Police Minister Calls for Prison Rape for Christchurch Earthquake Looters

[kiwiana]

[...] Police Minister Judith Collins said the actions of looters was akin to "people who rob the dead".

She expected to see the judiciary throw the book at looters.

"I hope they go to jail for a long time - with a cellmate."

Full article here.

Because apparently, it's okay for a member of our Government to publicly wish rape on somebody.

Comments

[zeborahnz]

Not to be totally out to lunch, but to my ears, "I hope they go to jail for a long time - with a cellmate" isn't really equal to "i hope they get raped by their cellmates forever!"
I mean, people in jail really do have cellmates.

Quite. Since people in jail have cellmates, hoping these guys get cellmates makes no sense. (As opposed to, say, hoping they get solitary confinement.) Therefore she means something other than just a cellmate's existence; the cellmate has to do something specific to further punish the looters. And what joke does pop culture most make about how prison cellmates terrorise fellow inmates? It sure ain't chewing gum or snoring too loud.

(I wrote her a letter pointing out that I live in one of the suburbs that lost power, water, and sewerage; I was alone in the house; my cellphone was out of battery power; I picked up the handset of my landline and heard that chilling silence(1); and I still think her comment is totally unacceptable(2).

(1) which may or may not have been related to the theft of the phone power generators

[zeborahnz]

Sorry, posted prematurely by Act of Cat. Delete (2) and conclude the footnote with something like "but was certainly indistinguishable from such an event".

[seasontoseason]

that is a very good point, and now that I have read your dissection of it, I see that it really must have been a joke about rape. Thanks for the analysis.