• Gang Insignia Bill takes a step forward, freedom takes a step back

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The NZ Herald in reporting that the Gang Insignia Bill has passed its second vote in parliament. This evil law is intended to prevent the display of gang patches/insignia in Wanganui (it says as much in the Bill) and opens the door for state suppression of other groups that are found to be inconvenient.

Furthermore, this law is unnecessary because another law covers this situation: there’s more about that and the wider issues in my earlier post. The penalty for breaking that other law is $4,000 or 6 months prison, yet the select committee wants to make the penalty under the proposed new law $2,000. So they’re adding to our massive burden of legislation and bringing in a smaller penalty at the same time. How daft is that?

The select committee also says

We recommend an amendment to insert new clause 8, which would allow the police to stop a vehicle, without a warrant, if they had reasonable grounds to believe that an offence had been committed under this legislation. Police would not then have to use other legislation to stop a car with an occupant displaying gang insignia, and we consider this amendment necessary for the efficient enforcement of the provisions of this bill.

Simply displaying a gang patch does not violate the non-aggression axiom and therefore should not be illegal. When the state prohibits the display of certain insignia and gives related stop-without-warrant powers to police that state is a police state and freedom is dying.

What do you think about this law and the points that I have made?

Related topic: Police checkpoints

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