Hard Cases

by bruce-bryan

Award-winning author and documentary maker Bryan Bruce combines his skills as an investigative journalist with his training as a social scientist and logician to re-examine some of the most debated and perplexing cases of our time.

Genres: True Crime

239 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Keen Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve never heard of Bruce or his programme before, but this was a book that certainly caught my attention. This covers a number of cases in fairly good depth and detail. I have to say that I hadn’t come across most of these cases before, so I was certainly intrigued to learn a lot more about them.

There are plenty of divisive and controversial cases in here, the absolutely farcical Tamihere trial, where not only were all three witnesses (all of them convicted criminals) statements later discredited, but the place where the prosecution claimed was the scene of the crime, turned out to be 73km by road away from where the body was eventually found?...Or what about giving a career criminal, prison escapee, with various assault charges as well as being a convicted rapist and killer $30’000, a new identity, including a new driver’s license (he was banned from driving at the time) for his help in a murder case that he was probably guilty of?...And of course the case of John Barlow the NZ justice system chose to try him no less than three times for the same crime, until they eventually got the guilty verdict they were so desperate for?...

Of course these are only the controversial cases, and the police and justice system within NZ is better than many around the world, but NZ police like any other force in the world, is one awash in a culture of toxic masculinity, with an all boys together mentality (as backed up by a recent report, which exposed a culture of bullying too.). Like the army there is the inbuilt arrogance and the idea of exceptionalism and impunity. Having spent so much time and effort buying into their own mythology this means that too often they are unwilling to admit wrongdoing when it happens, and instead the time and effort that should go into righting a wrong, goes into closing ranks and protecting their own, often at the expense of truth, honesty and justice.

This book does occasionally stumble into the gutter of lazy, tabloid sensationalism when we get talk of “loners” and “coldly plotted revenge.” etc, but not enough to detract from the overall quality. Towards the end Bruce makes a point about the laws and attitude towards gun ownership, unfortunately his fears were all the more chilling after the Christchurch mosque shootings. Some laws were brought in, but they were not as robust and as strong as they could or should have been.