New Zealand Herald - hire some new writers

Today on the New Zealand Herald website, I stumbled upon the most irrelevant article I have ever seen, titled “Appeal over full facial tattoos making bad impression on jury fails”.

The 150-word long article included zero argument, and was basically a piece about how two Maori men were “appealing their murder convictions” in court today. I’m in no way supporting the crime which these two men allegedly committed, but this article wasted about 2 minutes of my valuable time.

It continues to say that “They were fierce-looking men with full facial tattoos, were disrespectful to the court process and could not have given a good impression to the jury.”Firstly, there are about 3 grammar issues in that sentence, and secondly, the fact that they have facial tattoos does not make them “fierce” looking and in no way is it “disrespectful to the court process” to have facial tattoos. Did they expect them to get laser removal on their faces before they entered court? I am assuming yes.

“However, Justice Randerson says that's a prejudice the pair brought upon themselves.” This line shows the ignorance and blatant inferential racism which was displayed. They are framing this “story” that because these men had facial tattoos, which was their own personal decision and was in no way meant to be disrespectful towards anyone, it is automatically assumed that they are “fierce” and did not give good impressions. They did not bring this upon themselves, what was brought upon them was stereotypes and unfair assumptions.

“Pakai's (of the the offenders) lawyer Kevin Smith says because of his appearance and behaviour throughout the trial, he couldn't have given a good impression to the jury at all.” is what the lawyer for one of two men appealing their murder convictions told the Court of Appeal in Wellington today. Again, someone may want to revise their grammar before posting an article to the most popular national news outlet. This is reiterating the fact that because of the micro-aggressions that Maori are thrown in to daily, it meant that these men were subject to what seems like an unfair trial because of their appearance.

I bet that if these two men were white, this article would not have existed. The fact that both of these men are Maori, just confirms the Pakeha-ness behind the scenes and that they totally disregard any other factors other than;

Two Maori men + facial tattoos = bad impressions to the jury and a ridiculously useless article on New Zealand Herald.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11652896