Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / John Munro: Criminal defence lawyer says it's very rare to see public caught in the crossfire of a homicide

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John Munro: Criminal defence lawyer says it's very rare to see public caught in the crossfire of a homicide · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: There's been eleven homicides in New Zealand in just over
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: a month, and people are freaking out a little bit,
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: at least some in the media are. I suppose. The
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  Speaker 1: latest was on Saturday night, when a man was dropped
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: off at Kaitaire Hospital with serious injuries, later dying as
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  Speaker 1: a result. The annual police homicide report released in June
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  Speaker 1: says New Zealand averages seventy two deaths by homicide per year.
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  Speaker 1: John Munroe is a criminal defense lawyer. He's with us
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: this morning. John, Good morning, Good morning man. Just a spike, random,
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  Speaker 1: nothing to worry about.
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  Speaker 2: Well, it look it could be who knows that, it
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  Speaker 2: does seem at the moment, especially to be reading the
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  Speaker 2: media and seeing a lot of homicides taking place more
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  Speaker 2: recently than normal. Who knows what is from. But a
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  Speaker 2: good criminologist would say there's many, many reasons for spikes
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  Speaker 2: and homicides.
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  Speaker 1: I guess you can't you look at a trend, right,
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  Speaker 1: You have to look at a trend if you're looking
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  Speaker 1: at policies and things around it. In the short term. Though,
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  Speaker 1: for police having such a a large case load, did
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  Speaker 1: they have the you know, are they probably resourced to
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  Speaker 1: be able to look into all of those things.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I'm sure they're stretched, but but I suppose the
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  Speaker 2: promising thing is that we have a very very good
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  Speaker 2: police force. They're very well equipped, they're good police, they're
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  Speaker 2: they're they're competent, and certainly from from practicing in myself
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  Speaker 2: in other areas of the of the world, New Zealand
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  Speaker 2: would have to be rating among once one of the
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  Speaker 2: better ones in the in the world. In the criminal
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  Speaker 2: justice system as well.
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  Speaker 1: Do you think people should be worried when they see
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  Speaker 1: spikes like this? I mean, people inevitably do, but the
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  Speaker 1: reality is you're you're most likely to be killed by
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  Speaker 1: somebody that you that you know, right, it's not randoms
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  Speaker 1: going out killing randoms.
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  Speaker 2: That's right, it's it's it's very raally some sort of
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  Speaker 2: cross fire or machine gun fire, pet someone getting the
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  Speaker 2: public getting hit in the street. It's very very rare
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  Speaker 2: to see that sort of thing happen. So, you know,
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  Speaker 2: generally speaking, like you say, the publica are still safe.
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  Speaker 1: You said you'd worked in the UK before. Do we
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  Speaker 1: have like in terms of international comparisons, we do quite well.
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  Speaker 1: Not that it's something you do well at obviously, but
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  Speaker 1: we we have what I should say is we have
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  Speaker 1: a relatively low homicide rate here.
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  Speaker 2: Don't we Yes, we do, We do compared to I've
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  Speaker 2: worked in the UK, but I haven't worked in the US.
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  Speaker 2: But if you look at the US's you know that's catastrophic.
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  Speaker 2: And we have a really good system of justice as well.
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  Speaker 2: So we have a good system of police catching people,
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  Speaker 2: and we have a really good system of justice and
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  Speaker 2: dealing with people as well. So I think overall, even
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  Speaker 2: though I can't put a positive spin on it, at
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  Speaker 2: least we have those good systems in place.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks so much for that, John John Munroe, criminal defense lawyer.
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• 2:55
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