When news of the Auckland rape club broke yesterday, the overwhelming question was why the police allowed (and continue to allow) this to go on for so long - two years and counting - when the rapists were boasting of their crimes on Facebook. Surely what's been made public is reasonable grounds to suspect that an offence punishable by imprisonment has been committed, and therefore sufficient to get search warrants, production orders, even surveillance warrants if necessary (rape easily meeting the seriousness threshold) so as to pursue the case further? Its hard to escape the conclusion that the police have been less than vigorous in this case. As Kim Dotcom pointed out, they can send a chopper and 72 armed cops to pursue a claim of copyright infringement, but are apparently powerless to act against a rape gang which boasts all over social media.
Now we know why:
More details about a group of young Auckland boys called the 'Roast Busters', who've been luring girls into underage group sex and boasting about it online, can now be revealed.
One boy being questioned by police is the son of a celebrity with an international profile, while the other is the son of an Auckland police officer.
[Emphasis added]
Its hard to escape the conclusion that this is another case of the police looking out for their own at the expense of justice. And in the wake of Clint Rickards and the police's own rape club, that's absolutely toxic.
Meanwhile, the police's failure to provide justice means that we now have vigilantes seeking it for themselves. Which is precisely what having an organised police force is supposed to save us from. Heckuva job, cops; you've really done yourselves proud.
