Justice. Just us. Just for who? He aha tēnei? It’s time to unlock our minds when it comes to justice, writes JustSpeak's Julia Whaipooti.
Losi Filipo has had his contract with the Wellington Lions terminated. He was discharged without conviction after assaulting four people. Photo: Wellington Lions
People all across Aotearoa have imagined what "justice" should have been served to Losi Filipo. You can look up the details of the case. Filipo and New Zealand rugby have become the poster boys of New Zealand’s injustice. This case is a symptom of the many injustices in the system.
Immeasurable harm has been caused to those victimised and their whānau. They, as well as Filipo and his whānau, will all need support picking up the pieces in the way our justice system is not able to. Me kaha koutou.
In this country #AllBlacksmatter #richlivesmatter #whitelivesmatter #privilegematters.
Haere tonu. But what’s injustice and what’s justice?
We cherry-pick by nature based on our own societal views. It’s evident that justice is not for all and it does not serve all. The mass outrage is about the privilege Filipo received due to his rugby career but let’s keep it real. In this country #AllBlacksmatter #richlivesmatter #whitelivesmatter #privilegematters.
We are loud, we are proud, we watch Law & Order and we want justice!
Where is this outrage when a prisoner is locked up for longer than their sentence; a woman in a violent relationship is prosecuted for benefit fraud because they’re in a “relationship in the nature of marriage”; or when Māori are imprisoned daily for the same offence that non-Māori are given a discharge without conviction or home detention; or when multi-million dollar tax evaders who are responsible for the approximately $7.4 billion dollars of unpaid tax avoid prison sentences, or when, or when, or when …
What is this justice we pursue? Lock him up (as long as he’s not one of the hashtags) and throw away the key is the resounding rhetoric. We have autocorrected the word “justice” to “prison sentence” in our social conscience.
It is clear our minds remain grossly imprisoned by our own pursuits for “justice”.
Prison is the university of crime that succeeds in breeding more crime, more victims.
When it comes to justice we've lost our imagination. We don’t think about how people can be held to account without putting them behind bars. Our selective outrage and calls for “justice” are perpetuating the structural injustices that are all around us.
True justice means having a space for those who have been harmed to have a voice. It also means thinking about the consequences of imprisonment on our communities, who experience future harms when 30 percent of prisoners are re-imprisoned within a year after release. Prison is the university of crime that succeeds in breeding more crime, more victims. Let’s imagine something else.
Injustices happen every day. If we want to take on the role of judge and jury in the Losi case, then we need to take a closer look in the mirror. The hidden injustices, the “unconscious” ones, the ones that make us feel uncomfortable as we examine our own privilege.
The truth is, I don’t particularly care about this case, but I care about the injustices this case represents with everyone’s pursuit of “justice”. When public outrage is cherry-picked then we need to think about what justice means.
Can you imagine a space where justice is more than a cherry-picked tool available to a cherry-picked few (#allthehashtags) and where all injustices garner public outrage?
Perhaps what I’m trying to say can be captured in this whakatauki - Ki te kahore he whakakitenga ka ngaro te iwi. Without foresight or vision the people will be lost.
*Julia Whaipooti, Ngati Porou, is the chair of criminal justice advocacy group JustSpeak and is based in Wellington.