Male violence is excused and minimized
So far I can’t find any news media reporting this. Speak Up for Women has a statement on Twitter:
Speak Up for Women statement regarding the granting of diversion for Albert Park assailant.
New Zealand has a shameful record of family and sexual violence. A main driver of this is that male violence is excused and minimised. This Court decision to grant diversion to the man who assaulted the 70 year old grandmother at the Let Women Speak event in Albert Park is part of a dangerous cultural shift the political class has endorsed – that the use of physical violence is to be expected and excused in retaliation for words or beliefs that don’t align with theirs.
Men are taking advantage of this new loophole to abuse, threaten and assault women because of the “words are harm” claim promoted by a loud minority.
We extend our aroha to the victim and we will not stop our public opposition to radical gender ideology.
This afternoon we spoke with the advocate of the 71 year-old lady violently assaulted in Albert Park.
On May 22nd the victim was advised by @nzpolice: I am emailing to let you know that diversion has NOT been approved by the diversion officer due to the serious nature of the offence.
Yesterday –June 12th– the accused was scheduled to appear in Auckland District Court. At the last possible moment police advised the victim: The defendant has been granted diversion and the hearing has been adjourned to allow him to complete his diversion. I have been advised as part of his diversion he will be asked to pay [the victim] $1,000, do counselling, complete community work, and to write an apology letter.
The victim has opposed diversion throughout the process and feels thoroughly let down by NZ Police, the Ministry of Justice, and Victim Support. She considers diversion to be an outright miscarriage of justice, that a conviction and the naming of her assailant ought to be the absolute minimum outcome.
We agree.
Disgust is all I have.
It’s even more obvious (how much more evidence do the “be kind” people need?) that men who hate and devalue women have found an avenue to get their violence and hatred in the open while being accepted as justified. The hate towards “transphobes” gives them “bitch made me do it” cover. You know, actual physical violence.
The dictum that “words are violence,” which equates actual violence with the pretend violence of mean words reminds me of radical libertarianism. When everybody is “free” from the rule of a centralized state with a monopoly on violence, then those who have the most money and ability to perpetuate violence will be able to do so with impunity. The result of such radical liberation would be a return to feudalism, as the wealthy and powerful get to make and enforce all the rules. This can be seen today in some third world countries, where enough money makes a person practically immune to the rule of law, and order is enforced by hired thugs.
In the case of asserting that words are just as violent as actual violence, the dictum reestablishes the power imbalance between the strong and the weak. Whether a person is large or small, strong or weak, male or female, makes no difference to their ability to speak, in distinction to the greater ability of large, strong, and male people to use violence. The modern state, by hindering the ability of the strong to impose violence upon the weak, creates greater equality and allows people to participate in society with less fear. That right must apparently be wronged. In conflating words with physical violence, the inequality of physical strength is returned to a determining role in the ability of people to express themselves.
It also allows the violence as “self defence.” If the target is deemed to be “transphobic,” then she had it coming. If the violent person is “defending” a “vulnerable, marginalized community,” then their attack is righteous and justified.
That’s an obvious abuse of the diversion scheme and given that the processing officer was initially clear that there would be no diversion, it also smacks of higher level review. Given the Police took an exceptionally pro-trans stance on the day I am sadly unsurprised.