Thursday, January 7, 2021

If it's a hate crime, where does the hate start?

Stuff reports today that someone damaged the Hatupatu rock, beside State Highway 1 near Atiamuri, with a sledgehammer. This could have been simply a mindless act of vandalism (God knows they’re common enough), but predictably, someone has suggested it was a hate crime.

I know the Hatupatu rock; I remember stopping there when our kids were little. They were familiar with the legend of Hatupatu, and how he hid in a cavity in the rock to escape Kurangaituku, the terrifying Bird Woman, because I had read them the story many times.

The hate crime theory has been advanced by South Waikato district councillor Arama Ngapo Lipscombe, who’s quoted as saying: “I am absolutely disgusted that anyone should choose to deface a wahi tapu site. It is a significant site that is part of our local and national history.

“It leads one to think that maybe this is a hate crime. A significant site to Maoridom has been deliberately attacked. There’s no other way to put it.”

Now it strikes me as a bit of leap to assume the vandalism was motivated by hatred, but perhaps we should consider that possibility. If indeed it was a “hate crime”, we need to ask how the putative hatred is being generated, and by whom.

Certainly the politics of race in New Zealand have become steadily more heated and polarising – not just between Pakeha and Maori, but also between the white majority and a few vociferous members (a small minority, as far as we can tell) of some immigrant communities.

Note that I say the politics of race rather than race relations, because relationships between people of different ethnicities in New Zealand – including Maori and Pakeha – remain overwhelmingly respectful and harmonious. But how long this will continue, when ideologically driven agitators are doing their best to create grievance and division, is a moot point.

It needs to be noted that the people dialling up the heat in the race debate are not hateful whites. The inflammatory rhetoric is coming from those who defame New Zealanders daily as racist oppressors and white supremacists.

To call it hate speech may be hyperbolic, but there’s no question which participants in the so-called culture wars are using language likely to incite ill-will and hostility. The danger is that the further this escalates, the greater the likelihood that inarticulate people who resent being harangued by incessant woke propaganda will decide to strike back in the only way they know how – for example, by attacking places and objects precious to Maori.

So while we can’t be sure the vandalism to the Hatupatu Rock was a hate crime, no one can rule out the possibility that it's a primitive backlash. The irony is that by jumping to the conclusion that it was a hate crime without any clear evidence, Arama Ngapo Lipscombe is guilty of cranking up the social tensions that make hate crimes more likely.

11 comments:

Chris Morris said...

All things considered, it will just be another mindless act of vandalism and petty crime that the region is plagued with. Roadworks along that road continually have damage done to their equipment. So do any unmanned facilities. Forestry gates get cut open. There is graffiti sprayed everywhere. What distinguishes the smashing of the rock from all the other damage? It will have been perpetrated by the same people.

hughvane said...

Arama Ngapo Lipscombe - another desperate attention seeker.

Trev1 said...

This "hate crime" seems far-fetched. People like Lipscombe need to check their rhetoric. As events in Washington DC showed today.

APaul said...

'politics of race rather than race relations' has been competing for niche since the 'Te Tirtti' was translated to convenience of the 'niche sought now' when the other Treaty Charters also start falling little short on how the 'culpability of mind', if i by mistake quote that unmindlessness of statutory bodies leaving the fraud, vandalism and other crimes which are asking 'historically and globally' known 'original people' to compete with technological, innovative gush of west for social or racial control'.

Hiko said...

Totally agree Karl this grievance agitation will not end well Never does
Washington yesterday is a case in point

transpress nz said...

Animosity between the different Iwi and Hapu far exceeds that between Maori and European. As we've seen throughout history, defining people by race is a dangerous path, but today's cultural Marxists embrace it as it suits their objectives.

Doug Longmire said...

Typical of Stuff to give this Lipscombe attention seeker publicity to vent her racist invective. This obviously was an act of vandalism, with no known motive at this stage. To claim that it is "hate crime" is - yet again - playing the poor me, I'm the victim.

Doug Longmire said...

Clearly, there is now an established grievance following in this country, where every event is interpreted as racist/hate speech/hate crime/white supremacy etc.
Goes hand in hand with the "Climate change emergency" religion. An established mindset.

hughvane said...

Not wishing to steal Karl's thunder, should he have had the intention to mention this, but readers would do well to view:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/opinion/123897288/hate-speech--better-to-have-the-poison-hatch-out-in-the-open

Karl has already mentioned Martin and his viewpoint in previous blogs.

Glennis said...

Abortion reform is a hate crime if ever there was. The innocent is killed without any right to life. All for a slogan: it's my body, my right to have an abortion. If the baby is late term, the Ministry of Health website states the 'mother's must agree to feticide by injection before the abortion will be carried out. Only hate on the part of the radicals who push this through, and desire of advancement by political lackeys, could agree to this barbarism.

CXH said...

Or it could be said only hate will stop it happening. Just two extreme, yet simplified, views of a complex topic.