Should charges be laid?

Consider this scenario:
A man is driving his car and parks it on a hill and stretches his legs. But he didn’t put the handbrake on and the car rolls back and kills your toddler as he was crossing the road. As a parent of this toddler, do you think this man should be charged with careless use of a motor vehicle causing death?

The reason I ask this is because a similar event recently occurred. I`ll call it scenario two.

Mr Macwan, who was driving got out of the Toyota Hiace van to stretch his legs when the vehicle suddenly rolled backwards and plunged into Lake Dunstan. The adults and an 11-year-old escaped but 3-year-old Aarush did not.

That three-year-old was the driver’s son. It’s tragic, and killing your own son in this way must be a life sentence in itself. The story goes on.

The same day police charged him with careless driving causing death. He is due to appear in the Alexandra District Court on Wednesday.

Having to appear in court, charged with accidentally killing your son, on the same week as dealing with your son’s death and arranging and attending that son’s funeral must be tragic.

Some have called for police to show compassion on a man who already has a “life sentence” and not charge this man. Essentially, what they are calling for is for police to decide whether this man should get a criminal conviction for breaking the law – but base that decision solely on matters outside the law.

But convictions are for the courts to decide, considering matters within the law. Others have said charge, but wait until the funeral is over before setting a court date. That illustrates compassion, while rightly giving the decision to the courts, not the police, as to whether this man should be convicted and sentenced.

To put the above two scenarios another way – if someone is likely to have broken the law, should the police decide whether he is a criminal by not prosecuting, or should the police let the courts decide if he should get a criminal conviction or not, by prosecuting?

And if they decide to prosecute, fair enough – but couldn’t they wait until after the funeral before setting a court date?

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Police attacks

Judith Collins has been thinking aloud. She wonders whether people who are convicted of attacks on police should be given harsher sentences as such attacks are attacks on the rule of law. On that reasoning, attacks by the rule of law - police officers who rape people while on duty, or offer sexual favours in lieu of issuing fines, or who drive home drunk in their police cars or beat up people while arresting them - should also be given harsher sentences. I wonder if the Police Minister would likewise agree and tell journalists.

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Opening and closing police stations

Labour's Clayton Cosgrove is moaning that police stations are about to be closed. He is commenting on a cabinet paper he got through the OIA that is looking at cost cutting in police. He notes that already 340 cars have been chopped from the police fleet.

That`ll stop six police cars attending a smacking case then, won’t it - and stop three police cars from attending a school after someone gets smacked. Cosgrove says police minister Judith Collins has some serious explaining to do.

So she did some explaining and explained that National have opened five police stations and is opening a sixth. She also explained that Labour had dozens of police stations earmarked for closure

Pity the NZ Herald didn’t know that.Perhaps it should have looked at this media release before writing this story on the closure of police stations.Now that Collins has responded with the announcement of the opening of five police stations this year, I wonder if the Herald will just updated it with quotes from the media relase. I bet you it doesn't know that that the the new Christchurch police station is merely replacing one from Sydenham.

update The Herald has updated its story. Oh dear. Quotes from a media relase. No investigation whatsoever.

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