A tale of two New Zealands II

Yesterday I wrote this:

Two New Zealands came face to face with each other in a Hastings courtroom last week...

One was a woman widowed when her husband was stabbed while trying to assist someone who was being assaulted. The other was the mother of the stabbed child - an angry sickness beneficiary who is now in prison for contempt of court.

It happened again today. Two New Zealands in a court room. One was the sister of a boy who was stabbed to death. The other was a businessman who stabbed the boy after believing he was tagging his garage. Manurewa businessman Bruce Emery claimed he took a knife for self defence and after a 300 metre chase the teenager, Pihema Cameron, was stabbed in the chest and died. The boy's sister said she hated Emery and wanted to rip his eyes out. But what does she do all day? "I just stay home, bum from my dad, get some money, go get stoned, drink alcohol and do whatever," she said.

She's 15, about 18 months younger than her former brother. Does she go to school?

What’s the bet that the young teenager has got no qualifications and was not doing too well at school. What's the bet that Emery has a better job than most of the Cameron whanau, had more qualifications than Camerons mother and father, gets drunk less often and takes less drugs. What's the bet that had the poor kid been encouraged to do well by his parents, instead of his sole parent taking off to Australia on her own, he would still be alive today.

I`m not defending Emery's actions at all. His actions were despicable. Had he not reacted the way he did the boy would also be alive and Emery would not be in prison. But what is our society turning into when people get stabbed to death for helping someone, and killed for petty crime. And why, of late, is it Maori families who are running around courtrooms with the head of their dead offspring plastered on their t-shirts - the same dead offspring they should have cared for a little more when they were alive.