countdown Supermarket, picks up a knife from a display and commences to stab anyone within reach. A claimed sixty seconds later his police surveillance team react and he is shot dead with what seemed on the audio to be multiple shots.
Random Questions:
If decided to be needing 24/7 surveillance was there not an option to return him to his place of birth whatever the consequences?
It is alleged in some infotainment providers output that the perpetrator was followed by his 24/7 surveillance team and another police group termed as a “specialist tactical group” also followed the circus and I will assume they provided the fire power that ended the Sri Lankan 34 year old’s life?
What has been the total cost of the continuing stay in our country, benefits, housing, medical, Psyche services, rehabilitation and then the massive cost of the Police involvement?
Some infotainment coverage alludes to his being “Known To the Prime Minister” in what way, what does “known” mean, and why is there a security blanket including suppression orders involved?
The very quick claim “he was a Lone Wolf” able to be broadcast when The Police Copter Eagle was flying overhead after he was shot?
How many other residents of this country are under such 24/7 surveillance?
If there is no law that allows a person with strong beliefs and acknowledged links to the failed state of Islamic State of Lebanon and Syria and I assume the re-emergent ISIS K that detonated the bomb near the Abbey Gate to Hamid Karzai Airport after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, to be removed as a threat to initiate an act of terror in New Zealand. Might that not be a more urgent item of business for the government?
Mercifully he only managed to stab six but one is listed as serious and three critical and no victims dead.?
Ardern is claiming there was no faith involvement but that is somewhat tenuous as here are allegations the fateful words Allah Akbar were shouted suggesting a vague connection to Islam. that all become a little shrouded in mystery with the suppressions and allegations he was a supporter of IS?
What is it with the Countdown connections? Last Monday another stabbing spree also with no dead victims among the four. That occurred in Cumberland St Dunedin next door to the Police Station that resulted in fast police response also. Then add in the vicious police assault on a man denied service at a Christchurch Countdown store because he declined to wear a mask, and subsequently his twelve year old son assaulted by an apparent bystander in the Carpark take down by three police officers?
Is there any connection of the weeks mayhem with the Lockdowns that are suggested by a number of mental health persons to be elevating problems in their field of Psychiatric Health?
We New Zealand Citizens are watching a rather serious degradation of public safety and with an untold number of Afghanians about to begin a new life throughout the world it would be naive in the extreme to believe things will not deteriorate further?
So reassured though, from on high, this latest incident was not “Faith based”, as that could be really scary for some?
No Minister 
I see a lot of chatter on Kiwiblog and other places about the “flaw” that allowed the Judge to not jail this guy under the existing terrorism laws because his actions did not amount to planning or even advocating an attack. The judge recognised the problem but made a very honest assessment that it was not something where he should push the boundaries and that it was up to Parliament to change the law.
Frankly that “flaw” Is something I’m very happy about. Anybody who knee jerks their way into a law that allows people to be chucked in prison because it’s thought that they might commit a crime or that we don’t like their attitudes, is not thinking very hard ahead to a place where such could be weaponised against them.
Anybody who thinks that could not happen must have a very short memory about the condemnation of all gun owners , the sudden fear of White Supremacists, TV documentaries on “hate” (wink, wink) and now the proposed legislation on “hate” speech. This of course following Adern’s litttle diatribe about:
“And secondly, the strongest condemnation of the people who did this, you may have chosen us but we utterly condemn and reject you”
Plural. No “lone wolf” stuff there, and these are the people largely in charge of all of New Zealand’s controlling bodies.
It wasn’t a “knee jerk” to fix the Suppression of Terrorism Act. The proposals to fix the gaps in the legislation, which have been known for some years, finally got to a Bill earlier this year. The proposals in the Bill are quite tightly drawn.
I guess now they will get some priority.
When I was at the Law Commission in 2012 we did some work identifying the gaps in the legislation, in fact it was a project I was in charge of. I had proposed the project to the government. However, the project was put on hold by the government not so long after we started it. At that stage the government was heavily involved in the surveillance legislation, which you may recall was quite controversial.
When ISIS emerged a couple of years later some further fixes were done but not every gap was covered..
Our current anti-terrorism legislation is not nearly as comprehensive as that of Australia, Canada, the UK and of course the US.
As you would expect, the Greens have opposed every single piece of anti-terrorism legislation, right back to 2001 immediately after 9/11. They also oppose the current Bill. That might be harder for them in the future.
Perhaps 365 of the faith being abandoned to their fate in Afghanistan tipped him over the edge ?
Tom your knee jerk reaction thesis hasn’t stopped them with Covid and more people have been killed by terror in NZ than Covid, not that 2 wrongs makes a right.
At the least he should have been deported.
For the PM to suggest that faith was not involved is thoroughly disingenuous.
ISIS is Islam-based.
The Quran is full of references to destroying the infidels. Sharia is preferred by the majority if Muslims.
Tip-toeing around this destructive religion needs to stop now.
As some wag put on FB, will Jacinda be dressing as a Countdown worker ?
@Wayne
You’re a big man when it comes to vaccines, coercion to have them , vaccine passports, and reduction of NZ’ers human rights.
Comparatively you seem to have been relatively silent on this issue given its a bigger killer than Covid, and has done more damage with mental health (one of your favourite areas), and actual physical wounds that have to be lived with.
Do I detect the politicians usual double standard or do you want to keep quiet in case there is a job offer in the wind?
Perhaps a few legal suggestions to tighten up in a few areas maybe useful
Rossco,
Have a look at my post made at 12.21m, 36 minutes before your current comment.
Just to add to the point about the Search and Surveillance Act. Among other things this gave wider powers to search electronic records, and requires Internet providers to enable searches of databases, search history, etc to be done. It was quite controversial at the time. Way too many people thought it would be a huge government snoop, without realising the checks and balances, in particular the requirement for warrants.
I think after that controversy the government lost enthusiasm to do more work in this area. However, ISIS changed all that.
This is really to provide more background to the today’s reporting about the 2013 Cabinet decision to suspend the Law Commission project on the Terrorism Suppression legislation.
Finally the prime Minister who has overseen a death rate higher than Covid is going to do something with legislation.
She has better make it retrospective
5 Muslim extremists dead, how many more out there ?????
The most recent prick who died of an overdose of lead poisoning tried to leave the country in 2017 to go to Syria and they arrested him at the airport……. Jesus wept!
He was also due to appear in Court for assaulting prison officers.
Thank God for the SOG. What a wonderful professional job they did. Attracted his attention, moved him out of the line of fire and when he ran at them, put him down. Saved the Govt and the Judiciary from further embarrassment.
You saved NZ’ers from further harm
More than can be said for the Prime Minister, the Labour Party, the Immigration Dept, and The Judiciary……
The woke liberal left, John Key, and the Wayne Mapps of this world have really done NZ a disservice over the years, will Judith go down the same path ?
Rossco,
I was the one who actually proposed the review of the Terrorism Suppression Act when I was on the Law Commission, which I became a member of after I left Parliament. It wasn’t me who cancelled the project. That was done by the Cabinet.
So stop trying to imply that I had a part in cancelling the reference. I did not. As noted above, the project to review the legislation was my initiative.
You are making a defamatory statement in suggesting I had a hand in cancelling the project to review the legislation.