So the expensive Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Christchurch massacre gets underway next Monday. Why? What on earth could it possibly accomplish?
A non-descript Australian, Brendan Tarrant, turns up in Dunedin, lives a fairly innocuous life, on what source of income we don’t know. Like thousands of others he joins a gun-club and a gym. Then suddenly he cracks and runs amok with a gun.
There was absolutely nothing in his background to explain such extreme behaviour and no way the Police could have had cause for suspicion. By all accounts they were super efficient once the shooting began. Having views on cultural purity are not grounds for preventative action or suspicious for such attitudes are held by hundreds of millions of totally decent folk, as they’re entitled to. They’re not racist or hate-filled, or cultural superiority but instead a form of conservatism about the status quo.
One question the Commission apparently must answer is how to stop this happening again? I can save them the time. We can’t.
Frankly, knowing him I’m surprised Willie Young took on this nonsense role which is utterly embroiled in tokenism.