SST should be prosecuted
Just received this press release:
A newspaper stunt at major provincial rugby games last weekend could easily have resulted in matches being called off and stadiums evacuated, Police Minister Judith Collins said.
Ms Collins was advised that a newspaper commissioned people to masquerade as terrorists who then gained access to restricted areas at Super 14 matches in Hamilton and Christchurch.
“The actions are unbelievably stupid and irresponsible. This stunt had the potential to result in games being called off and stadiums evacuated,” Ms Collins said.
“This would have caused not only great public inconvenience and cost, but possibly presented a risk to the safety of spectators.
“Common sense would tell you that running around a stadium dressed as a bomber has the potential to end very badly.
“If there had been panic there was the very real possibility that people – particularly the elderly, children and those less mobile – could have been hurt.
“Police are taking this matter very seriously.”
This is beyond moronic. The newspaper responsible is the Sunday Star-Times. I’ve often criticised the media for creating news, instead of reporting it, but this goes to a new low.
Ms Collins said security at major events is based on risk, and that security at a provincial rugby game will be much less than for a major international match.
“The only thing people masquerading as bombers will achieve is an unnecessary increase in security at considerable cost and inconvenience to the public,” she said.
“The last thing people want is the situation where people have to be body searched before attending provincial rugby matches.”
What were the SST trying to prove? Of course a suicide bomber could blow themselves and lots of other people up at a provincial rugby game.They could also blow lots of people up at a school rugby game, or the McEverdy Shield in Wellington.
I suspect their real intention was to scare monger about the Rugby World Cup. So their aim was to scare tens of thousands of people off globally from coming to New Zealand.
I’m pretty sure there will have been some laws broken by the people who posed as terrorists, but they should not be the ones prosecuted. The people who paid or commissioned them to do so, should face some consequences for such stupidity and malice.
Again I wonder what the SST saw as the end point for this. Do they want every provincial rugby game to have armed police officers, bomb checks, metal detectors?
March 12th, 2010 at 10:47 am
And just what is the SST’s perception of how a terrorist suicide bomber looks and dresses? That in istelf may be a measure of the immaturity of these oxygen thieves.
March 12th, 2010 at 11:09 am
Been umming and aahing over whether or not to renew my SST subscription but this nonsense has made my mind up for me, thanks but no thanks SST, you can keep your shitty rag and I’ll keep my $98.80.
March 12th, 2010 at 11:11 am
The Herald article paraphrases Collins:
She said it was pure chance that they were not detected, and there was not an incident at the stadiums.
Perhaps this was the SST’s point. We were lucky that mock terrorists weren’t uncovered. Why are we putting this down to luck? They were lucky they weren’t found, but that’s rather different.
March 12th, 2010 at 11:15 am
And if the police had got a whisper and had armed police at the event and end up shooting some turkey with a fake bomb strapped to their chest? That would be great news wouldn’t it.
March 12th, 2010 at 11:27 am
Was anyone at the SST was playing the currency market. The terrorist arrests would have caused the NZ dollar to slide if only for a short time.
Yeah Graeme I also saw this guy the other day get on the bus he was carrying a bag.
GPT1 forget the police what about a member of the public slashing the SST fake terrorist face in half?
March 12th, 2010 at 11:28 am
Or with a 20stone Samoan security guard called Carmel sitting on their face! heh Now that would be culturally offensive to your average terrorist!
March 12th, 2010 at 11:30 am
And what should the SST be prosecuted for?
Can’t be wasting police time – they never even found out about it!
March 12th, 2010 at 11:36 am
More evidence of the craziness of Fairfucked Media NZ.
Add to the terrorist comedy, today’s Christchurch Press as a candidate for the Nobel Prize for PC propaganda. The front page with a big picture features a lecture on atheism by Dawkins, complete with a presentation to him by the newspaper’s editor. Inside, a huge slab by an animal rights guy tells of the evils of letting children watching animals perform. I’m going to renew my subscription because it’s now a morning laugh.
March 12th, 2010 at 11:36 am
Graeme,
They should just be prosecuted. For being, you know, silly. In contravention of the “don’t be silly” law. Or common sense.
Anyway … what does it matter? The SST is sometimes rude about Act and National’s policies. So just prosecute.
March 12th, 2010 at 11:47 am
SST are losing the plot, fuck it’s hard enough getting a few bottles of top shelf into the game let alone a bomb strapped to your body.
March 12th, 2010 at 11:50 am
AG: and you don’t see that they’re freaking idiots for sending people pretending to be terrorists to provincial rugby games. Potential bad things that could happen would be:
– stadium evacuated, panic for the crowd, game called off
– police or public intervene, using force appropriate to a terrorist with a bomb (i.e. lots of force)
– story causes poor publicity for NZ in lead up to world cup
None of those are things I would expect the SST to have wanted. So were they stupid in doing this (and do they admit that), or do they think they did the right thing here?
Or are you excusing anything they do, purely on the normal Labour basis of just opposing everything that anybody from National says? You know, cutting taxes is bad. Raising taxes is bad. Regulating phone companies is bad. Not regulating phone companies is bad.
March 12th, 2010 at 11:57 am
I wonder what would happen if someone dressed as a suicide bomber turned up at the SST office as a prank?
Just another thing to add to the already long list of reasons to never buy this rag.
March 12th, 2010 at 12:00 pm
Its a filthy Australian plot to f#%k with our minds and organisation in the leadup to the WC. Everybody know the last thing our ANZAC “mates” want is for it to be the most successful WRC ever.
March 12th, 2010 at 12:05 pm
Maybe next SST could do their security check at some airports and see how they get on.
March 12th, 2010 at 12:13 pm
The editors of the Sunday Socialist Times need their heads read by a shrink.
They constantly and smuggly attack the authorities (think police, defence, SIS, National Party etc) mostly claiming these groupings are patsies of Uncle Sam, and low and behold, they then go and do something so stupid as this stunt to invoke a response from the authorities claiming they are testing security.
Since when have they ever really given a damn about NZ security? Especially with their biased partisan raving mad ramblings from the likes of Finlay Macdonald, Nicky Hager and the other wannbe cynical journos they employ?
The Sunday Socialis Times – an example of the only major newspaper with a clear political bias! (Remember when it used to be H1′s mouthpiece to discredit her enemies anonomously)?
I bet the turkey’s will bias their forthcoming story this Sunday on how “incompetent” and “heavy handed” the police were in responding to them etc.
March 12th, 2010 at 12:24 pm
OH MY GOD! LARRAKIN STUNTS AT A RUGBY MATCH!!!!!!!!!
There are a lot of “Could haves” and “would haves” in that press release. Fortunately common sense appears to have prevailed, and there was no OTT security meltdown. (Collins seems surprised by this, talk about an out-of-touch “I know best” ruling elite, eh?
)
Crusher Collins is a big mouth similar to Michael Laws / John Banks. All talking points and outrageous sound bytes, no substance. Wasn’t she going to “crush boy racer cars” at one stage? How’s that working out for you Jude?
Collins should GTFO and take her FAIL with her.
March 12th, 2010 at 12:25 pm
Perhaps this was the SST’s point. We were lucky that mock terrorists weren’t uncovered
Well then, next I guess they’ll be sending fake terrorists to the local mall to prove how lax the security is there! Then when they have walked through the entire mall without incident, we can thank the SST for highlighting this the following Sunday with their ‘scoop’ and finally we will have armed security guards and metal detectors at each entrance of every mall for our own safety!
And we will thank our lucky stars that it was only mock terrorists who highlighted this, and not the real thing!
March 12th, 2010 at 12:26 pm
BTW, that was sarcasm….
March 12th, 2010 at 12:31 pm
Supposing these idiots caused panic in the crowd and in that panic people got injured or worse. The risk of that happening is quite high. I guess the stunt was so stupid no-one took it seriously. But the newspaper should be prosecuted over this and so should the journalists. It is not the newspapers’ job the test security notwithstanding some high profile examples in this area in recent years.
March 12th, 2010 at 1:17 pm
I see they have notices at airports now clearly stating that jokes about bombs could lead to the jug.
March 12th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
I guess the SST based this ‘operation’ on the vast number of similar terrorist events at sporting fixtures in the United States – have there been any since BLACK SUNDAY and LAST BOY SCOUT?
Or did they base it on their own publicity of New Zealand SAS activities in Afghanistan and the likely-hood that could result in reprisals here?
March 12th, 2010 at 1:45 pm
This does highlight a real bomb threat – the threat of SST bombing.
The SS Times could help sink itself.
March 12th, 2010 at 1:59 pm
Journalists are daft. They don’t write about or investigate real news. When they’ve got nothing to report, they of course turn to manufacturing the news. Pathetic.
March 12th, 2010 at 2:50 pm
” Do they want every provincial rugby game to have armed police officers, bomb checks, metal detectors?”
Obviously.. they’re that kind of newspaper.. What do they call it these days.. .Sensational Journalism .. Its not reporting or journalism.. that went out the window years ago.. with the dumbing down of New Zealand’s intellect.. why are we so surprised.. Your right DPF papers these day’s are far to often creating news, so they can report it.. I call it the GA GA NEWS you call it the SST.
March 12th, 2010 at 3:17 pm
Sadly it seems paying people to pretend to be bombers at rugby matches is not a criminal offence, and no charges will occur.
March 12th, 2010 at 3:18 pm
Shades of Max Headroom where the way to get the news first is to create it.
March 12th, 2010 at 3:22 pm
Nassim Taleb makes a salient point in the preface to “Fooled by Randomess”:
“…this business of journalism is about pure entertainment, not a search for truth, particularly when it comes to radio and television. The trick is to stay away from those who do not seem to know that they are just entertainers and actually believe they are thinkers.”
March 12th, 2010 at 3:31 pm
Nassim Taleb makes a salient point in the preface to “Fooled by Randomess”:
“…this business of journalism is about pure entertainment, not a search for truth, particularly when it comes to radio and television. The trick is to stay away from those who do not seem to know that they are just entertainers and actually believe that they are thinkers.”
March 12th, 2010 at 3:31 pm
You’re only referring to criminal chargers. The court of public opinion has charged into this story, and it’s pretty much all on the guilty side of the argument. Presumably they are aware enough to have been chastened, it’ll be interesting to see their approach on Sunday. Online of course.
March 12th, 2010 at 4:01 pm
The best response would be to trespass SST staff from all rugby grounds until after the RWC is over.
March 12th, 2010 at 4:38 pm
Well clearly the only reasonable option is to call the SAS home and then they go to all the games and blow the stupid bloody heads off dipshits like this.
Way to fuck up the economy and out international reputation.
March 12th, 2010 at 5:10 pm
Provincial games? I thought that the start of the provincial competition was still a few months away. Collins’ scribes should be made aware that Super 14 teams are “franchises”, not representatives of provinces. We don’t want our government ministers looking totally ignorant about rugby next year when the game’s followers worldwide will have their eyes trained on this country.
March 13th, 2010 at 9:28 am
Never read the rag, not likely to start.