The Supreme Court has found O'Shane got the law wrong in 14 out of those 16 criminal cases. In the two cases in which her decisions were upheld, one was a private prosecution that did not involve the police and in the other the defendant was herself a police officer so the police were, in effect, on both sides.No reasonable person could read O'Shane's record without concluding that, had a duck been appointed to the bench in her stead, jurisprudence would have been no worse off. Ah, but there you have it! While ducks do come in black, none have yet been blessed with the preferment that has seen the Indigenous jurist skate unscathed through so many episodes of incompetence and outrage.
In the other 14 cases, the police or Director of Public Prosecutions had brought a case against a private citizen and then appealed when O'Shane dismissed the case. In one case she dismissed a charge even though the accused had entered a plea of guilty.
It is a powerful thing, that indulgence, and even as the Silly chronicles O'Shane's shame the magic shield is still at work. The headline on the Silly's investigation:
"Resignation now could help O'Shane preserve a proud legacy"
Gina Rinehart has been Fairfax's majority shareholder for almost a week. What is she waiting for?
This is damning:
ReplyDelete"In one of those cases there had been two appeals - O'Shane dismissed the charge, the prosecution appealed and the Supreme Court upheld the appeal and returned the matter to the local court where O'Shane again dismissed the charges.
The prosecution again appealed and the matter was returned to the local court with an order that it be heard by another magistrate."
She is either stupid or incompetent, or both.
What strange headline. Sort of like saying Gillard's PM'ship is great cos she's female.
ReplyDeleteGo with 'both'. She is also a racist bigot.
ReplyDeleteJakartaJaap
Mind you, if you were a defendant you'd be pretty pleased if Pat sat on your case...
ReplyDeleteThis would seem to me to go to the heart of the whole issue of special group rights and privileges being pioneered by Australia, along with Canada and the UK, to smash the pernicious freedoms of ordinary people under the corrupt and inequitable system of common law, which has been trialled unsuccessfully for the past 600-800 years. The O'Shane case, of course, is just a hiccough in the otherwise triumphant rise of minority privileges decided by governments of the day. The overturning of common law inequities has been hailed at every new waypoint by the SMH's righteous voices for social justice, who have howled down attempts by dissidents to use subversive devices like freedom of speech to defend misguided tradition. I'm afraid I can't comment on the SMH's new system of using Kmart subeditors to ensure the subversives can't be heard, but it appears to be working just fine.
ReplyDelete"Mind you, if you were a defendant you'd be pretty pleased if Pat sat on your case..."
ReplyDeleteI think you need to insert the word "black" as a prefix to "defendant".
And the words "indigenous" or "aboriginal" just won't do.
O'Shame's latest (alleged) indiscretion involved letting off a black Seth Effrocan immigrant on a charge of assaulting a paramedic because she adjudged the paramedic to be racist.
And, reading the transcript, she has concluded this on precious little (read ZERO) evidence.
Toad of Toad Hall
"I think you need to insert the word "black" as a prefix to "defendant""
DeletePish. That goes without saying...
But with Pat it seems all defendants are black when it comes to police prosecutions...
I have appeared befor Ms O'Shane for (white) defendants, and was glad of her in-built bias for the accused. However, I have to admit that her style is a wee bit unorthodox.
ReplyDeleteFor the sake of justice, O'Shane should have been removed years ago. I will observe with interest how things shape up this year with regard to her continuing tenure on the bench.
ReplyDeleteJMH
Spot on JakartaJaap.
ReplyDeleteI find the racism inherent in this post absolutely appalling. O'Shane is being crucified purely because she is aboriginal. At least Andrew Bolt had some courage in that he posted under his own name, albeit the scum that his case demonstrated him to be.
ReplyDeleteNo white magistrate with the same degree of successful appeals against him (even in O'Shane's case a very small proportion of her total number of cases heard) would have had to suffer this amount of invective.
Hamjar,
DeleteTrust you to play the race card, better play it for all its worth because its rapidly losing the weight it once had due to overuse and the tendency to use it at the drop of a hat to stop any further investigation of an issue.
Pat's an incompetent and biased judicial officer and this investigation is way overdue.
The leniency displayed towards incompetent judges in this country is pathetic.
"No white magistrate with the same degree of successful appeals against him..."
DeleteName one.
BTW, shouldn't that be "him or her" Hamjar? If you want to impersonate a lefty twit, don't forget not to be sexist.
jupes
The point you miss, Hammygar, is that no other magistrate — black white or cerise — has the record that she does. And she plays the race card in her highly dubious judgment. You seem to think that racism is something of which only we whitefellas are capable.
DeleteHammygar,
DeleteYou poor delicate luvvie,in the leftoid world view anybody who criticises the beneficiary of positive discrimination for incompetence is ipso facto a dirty rotten discriminator who should be shut up and locked up. The source article was in the Silly Morning Tribune for Gaias sake. Must be pretty bad for them to rat on one of the Comrades.
" albeit the scum that his case demonstrated him to be." You have to be joking, if you followed the case and take the time to read what Bolt has said consistently he deplores racism ,sees multiculturalism as divise and a means by which certain individuals can milk the system.Burn the heretic at the stake sir.
Bollocks.
Delete"Victoria's Chief Magistrate, Michael Adams, has announced he's stepping down. bringing to an end weeks of speculation about his future.
His decision to resign follows the no confidence motion by his fellow Magistrates after allegations of misconduct. Despite pleading his innocence, Mr Adams decided to step down rather than face a Supreme Court Inquiry."
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/stories/s206491.htm
There's a more recent one too -- the idiot who went to the wrong town, naps on the bench, and has a string of complaints. Oh, and it a person of pallor.
Lets not forget the case where a car load of Sydney's real life Underbelly cast had shot at police (with a gun) during a chase and Pat O'Shane, in her unorthodox wisdom, decided to let them off on grounds that the police had racially targeted them for a car check, a sin so heinous it excuses attempted murder of policemen.
ReplyDeleteOne of more orthodox thinking may have concluded the cops were spot on seeing as it turned out the car was full of crooks who shoot at police, but not our Pat.
(this incident does feature in that Gangs Of Oz show)
Hammy: Very humourous, but it's wasted here. The best place to post your parodies of the typical outraged leftard is over at Fairfax on the comment threads, where they can't tell the difference between righteous leftie and trolls. Seriously. Your heart is in the right place, but you are trying to impress the converted.
ReplyDeleteAll judges and magistrates should be on a performance based one year contract,salary based on productivity, retirement at 65,with self funded superannuation. Qualifications based on legal experience alone, No POLiTICs or racial or ethnic B/S,constant errors punished by dismissal without compensation,Problem Solved.
ReplyDelete"How do you solve a problem like Patricia?"
ReplyDeleteShe doesn't seem too clever which makes one wonder how she made it through university (even one with such poor academic standards as UNSW).
Was there a AAAA program in action (Affirmative Action Academic Assessments)?
After that it is all a doddle ... left leaning lawyers and pollies doling out bar memberships etc culminating in appointment as a magistrate.
She has been "out to lunch" legally speaking for quite some time and rumour has it that her superiors were trying to keep her clear of controversial police cases .... and trying to wait her out until she compulsorily retires at age 72 next year.
Is it possible that one of her superiors toddled off on Christmas leave and Patricia has inserted herself into this assault case to further the cause bro'.
Toad of Toad Hall
It's remarkable that a profession that is so zealous punishing incompetence in other professions such as medicine, are so forgiving of themselves.
ReplyDeletejupes
would not it be preferable for O'Shane to be dismissed by Parliament ?
ReplyDeleteWouldn't that mean that she would be deprived of a very generous pension whereas resignation would mean that this incompetant will continue to feed off the taxpayer
"No white magistrate with the same degree of successful appeals against him (even in O'Shane's case a very small proportion of her total number of cases heard) would have had to suffer this amount of invective".
ReplyDeleteName a white magistrate with the same record. What's the bet they were either given the bum's rush or they never got very far?
See what happens when the Bunyip takes his eye off the Cuban Republic of Victoria? The Phage cranks up its relentless pro-Labor, pro-Greens campaign to see if it can shake off the last of its middle-of-the-road readers.
ReplyDeleteComments are invited on the Baillieu government's decision not to run a candidate in a by-election, while the Phage sends one of its climate zombies, David Wroe, to report on the possibility of the closure of the Alcoa Point Henry smelter, which has "nothing" to do with the carbon tax, Wroe quickly tells us, even though electricity is the plant's major input cost (Sorry, no comments allowed). Wroe estimates only 600 jobs could be in jeopardy, while the local Geelong Advertiser puts the number at 900 and the News Ltd syndicated wires estimate 1000. Through gritted teeth, Wroe quotes the Libs' Sophie Mirabella saying at the bottom of the article the carbon tax is "making a challenging financial situation almost impossible" for Alcoa. Needless to say, theage.com.au presents this as a relatively minor item, even though it will be a major story for the next 24 hours.
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/act-of-cowardice-baillieu-scuttles-plan-to-contest-niddrie-byelection-20120208-1ra7d.html
http://www.theage.com.au/business/hundreds-of-smelter-jobs-at-risk-20120208-1ragj.html
http://www.alcoa.com/australia/en/news/releases/2012_02_08_Point_Henry_Review.asp
http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/article/2012/02/08/306231_news.html
NOT FOR PUBLICATION:
ReplyDeleteBunyip, why it is illegal for business to blame the carbon tax for anything:
http://www.nswbusinesschamber.com.au/News-Media/Latest-News/Do-not-speak-its-name!--ACCC-makes-carbon-tax-the-.aspx
Is there an alternate way to contact Bunyipitude about issues not being discussed on the blog?
As a Nolan libertarian I think there are far too many regulations, and any magistrate who dismisses any case based on ridiculous legislation gets my vote, I have two instances.
ReplyDelete1 a cabbie was fined $500 for not wearing a cabby's uniform.
2, Pat dismissed a charge for not wearing a seat belt when the victim explained that his wife had been in an accident where the policeman had said "if she had been wearing a seat belt, she would be dead now",
Can't agree Barv, on average a seat belt is much better on than off in an accident so they make sense, and it's not like the wife would have foreseen that particular accident coming when she opted not to put the belt on. Her seat-belt infraction should be viewed separate from the incident which lead to police becoming aware of it. Please lets not encourage 'Pat O'Shane' logic!
DeleteSo the uninformed hearsay opinions of a walloper are a reason for ignoring the law rather than administering it? The policeman might have been a trained forensic pathologist perhaps?
DeleteGimme a break.
Come to my emergency department and take a look at what's left of people who were unrestrained. In any case having a law then encouraging courts to ignore it probably isn't the best way to advance libertarian principles.
DeleteThe evidence that seat belts are safe is tenuous at best, just plain false at worst. See http://barvennon.com/seatbelt.html
DeleteQuite apart from the fact that drivers wearing seatbelts drive more recklessly and kill more pedestrians etc than seatbelt wearing drivers, there is the aspect of governments regulating our lives.
Bolt's weird obsession with magistrates has landed him in trouble before - http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/vic/VSCA/2003/161.html
ReplyDeleteTeach, that was borderline normal. What gives?
DeleteNOT FOR PUBLICATION
ReplyDeleteProf,guess this is the best way to feed you info. By 8.45pm Wed, the Age has removed the carbon tax jobs loss story from the website. It has removed any vestige of objectivity (please refer to earlier postings). I guess you know by now I am a classicly trained journalist with many years' experience and I don't believe what I am reading. I have faith this madness will recede but at the moment the stuff that is going on is like the propaganda in the Weimar republic before the Reichstag was bombed.
No, no, ham jar or jam jar or whatever is his name is quite right. It's all about racism.
ReplyDeleteSee, if if O'Shane was white she'd have been removed years ago, for absolute incompetence. As she is black (well, dusky really), she gets to stay on, as a black cannot do wrong.
Just as tent protesters who say they are black aren't arrested.
If O'Shame was white she'd never have got the job in the first place. Law clerk in an outer suburban conveyancing business would be the limit of her competence.
DeleteWhat is interesting is that this has been happening for years. I recall being a young plod in the late 1980's watching O'Shane dismiss cases regardless of who much evidence you had. What has happened now to change this? I am curious?
ReplyDeleteUm,endemic reverse racism in play?
ReplyDeleteIn this case, against white police?
All this kerfuffle because O'Shane can't help but tar all white people with the same brush.
ReplyDeleteHey Barv.
ReplyDeleteHaving missed the point by a margin that would preclude you from working out trajectories for NASA, let me explain.
You say "any magistrate who dismisses any case based on ridiculous legislation gets my vote".
Here's the rub Barv. We don't get to vote for magistrates ... if we did we wouldn't be having a debate about the (alleged) competence of Ms O'Shame.
Secondly, Magistrates are there to administer the law and even a dullard like O'Shame should be able to figure out that, no seatbelt in motor vehicle equals breach of law.
If you, or O'Shmae, want to chnage the law, lobby our elected representatives .... untilm then, abide by it and/or administer it properly
A reply to Tom above regarding the Point Henry (Geelong) aluminiam smelter closure. Alcoa did issue a statement some months ago that the proposed (at that time) CO2 tax would make their Geelong operations unviable, and large job losses would result.
ReplyDeleteI would expect over 1,000 job losses soon in the Geelong area as soon as the CO2 legislation becomes effective, not only from the smelter's employees but also contractors and others in the Geelong area.
I am sure that these rusted-on ALP supporters will continue voting for the ALP regardless, after all, it's Tony Abbott's fault, isn't it?
Professor,
ReplyDeleteI have to appear before 'er 'onour Ms O'Shame on Monday.
I am a gentleman of limited resources and I seek your advice as to the best application of my cash to the problem at hand.
Should I spend my money on (a) legal advice or (b) a spray tan.
I am thinking Caribbean Bronze is the right shade to guarantee acquittal. Although, what with the CCTV from 4 angles, 12 eyewitnesses and a gallon of my DNA at the scene I will probably need two coats.