MEDIA RELEASE
NZ JUSTICE SYSTEM IN DENIAL OVER NEW BOOK
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A new book on the failings of New Zealand’s justice system is provoking major controversy before it has even hit shop shelves.
BADLANDS: NZ – A LAND FIT FOR CRIMINALS, is written by former British probation service official and national crime intelligence service analyst David Fraser, and it claims New Zealanders have been kept in the dark about the real reasons for New Zealand’s high crime rate.
One former NZ justice official has today issued a news release claiming Fraser is unknown and his work has never been published in a “reputable” journal.
Badlands publisher Ian Wishart says a quick scan of news stories shows Fraser’s previous book was given high praise by the prestigious Times of London newspaper’s book review section. The Times says Fraser’s book provides “timely criticism of the criminal justice system…startling observations…damning.”
The reviewer also said David Fraser’s book was a “welcome antidote” to the claims of restorative justice advocates, and praised Fraser for his “impeccable research”.
For someone who is “unknown” as a commentator on justice and crime, it seems strange that he could walk off the street and command reviews like these from the other large British newspapers:
“A wonderful antidote to the poisonous myths so assiduously promoted by the anti-prison lobby.” --Sunday Telegraph
“A devastating critique (and) startling insider's account of the deception being played upon the public.” --Daily Mail
“A powerful 'wake-up' call which Britons at all levels can afford to ignore only at their peril.” --The Commonwealth Lawyer
A reviewer for Britain’s Social Affairs Unit wrote of the book:
“The main thrust of this book is an exercise in ideological demolition. The self-serving motivation of the criminal justice elite is exposed and ridiculed. As is the underlying ideology that has fed lies to the public day in and day out and has managed to dissuade most politicians from standing up for the victims of crime.”
New Zealand’s Kim Workman in his news release negating Fraser today, quoted British Probation Service official Phil Wheatley as his source on the credibility of David Fraser, but here’s what one commentator (General Sir David Ramsbotham) in the Guardian newspaper had to say about Phil Wheatley, clearly suggesting Wheatley is part of the problem:
“If Jack Straw and Phil Wheatley do not resign, they should also be subject to a performance capability for what the Sonnex verdict exposes of the damage they have done to the probation service.”
“There is a valid debate to be had about criminal justice policy in New Zealand,” said Badlands publisher Ian Wishart today, “but New Zealand justice insiders are going to need to lift their game much higher if they want the media and the public to take them seriously. Shooting the messenger is the oldest trick in the book, but in this case they missed. Badlands is opening up the debate, the public will make up their own minds.”
ENDS
Badlands: NZ – A Land Fit For Criminals by David Fraser, $41.90, Howling At The Moon Publishing Ltd, onsale Tuesday April 26
Yes but do you answer the allegations from the justic system on the Author's expertise? either he has been invilved actively or not! Why wasn't this clarified in your rebuttal????
Posted by: Raymnod A Barrett | April 26, 2011 at 12:33 PM
Fraser studied Social Policy and Administration at the London School of Economics, before gaining a Masters in Philosophy from the University of Bristol.
He spent 26 years working for the Probation Service and most recently as a criminal intelligence analyst for the UK Government's National Criminal Intelligence Service.
I think it is fair to say he has been 'involved actively', just as much as his critics - who have not actually read the new book, by the way - have.
The critics argued he wasn't known amongst their clique - I suspect given the newspaper reviews out of England that the Brit who fed his NZ counterparts that line was being disingenuous...
I have previously mentioned Fraser's experience and it is on page two of the book, so didn't see a need to repeat it ad nauseum. Clearly he has relevant experience, and clearly his views carry weight.
How much weight is over to the reader to decide, not irritated defenders of the status quo to dictate.
Posted by: Ian Wishart | April 26, 2011 at 12:45 PM
The Academic “peer review” process which is already today trying to shaft David Fraser, as a person, and not focussed on his work, is the justification that has been used to bring in the Laws and procedures that now exist in NZ that Fraser is reviewing!
This “peer review” thing of academics by each other, has come into severe disrepute ever since the falsified Man-Made side of any actual global warming that is happening.
The academic review of the peer review problems there, incredibly found that there was no problem even though very important data and presentation had been wrongly changed! When the peers doing the “peer review” are not truly in thought independent of each other, the process is bogus.
All "peer review", as it is now in many fields, often ends up saying is whether or not one person agrees with a received dogma and way of thinking or not.
Basing Parliamentary and Government action – and taxation! on such “peer review” procedures is doing no more than giving in to the philosophies of life of a special interest group of overpaid and now highly redundant trendy liberal academics.
Lets hear David Fraser’s data and let the truth fall where it does, without any insiders so-called “peer review” censoring of the true things of life!
I’d sooner follow God’s wisdom in life through Christ, than dead academia any day!
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